Developing a theoretical framework of consumer logistics from a comprehensive literature review

Paper delivered at the 21st Logistics Research Network annual conference 2016, 7th-9th September 2016, Hull. Abstract Purpose: Logistics as a business discipline entered academic consciousness in the mid-1960s when work by marketing academics discussed the integration between marketing and logistics. However, the link with consumers in the point-of-origin to point-of-consumption typology was not explored until Granzin and Bahn’s conceptualisation and model of consumer logistics (CL) in 1989. Since then few contributions have followed and neglecting this aspect of logistics research is difficult to understand. Firstly, the consumer represents a productive resource as an important downstream supply chain member carrying out logistics activities and tasks. Secondly, logistics activities directed towards the consumer also act along a marketing axis, i.e. satisfaction and loyalty for an overall shopping experience both from transaction-specific and cumulative levels are influenced by product quality elements and service-related dimensions. This paper presents a theoretical framework for deeper research into the topic of CL. Research approach: A literature review was conducted first following philosophical or field conceptualization principles as a first step towards theory building. Data bases of major logistics and SCM journals were searched however the publication timeframe was not limited as the concept of CL is relatively new. Selection criteria and Boolean searches were conducted and keywords used within article abstracts and title fields of search. Due to a relative scarcity of contributions obtained by that approach and in-line with the principle of methodological triangulation, additional search strategies were applied using Google/ Google Scholar searches. The majority of the cited contributions were also cross-referenced and included in the analysis if appropriate. Findings and originality: The literature search yielded a mother population of 46 documents of which 24 have been considered relevant for further consideration. The document harvest was analysed using Granzin and Bahn’s original CL issues and additional features in order to explore, structure, articulate, orient, hierarchize and delimit the field of CL in the 21st century. Research impact: This paper updates Granzin and Bahn’s work to outline new and distinctive features of CL given the obvious changes in the retail landscape since their work 27 years ago, such as the Internet and omni-channel retailing. More broadly, conceptualizing CL in a holistic manner enhances SCM theory building by questioning traditional notions of time and space ranges, isolated marketing-merchandizing/logistics considerations, traditional understandings of sites /locations, and equipment (e.g. shopping cart or basket)/ infrastructure/ layout and buying stages that are in-line with external evolutions on organizational, technological and societal levels. Practical impact: Understanding and improving CL contributes to supply chain competitiveness via increased consumer satisfaction and loyalty, better order fulfilment via cost reductions and efficiency increases, and enhanced differentiation targeting consumers receptive for sustainability/ ethics/ mobility/ lifestyle/ life quality issues. A dedicated approach to CL also enhances management of repercussions and interactions with upstream/ B2B logistics, visible through retail stores being both a destination and a source for inventory, the rise of drop-ship vendor relationships and new fulfilment options and related infrastructure

Cooperative Wideband Spectrum Sensing Based on Joint Sparsity

COOPERATIVE WIDEBAND SPECTRUM SENSING BASED ON JOINT SPARSITY By Ghazaleh Jowkar, Master of Science A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science at Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University 2017 Major Director: Dr. Ruixin Niu, Associate Professor of Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering In this thesis, the problem of wideband spectrum sensing in cognitive radio (CR) networks using sub-Nyquist sampling and sparse signal processing techniques is investigated. To mitigate multi-path fading, it is assumed that a group of spatially dispersed SUs collaborate for wideband spectrum sensing, to determine whether or not a channel is occupied by a primary user (PU). Due to the underutilization of the spectrum by the PUs, the spectrum matrix has only a small number of non-zero rows. In existing state-of-the-art approaches, the spectrum sensing problem was solved using the low-rank matrix completion technique involving matrix nuclear-norm minimization. Motivated by the fact that the spectrum matrix is not only low-rank, but also sparse, a spectrum sensing approach is proposed based on minimizing a mixed-norm of the spectrum matrix instead of low-rank matrix completion to promote the joint sparsity among the column vectors of the spectrum matrix. Simulation results are obtained, which demonstrate that the proposed mixed-norm minimization approach outperforms the low-rank matrix completion based approach, in terms of the PU detection performance. Further we used mixed-norm minimization model in multi time frame detection. Simulation results shows that increasing the number of time frames will increase the detection performance, however, by increasing the number of time frames after a number of times the performance decrease dramatically

Does B2C online logistics service quality impact urban logistics?

This paper reports on an in-progress research study regarding the impact of business to consumer (B2C) online logistics service quality (OLSQ) for shopper satisfaction and loyalty on urban logistics across the UK, France and Germany to also investigate country-specific differences of consumer online shopping behaviour and channel strategies. A two-stage approach is adopted consisting of firstly of qualitative research conducted with managers at the producer/retailer interface and secondly a quantitative survey stage targeting consumers as online shoppers to determine how their expectations of OLSQ and associated activities influence their satisfaction and ongoing loyalty. This study should contribute theoretically by considering a B2C setting for OLSQ, which is the final aspect of point-of-origin to point-of-consumption, as most general literature on these topics has been dominated by business to business (B2B) logistical designs, and also identify any discrepancies between consumer expectations or behaviour as it may affect urban logistics solutions. Further, this study should contribute practically by providing managers with an understanding of the components of OLSQ considered critical by consumers

E-strategy in the UK retail grocery sector

After a decade of Internet trading, retailers in the UK have experienced mixed fortunes with their Internet-based ventures. Online shopping success stories include; Tesco’s, which has positioned itself as a world leader in online grocery retailing by providing an Internet-based home delivery of over 40,000 products and making the service available to almost 95 per cent of UK residents. Similarly, Sainsbury’s offers 71% per cent of UK residents the opportunity to shop online however the company does not have the same international recognition. Waitrose too has expanded its Internet-based shopping services, aided by its acquisitions in OCADO. By contrast, Somerfield, and more recently Iceland have stopped their Internet shopping operations due to poor trading results and economic difficulties, despite the fact that Iceland was the first grocery retailer to offer online shopping to the majority of the UK mainland. The key aims of this paper are to explore how major grocery retailers coming to the one line market; to consider why some are more successful than others and to develop an understanding of the role of strategic thinking in online retailing. More specifically, the paper will initially, investigate the strategic options open to retailers developing activities online and finally, discuss the extent to which e-strategies represent a long-term approach to planning. The paper presents a literature review, which provides the conceptual foundations for investigation of the significance of e-strategy development within retailing. This model is then compared with evidence from secondary data sources and business results from leading UK grocery retailers in order to debate and analyse the likely importance of e-strategies in the success of online grocery retailing in the UK