Drivers and Impacts of R&D Adoption on Transport and Logistics Services

Actually, technologies and applications in industries are changing via business restructuring, new business models, new knowledge and supply chains. So R&D is not focused primarily on manufacturing industry as it used to be, but on different kinds of industries as logistics and transport (TLS). Nevertheless, the characteristics of the TLS industry determine the introduction of specific R&D solutions accordingly to sectors operations. The objective of this paper is to describe the R&D opportunities in the TLS industry and how managers use them to make their businesses more innovative and efficient. Using the Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP) model the paper identifies the links between R&D adoption and innovation dynamics. Relating the findings, on the driver’s side there are three points that are worth mentioning: increasing market competition, the relationships of firms interacting with each other and the availability and quality of complementary assets such as employee skills and IT know-how. On the impacts’ side, firms advanced in terms of implementing R&D solutions are more likely to implement organizational changes. Finally, a set of recommendations on how to further improve the continuous innovation in the TLS industry is presented

Upgrading Pathways of Intelligent Manufacturing in China: Transitioning across Technological Paradigms

Intelligent technologies are leading to the next wave of industrial revolution in manufacturing. In developed economies, firms are embracing these advanced technologies following a sequential upgrading strategy—from digital manufacturing to smart manufacturing (digital-networked), and then to new-generation intelligent manufacturing paradigms. However, Chinese firms face a different scenario. On the one hand, they have diverse technological bases that vary from low-end electrified machinery to leading-edge digital-network technologies; thus, they may not follow an identical upgrading pathway. On the other hand, Chinese firms aim to rapidly catch up and transition from technology followers to probable frontrunners; thus, the turbulences in the transitioning phase may trigger a precious opportunity for leapfrogging, if Chinese manufacturers can swiftly acquire domain expertise through the adoption of intelligent manufacturing technologies. This study addresses the following question by conducting multiple case studies: Can Chinese firms upgrade intelligent manufacturing through different pathways than the sequential one followed in developed economies? The data sources include semi-structured interviews and archival data. This study finds that Chinese manufacturing firms have a variety of pathways to transition across the three technological paradigms of intelligent manufacturing in non-consecutive ways. This finding implies that Chinese firms may strategize their own upgrading pathways toward intelligent manufacturing according to their capabilities and industrial specifics; furthermore, this finding can be extended to other catching-up economies. This paper provides a strategic roadmap as an explanatory guide to manufacturing firms, policymakers, and investors.This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91646102, L1824039, L1724034, L1624045, and L1524015), the project of China’s Ministry of Education “Humanities and Social Sciences (Engineering and Technology Talent Cultivation)” (16JDGC011), CAE Advisory Project “Research on the strategy of Manufacturing Power towards 2035” (2019-ZD-9), the National Science and Technology Major Project “High-end Numerical Control and Fundamental Manufacturing Equipment” (2016ZX04005002), Beijing Natural Science Foundation Project (9182013), the Chinese Academy of Engineering’s China Knowledge Center for Engineering Sciences an Technology Project (CKCEST-2019-2-13, CKCEST-2018-1-13, CKCEST-2017-1-10, and CKCEST-2015-4-2), the UK–China Industry Academia Partnership Programme (UK-CIAPP\260), as well as the Volvo-supported Green Economy and Sustainable Development Tsinghua University (20153000181) and Tsinghua Initiative Research Project (2016THZW)

Collaborative electronic purchasing within an SME consortium

The main function of purchasing is to assure the supply with required goods and services. Large organisations have both finances and knowledge to implement optimised purchasing resources, typically using information and communications technology (ICT) to improve efficiency. On the contrary, within individual small and medium sized enterprises electronic purchasing is conducted predominately through supplier's sales web sites.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Current trends on ICT technologies for enterprise information s²ystems

The proposed paper discusses the current trends on ICT technologies for Enterprise Information Systems. The paper starts by defining four big challenges of the next generation of information systems: (1) Data Value Chain Management; (2) Context Awareness; (3) Interaction and Visualization; and (4) Human Learning. The major contributions towards the next generation of information systems are elaborated based on the work and experience of the authors and their teams. This includes: (1) Ontology based solutions for semantic interoperability; (2) Context aware infrastructures; (3) Product Avatar based interactions; and (4) Human learning. Finally the current state of research is discussed highlighting the impact of these solutions on the economic and social landscape

Study of internet usage in the fresh produce supply chain in the UK and China

A thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Philosophy of the University of BedfordshireFresh produce supply chain management faces a high level of complexity and uncertainty and a number of challenges due to fresh produce's perishable, seasonal and fragile characteristics. It is argued that effective implementation of Information and Communication Technologies (leTs) has great potential for improving efficiency and reducing wastage within the fresh produce (fruit and vegetable) supply chain. While' the Internet is used by many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the fresh produce industry, the extent to which it is applied and further developed after the initial adoption varies widely. Much research has been carried out to investigate Internet adoption and usage, but very limited effort has been focused on the identification of the current level of technology integration and deve!opment and the factors affecting the level of the development after the adoption, especially in the context of SMEs in the fresh produce supply chain. This research attempts to address this issue by developing a theoretical framework to illustrate the evolutionary process of Internet adoption and diffusion and to identify factors affecting the development of Internet-based supply chains by following the Technological/Organisational/Environmental (TOE) framevork. First, five development levels of post-adoption of Internet technologies in the supply chain were defined, and factors from the technological, organisational and environmentalcontexts were identified according to literatures and exploratory interviews. Second, questionnaire surveys were conducted in the UK and China to investigate the current situation of internet technologies used by SMEs in the fresh produce supply chains in the two countries. Finally, factors the proposed framework were validated and discussed. The empirical findings show that the Internet is no longer a new technology for most fresh produce SMEs in the UK and China. However, a large proportion of SMEs surveyed are still using basic functions of the Internet, and there is little difference between the UK and Chinese SMEs when comparing the use of complex applications in the supply chains. The results also show that most of the factors in the organisational and technological contexts are positively related to the current development levels of the Internet-based supply chain, whereas, in the environmental context, pressures from customers in the UK and mutual trust among partners in China have a significant impact on current development levels. Additionally, in both countries, companies in a better development level of Internet-based supply chain would achieve a higher degree of integration in their supply chain in five years. Overall, the research has made a number of important contributions to knowledge, current debate and practice in an under-researched sector. The five-level post-adoption framework can be adapted to identify ICT development levels and key factors in other sectors. The empirical data collected has added value to and sheds lights on the current applications of the Internet in the supply chain in general, and in the fresh produce SMEs in China and the UK in particular. The key factors identified as impeding the further development of the Internet, such as factors related to the business environments in the UK and China, will help government policy-makers, supply chain facilitators and IT service providers to be more focused in their efforts to improve the situation and to stimulate the further diffusion of emerging Internet technologies. The research has certain limitations due to the time constraints and sample selections. These limitations provide a platform for directing future research

Innovation ecosystems for industry 4.0 : a collaborative perspective for the provision of digital technologies and platforms

Industry 4.0 considers complex interrelated IoT-based technologies for the provision of digital solutions. This complexity demands a vast set of capabilities that are hard to be found in a single technology provider, especially in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Innovation ecosystems allow SMEs to integrate resources and cocreate Industry 4.0 solutions. This thesis investigates the role of collaboration for the development of technologies and solutions in the Industry 4.0 context. To this end, this thesis was organized into three papers, which objectives are: (i) to verify if collaboration through inbound Open Innovation activities with different actors in the supply chain positively moderates the relationship between Industry 4.0 technologies and their expected benefits; (ii) to identify how the characteristics of an innovation ecosystem focused on solutions for Industry 4.0 change at each evolutionary lifecycle stage using elements from social exchange theory; and (iii) to identify which technologies can be configured as platforms through boundary-spanning activities and how they operate collaboratively to develop solutions for Industry 4.0. As a result, this thesis proposes a model that explains the role of collaboration at different levels (supply chains, ecosystems, and platforms) for the development of solutions in the Industry 4.0 context. This research approach combines both qualitative (i.e., focus group, interviews, and case studies) and quantitative (i.e., survey research with multivariate data analysis) aspects. The main results obtained are: (i) we show how collaboration with different actors in the supply chain through Open Innovation strategy has both positive and negative impacts on three strategies associated with product development (cost reduction, focalization, and innovation); (ii) we define the main characteristics of innovation ecosystems focused on the provision of Industry 4.0 solutions, considering an evolutionary lifecycles perspective and a Social Exchange view (iii) we define which are the different technology platforms of the Industry 4.0 context at different operation levels using Boundary-Spanning view. As remarking conclusions, from an academic perspective, these results help to understand how collaboration for the development of new solutions in Industry 4.0 can be analyzed under different perspectives (Open Innovation, Social Exchange Theory, and Boundary-Spanning) and in different contexts of integration (supply chains, ecosystems, and platforms). From a practical perspective, the results help to enlighten a trending business topic by showing how the collaboration among technology providers for Industry 4.0 should be fostered and developed