The Environmental Implications of Electronic Commerce - The Assessment Approach Problem

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Process improvement in reverse logistics and reduction of collection requests at L'Oréal Portugal

The importance of reverse logistics has increased in recent years as it directly impacts company’s financial results. The increase of product options has generated high returns, which leads to investment and development of reverse logistics processes. The Professional Products Division of L’Oréal Portugal is no exception and it is their interest improve processes in order to increase customer satisfaction, one of the biggest focus of this multinational. The Lean philosophy is in this case study the chosen solution to improve the reverse logistics processes of the company L’Oréal. The main purpose is to reduce collection requests and, thus, increase the efficiency of the reverse logistics process. A theoretical framework is developed with the purpose of supporting research. In this process there are several reasons underlying the requests for collection, however, there is a higher focus on requests for collection of damaged products and requests for collection of discontinued products as they are the only ones that allow intervention. As such, proposals for improvement will focus on improving the delivery process in order to reduce the delivery of damaged products and, thus, reduce collection requests and make the collection process more efficient since there are fewer orders to process and handle. After present the opportunities for improvement in the delivery and collection processes, the proposals are presented. Its viability was analysed, and the proposals were successfully implemented.A importância da logística inversa tem aumentado nos últimos anos visto que impacta diretamente os resultados financeiros de uma empresa. A expansão das opções de produtos tem gerado altos retornos, o que suscita o investimento e desenvolvimento dos processos da logística inversa. A divisão dos Produtos Profissionais da L’Oréal Portugal não é exceção e é do seu interesse melhorar os processos com vista a aumentar a satisfação do cliente, o maior foco desta multinacional. A filosofia Lean surge então neste caso de estudo como uma solução de melhoria nos processos de logística inversa da empresa L’Oréal onde tem como finalidade principal reduzir os pedidos de recolha e, assim, aumentar a eficiência do processo de logística inversa. Uma estrutura teórica é desenvolvida com o propósito de sustentar a investigação. Neste processo existem vários motivos subadjacentes aos pedidos de recolha, contudo, neste caso verifica-se um foco nos pedidos de recolha de produtos danificados e nos pedidos de recolha dos produtos descontinuados pois são os únicos que permitem a intervenção. Como tal, as propostas de melhoria irão incidir na melhoria do processo de entrega de forma a reduzir a entrega dos produtos danificados e, assim, diminuir os pedidos de recolha e tornar o processo de recolha mais eficiente por serem menos ordens a processar e tratar. Após apresentar as oportunidades de melhoria de ambos os processos de entrega e recolha, as propostas de melhoria foram apresentadas. A sua viabilidade foi analisada e as propostas foram implementadas com sucesso

Made in …Eastern Europe: The new ‘fashion colonies’

CCC_Made_in_Eastern_Europe.pdf: 1044 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Facilitators and Impediments in Moving Firms Toward Supply Chain Management: A Qualitative Field Study

Competing at the supply chain level, instead of at the individual firm level, is widely recognized today as a potential source of competitive advantage (Christopher 1992, Spekman et al. 2001). To compete on a supply chain level implies firms within a supply chain must develop and enhance internal, as well as, external competencies. Intuitively, firms must have some degree of internal integration before they can reap significant benefits from engaging in supply chain management (SCM). As firms become more efficient and effective coordinating their internal processes and operations they soon realize significant improvements are possible by coordinating and linking their processes and operations with their suppliers and customers (i.e., forming competence alliances). At a supply chain level, firms within the supply chain may form competence alliances that link each firm’s competences and/or resources to other firms of the supply chain in order to, “draw on a broader range of competences, to acquire desired competences more quickly, or to extend the reach of current competences into new competitive domains (Sanchez and Heene 1997, 307).” Studies aimed at investigating the implementation process should be fruitful in further developing the theory of SCM. This study seeks just that aim, by qualitatively investigating how a direct supply chain attempted to implement SCM. In moving toward supply chain management this study identifies six supply chain management execution antecedents that individual firms in a supply chain must address, 1) proper alignment of management support, 2) funding of verbal commitment, 3) proper motivation, 4) training, 5) visioning, and 6) internal/external integration linkage. In addition, the study revealed the reinforcing linkage between internal integration and external integration. If the supply chain is the next source of competitive advantage then understanding how to progress towards managing the supply chain is crucial. The results of this study add to that understanding

Essays on digitalization among small and medium-sized firms : Complementary and contingent approaches

This dissertation explains how and under what circumstances the operational performance of small and medium-sized (SME) firms is most likely to benefit from digitalization. This topic will be examined by combining the resource-based view (RBV) and contingency theory, that is, using the contingency RBV, which remains relatively rarely used in current research. The perspective permits an examination of the impact of various resources and capabilities in the presence of situational factors. The dissertation consists of five papers dealing with digitalization in SMEs operating in various areas. The research relies on two surveys involving Finnish SMEs from manufacturing industries, the first of which provides cross-sectional data. Together the two datasets provide the longitudinal data informing the dissertation. The research shows that the contingency RBV provides a comprehensive framework that can assist in examining how and in what circumstances SMEs can benefit from digitalization, that benefit being measured from an operational improvement perspective. Previous research on SMEs is limited, so the first result of this thesis involves testing a theoretical framework for SMEs in the context of their digitalization. The research results show that the benefits of digitalization for operational performance arise through two different mechanisms, and digitalization alone does not affect the firm's success. The effect of digitalization on SMEs’ operational performance emerges from the complementarity between digitalization and firms’ organizational attributes, factors, or resources that enhance performance. The second mechanism relates to environmental and situational factors and shows that both the firm's internal and external environment determine the level of the impact of digitalization. Among Finnish SMEs, digitalization produces value in the form of improved operational performance when digitalization, resources, and capabilities bolster each other in internal and external environments conducive to digitalization.Tässä väitöskirjassa selvitetään miten ja missä tilanteessa pienet ja keskisuuret (pk) yritykset pystyvät todennäköisemmin hyötymään digitalisoitumisestaan operatiivisen suorituskyvyn näkökulmasta. Aihetta tarkastellaan yhdistämällä resurssi- ja tilannetekijäteoria eli tässä työssä hyödynnetään tilanteista resurssiteoriaa, joka on nykyisessä tutkimuskentässä vielä varsin rajallisesti käytetty. Näkökulman mukaan erilaisten resurssien ja kyvykkyyksien vaikutusta voidaan tarkastella tilannetekijöiden ollessa läsnä. Väitöskirja muodostuu viidestä artikkelista, joissa käsitellään yritysten digitalisoitumista. Väitöskirjassa käyte¬tään kahta eri kyselytutkimusta, joihin suomalaiset valmistavan teollisuuden pk-yritykset ovat osallistuneet. Ensimmäinen aineisto on poikkileikkausaineisto ja aineistot yhdessä muodostavat toisen, pitkittäisen, aineiston. Tutkimustulokset osoittavat, että tilanteinen resurssiteoria muodostaa kattavan viitekehyksen, jonka perusteella voidaan lähestyä sitä, miten ja missä tilanteissa pk-yritykset pystyvät hyötymään digitalisoitumisesta parantuneen operatiivisen suorituskyvyn näkökulmasta. Aikaisempi pk-yrityksiin keskittynyt tutkimus on ollut vähäistä, joten tämän väitöskirjan ensimmäisenä tuloksena voidaan pitää teoreettisen viitekehyksen testaamista nimenomaan pienillä ja keskisuurilla yrityksillä niiden digitalisoitumisen kontekstissa. Tutkimustulokset osoittavat, että digitalisoitumisen hyöty operationaaliseen suoriutumiseen syntyy kahden erilaisen mekanismin kautta eli digitalisoituminen ei yksin vaikuta yrityksen menestymiseen. Ensimmäinen mekanismi muodostuu niin kutsutusta täydentävästä suhteesta, joka tarkoittaa sitä, että yrityksen digitalisoituminen vaikuttaa yrityksen muihin resursseihin ja kyvykkyyksiin vahvistavasti, ja yhdessä digitaaliset tekijät yrityksen resurssien ja kyvykkyyksien kanssa parantavat yrityksen suoriutumista. Toinen mekanismi liittyy kontingenssivaikutukseen, jossa tilannetekijät vaikuttavat yritysten digitalisoitumisesta syntyvään hyötyyn. Tulokset osoittavat, että mikäli yrityksen sisäinen ympäristö on suotuisa yrityksen digitalisoitumiseen, sillä on positiivisia vaikutuksia digitalisoitumisesta saatavaan hyötyyn. Tulosten mukaan myös ulkoinen ympäristö vaikuttaa yrityksen digitalisoitumisesta saatavaan hyötyyn. Suomalaisten pk-yritysten digitalisoituminen tuottaa yrityksille arvoa parantuneena operatiivisena suorituskykynä silloin, kun yritysten digitalisoituminen ja resurssit sekä kyvykkyydet vahvistavat toisiaan digitalisoitumiselle suotuisassa sisäisessä ja ulkoisessa ympäristössä.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

A conceptual framework for the e-enabling of automotive supply chanins

Supply chains encompass all of the diverse activities that are associated with the flow and transformation of goods, right from the beginning stage of the raw materials, all the way through to the consumer. Supply chains are broken into three distinct parts, namely upstream activities involving the material and service inputs from suppliers, internal activities involving the manufacture and packaging of the goods, and downstream activities, which involve the distribution and sale of the goods. Since the inception of the automotive industry, buyers and suppliers have been linked in rigid, inflexible relationships. With the advent of the Internet, however, supply chains are becoming less rigid and more efficient. E-enabling an automotive supply chain involves two distinct spheres of interest, namely, the sphere of automotive supply chains and that of e-business. Both spheres are evolving fast and becoming increasingly complex. Due to the increasing complexity, there is a lack of understanding with regard to incorporating e-business principles effectively into automotive supply chains. In order to address this lack of understanding, the dissertation proposes a conceptual framework that can be used to assist in the process of e-enabling an automotive supply chain. Before the dissertation ventures to propose this conceptual framework, a number of challenges that may be encountered when attempting to enable an automotive supply chain are highlighted. The proposed framework, therefore, specifically aims to position activities conceptually in such a way that it can be argued that the identified challenges are considered at the appropriate time in the e-enabling process. The framework therefore, focuses on the entire process, starting at the planning phase and going right through to the implementation phase. As such, the framework consists of various phases, with each phase containing a myriad of activities. The different phases of the framework include developing a strategic business plan, designing an information technology architecture, identifying system and resource requirements, creating a project plan and finally implementing the project. These phases aim to address the entire e-enabling process. The contribution that this dissertation makes is in the form of a conceptual framework which may be followed during the e-enabling process. The framework aims to provide direction and to ensure that the many activities that are involved in the e-enabling process are considered. The dissertation also highlights the many challenges that may be encountered when enabling a supply chain. Lastly a prototype application has been developed using a new Internet technology. The prototype has been developed in order to ascertain the new technologies suitability to the e-enabled supply chain environment

Electronic marketplaces for tailored logistics

In the last two decades, the role of e-business as a fundamental element that links organisations of the supply chain into a unified and coordinated system has been increasingly recognised in the literature. Recent technological advances enable a proliferation of B2B e-business systems in supporting interorganisational e-business integration, but also create more complexities for organisations in determining what form of electronic linkage and relationship configurations should be forged with what kind of business partner(s). At the same time, as customers become more demanding, there is a trend towards providing tailored logistics provisions in order to satisfy different customers' needs. Consequently, careful design of information flows within and between the organizations is required. In view of the aforementioned, there is need for a design of an overall e-business architecture which governs and specifies the different inter-organisation information coordinate and control (ICC) mechanisms for different logistics scenarios, referred to here as a B2B e-business reference architecture (ERA). Historically this research area has not received due attention from researchers or practitioners. Therefore, the primary aim of this thesis is to develop such an ERA and substantiate it through empirical research, focusing its application on an emerging e-business model termed an Electronic Logistics Marketplaces (ELM). The first part of this research is analytical, developing the B2B ERA through the synthesis of literature and the use of secondary case examples. Four architectures are proposed with detailed characterisation: Centralised Market, Traditional Hierarchical Coordination. Modified Hierarchical Coordination, and Heterarchical Network. The second part of the research is empirical, since it validates the conceptual model developed through six case studies. It shows that one size does not fit all, and there should be different architectures for different logistics scenarios. The study also establishes a fundamental understanding of closed ELMs which have not been studied in-depth and systematically. Through analysis of three key elements, namely, technology, collaboration and process, the likely operational models and the relationship between ELMs and tailored logistics are established. Reasons for using closed ELMs are also identified through the exploration of motives, barriers, costs and benefits. A major case study is conducted to investigate the Heterarchical Network type of ELM, later after being termed as 'collaborative ELM'. Reasons for the formation of this type of ELM, and the impact it brings to the supply chain are examined in detail, providing significant insights considering its rarity and novelty in practice. Finally the thesis summarises the research findings and their practical implications are discussed. Study limitations are acknowledged and possible future research directions are suggested

Examining organisational flexibility in an interorganisational context: A case study of a grocery retail supply chain.

The objective of this thesis is to clarify the complex notion of flexibility and to explore the impact of Interorganisational Information Systems (IOS) on the flexibility of organisations. Previous studies have shown that while the utilisation of IOS can contribute significantly to organisational flexibility, it does not provide equal benefits to all trading partners. Although flexibility is increasingly becoming more important for the survivability and competitiveness of organisations, its meaning is still ambiguous and a rigorous conceptualisation of the notion is lacking in the literature. Most researchers examining the impact of technology on organisational flexibility identify technological as well as organisational issues influencing flexibility, but fail to analyse flexibility as a dynamic concept embedded in the social context. Moreover, they mainly focus on the flexibility of the individual firm, paying less attention to flexibility as a property of the interaction between firms. This research proposes an interpretive approach and examines the notion of flexibility by including a thorough investigation of the organisational context within which it is embedded. Since IOS involve interaction between different organisations, issues of cooperation and relationships with trading partners are also considered. Therefore, the concept of flexibility is viewed from both an organisational and an interorganisational (business network) level, referring to the interaction of trading partners. A synthesized research framework, based on previous research and the theoretical perspectives of appreciative systems thinking and web models, enables us to perceive flexibility as a multidimensional and dynamic concept, embedded in and shaped by the organisational/interorganisational context. In the proposed framework, flexibility is presented not only as the ability of the organisation/business network to respond to environmental disturbances, but also as its capability to evolve and to change over time. A multiple case design in a grocery retail-supply chain in Greece, comprising three suppliers and four retailers, provides the empirical data to support the argument of this thesis. The analysis of the data relates differences in organisational contexts to variations in the flexibility achieved by the organisations. It shows that IOS can provide constraints even for the more competent organisations and illustrates how the interaction with trading partners may influence the flexibility achieved at an organisational level. It finally demonstrates the dynamic nature of flexibility, it describes the relation between its different dimensions and discusses their change and evolution, following and influencing the changes of the organisational and interorganisational contexts

Blockchain-Based Digitalization of Logistics Processes—Innovation, Applications, Best Practices

Blockchain technology is becoming one of the most powerful future technologies in supporting logistics processes and applications. It has the potential to destroy and reorganize traditional logistics structures. Both researchers and practitioners all over the world continuously report on novel blockchain-based projects, possibilities, and innovative solutions with better logistic service levels and lower costs. The idea of this Special Issue is to provide an overview of the status quo in research and possibilities to effectively implement blockchain-based solutions in business practice. This Special Issue reprint contained well-prepared research reports regarding recent advances in blockchain technology around logistics processes to provide insights into realized maturity