Use of Interorganisational Systems: An Empirical Analysis

Electronic linkages between organisations enabled by interorganisational information systems (IOS) such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Internet- based applications or cargo community systems are becoming increasingly important. Recently, many studies have examined the impact of electronic integration in logistics chains. However, there is a need to examine which factors on the perceived level of an interorganisational partnership are important for the management of information systems. We extend further the information processing model based on Galbraith [1] and Bensaou and Venkatraman [2] in a logistics network context. Their theoretical concept gives some explanations about a fit between information processing requirements, as determined in partnership design, and the information processing capabilities realised in information systems. This was further explored conducting a survey amongst German network organisations of freight forwarders in groupage service or contract logistics as a starting point because of their common usage of different interorganisational information systems. Surprisingly, our study shows only a slight influence of interorganisational tasks on the management of information systems. Moreover, our findings suggest that employment of IOS across firms observed is limited by structural factors (i.e. asset specificity) and nature of interorganisational relationship (i.e. trust, power). These factors are positively associated with satisfaction about information systems usage and performance. --interorganisational information systems,information processing model,co-operation,logistics networks,freight forwarder networks

Electronic Commerce im Lebensmitteleinzelhandel: Auswertung einer Konsumentenbefragung im Großraum Dresden

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Assessing the Market Niche of Eurasian Rail Freight in the Belt and Road Era.

This paper presents an overview of the recent development of Eurasian rail freight in the Belt and Road era and further evaluates its service quality in terms of transit times and transport costs compared to other transport modes in containerised supply chains between Europe and China. A trade-off model of transit time and transport costs based on quantitative data from primary and secondary sources is developed to demonstrate the market niche for Eurasian rail freight vis-a-vis the more established modes of transport of sea, air, and sea/air. In a scenario analysis, further cargo attributes influencing modal choice are employed to show for which cargo type Eurasian rail freight service is favourable from a shipper’s point of view. At present, Eurasian rail freight is about 80% less expensive than air freight with only half of the transit time of conventional sea freight. Our scenario analysis further suggests that for shipping time-sensitive goods with lower cargo value ranging from 1.23 USD/kg to 10.89 USD/kg as well as goods with lower time sensitivity and higher value in a range of 2.46 USD/kg to 21.78 USD/kg, total logistics costs of Eurasian rail freight service rail is cheaper than all other modes of transport. As an emerging competitive solution, Eurasian rail freight demonstrates to be an option beneficial in terms of transport cost, transit time, reliability and service availability, which offers a cost-efficient option enabling shippers to build up agile and more sustainable supply chains between China and Europe. Our study firstly provides a comprehensive assessment of present Eurasian rail freight including a thorough comparison with alternative modes of transport from a shipper’s point of view

Eurasian Rail Freight in the One Belt One Road Era

This paper presents an overview of the recent development of Eurasian rail freight in the One Belt, One Road Era and further evaluates its service quality in terms of transit times and transport costs compared to other transport modes in containerised supply chains between Europe and China. A trade-off model of transit time and transport costs based on quantitative data from primary as well as secondary sources is developed to demonstrate the market niche for Eurasian rail freight vis-a-vis the more established modes of transport of sea, air, and sea/air. In a scenario analysis, further goods attributes influencing modal choice are employed to show for which cargo type Eurasian rail freight service is favourable. According to our calculations, Eurasian rail freight is about 80% less expensive than air freight with only half of the transit time of conventional sea freight. Our scenario analysis further suggests that for shipping time sensitive goods with value ranging from 1.23 USD/kg to 10.89 USD/kg as well as goods with lower time sensitivity and value in a range of 2.46 USD/kg to 21.78 USD/kg, total logistics costs of Eurasian rail freight service beat all other modes of transport. Hence, Eurasian rail freight seems to be an option beneficial in terms of transport cost, transit time, reliability and service availability, which enables shippers to build up agile and sustainable supply chains between China and Europe

Assessing the Market Niche of Eurasian Rail Freight in the Belt and Road Era.

This paper presents an overview of the recent development of Eurasian rail freight in the Belt and Road era and further evaluates its service quality in terms of transit times and transport costs compared to other transport modes in containerised supply chains between Europe and China. A trade-off model of transit time and transport costs based on quantitative data from primary and secondary sources is developed to demonstrate the market niche for Eurasian rail freight vis-a-vis the more established modes of transport of sea, air, and sea/air. In a scenario analysis, further cargo attributes influencing modal choice are employed to show for which cargo type Eurasian rail freight service is favourable from a shipper’s point of view. At present, Eurasian rail freight is about 80% less expensive than air freight with only half of the transit time of conventional sea freight. Our scenario analysis further suggests that for shipping time-sensitive goods with lower cargo value ranging from 1.23 USD/kg to 10.89 USD/kg as well as goods with lower time sensitivity and higher value in a range of 2.46 USD/kg to 21.78 USD/kg, total logistics costs of Eurasian rail freight service rail is cheaper than all other modes of transport. As an emerging competitive solution, Eurasian rail freight demonstrates to be an option beneficial in terms of transport cost, transit time, reliability and service availability, which offers a cost-efficient option enabling shippers to build up agile and more sustainable supply chains between China and Europe. Our study firstly provides a comprehensive assessment of present Eurasian rail freight including a thorough comparison with alternative modes of transport from a shipper’s point of view

Current Advancements of and Future Developments for Fourth Party Logistics in a Digital Future

This paper aims to analyze the potential future of the 4PL concept based on expert opinions with special regard to the influence of digitalization coming with a disruptive trans-formation of supply chains. Service arrangements, provider capabilities and benefits resulting from a 4PL partnership are compared in current and future configurations. The research follows an explorative mixed methods approach with semi structured interviews followed by an expert panel. This builds a basis for an online survey questionnaire to inquire on important future aspects for the 4PL concept by a sample of respondents from multinational companies. Our results show a clear trend away from simply organizing transportation and logistics activities towards the provision of an IT platform as well as further value-added service activities such as planning, analytics and monitoring. Along with this, IT capabilities appear to be an important differentiator for 4PL providers in the future. Moreover, relationships between 4PL providers and their clients become closer and more strategic, which leads to a customer valuing not only direct cost reductions but rather improvements resulting from optimized operations through superior analysis and planning functions

Privatisierung und Going Public von staatlichen Eisenbahnunternehmen: Versuch eines adaptiven Vergleichs zwischen Japan und Deutschland

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Schwerlasttransport auf deutschen Straßen: Ergebnisse einer Befragung deutscher Schwerlasttransportunternehmen

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Digitalization of Supply Chains: Focus on International Rail Transport in the Case of the Czech Republic

The digitalization of supply chains presents a complex subject for research based on different geography setups, legal policy frameworks and a focus on technology. The paper discusses potential and issues in regards to the digitalization implementation in supply chains of the future with a focus laid on rail transport as one of the transport modes in freight distribution. The authors analyze empirical data for the Czech Republic as a geographically scoped case study by analyzing interviews with business practitioners that are active in the rail transport market. The research outcomes interlink the development of the legal framework in international rail transport with the emergence of electronic transport documentation as an important practical aspect of digitalization. Finally, it raises questions related to the critical preconditions of digitalization of supply chains

Container freight rate forecasting with improved accuracy by integrating soft facts from practitioners

This study presents a novel approach to forecast freight rates in container shipping by integrating soft facts in the form of measures originating from surveys among practitioners asked about their sentiment, confidence or perception about present and future market development. As a base case, an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model was used and compared the results with multivariate modelling frameworks that could integrate exogenous variables, that is, ARIMAX and Vector Autoregressive (VAR). We find that incorporating the Logistics Confidence Index (LCI) provided by Transport Intelligence into the ARIMAX model improves forecast performance greatly. Hence, a sampling of sentiments, perceptions and/or confidence from a panel of practitioners active in the maritime shipping market contributes to an improved predictive power, even when compared to models that integrate hard facts in the sense of factual data collected by official statistical sources. While investigating the Far East to Northern Europe trade route only, we believe that the proposed approach of integrating such judgements by practitioners can improve forecast performance for other trade routes and shipping markets, too, and probably allows detection of market changes and/or economic development notably earlier than factual data available at that time