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For packed products, packaging affects every logistical activity and thus the overall economic and ecological efficiency (eco-efficiency) of supply chains. The purpose of this research is to explore how integrated approaches are used in packaging development processes to increase eco-efficiency along supply chains and how a set of pre-selected factors influences the adoption of practically integrated approaches within companies.

The research approach is explorative and based on nine cases in the food and manufacturing industries in Sweden. In total, 26 semi-structured interviews were conducted.

The chapter describes the way in which companies work with ‘integrative’ packaging development process elements. It explores how four factors – product characteristics, packaging requirements, logistical conditions and environmental efforts – influence their approach.

The study analyses the packaging development processes at a limited number of companies in Sweden.

The findings can help logistics managers to better understand how integrated approaches can be applied in packaging development processes to increase eco-efficiency of logistical processes along the supply chain. The study provides logistic managers also with information about which influencing factors can serve as facilitators or barriers to these approaches in their organisations.

Previous research has demonstrated the potential economic and environmental benefits of integrating a logistics perspective into the packaging development process. This study complements existing knowledge by presenting extensive empirical data on the practical application of integrated approaches in packaging development processes in industry.

We propose an oversampling technique to increase the true positive rate (sensitivity) in classifying imbalanced datasets (i.e., those with a value for the target variable that occurs with a small frequency) and hence boost the overall performance measurements such as balanced accuracy, G-mean and area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, AUC. This oversampling method is based on the idea of applying the Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE) on only a selective portion of the dataset instead of the entire dataset. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our oversampling method with four real and simulated datasets generated from three models.

With the world gradually evolving into a global economy, Africa is playing an increasing role both as a major supplier of commodities and a huge consumer market for products from other parts of the world. Hence, it has become necessary for organisations to understand logistics and supply chain management (SCM) practices in Africa. For organisations that operate in Africa or have business dealings in Africa, it has become a strategic competitive priority to understand the current state of logistics in Africa and identify the challenges and opportunities inherent in the system. Finally, it is essential to learn how to overcome the challenges and maximise the opportunities. This chapter provides a historical and contextual basis for some of the logistics and SCM practices in sub-Saharan Africa. It reviews the current state of logistics management in Africa and identifies the challenges and opportunities that confront anyone interested in doing business in Africa. We reviewed the indigenous management practices that pervade the logistics discipline and highlighted cultural, unique and anecdotal evidence of practices and characteristics peculiar to the African countries. In addition, a comparative analysis of the logistic performance of countries in the region was provided to help readers situate the discussion. We concluded the discussion with some practical suggestions on how to get the best out of the African logistics system.

Additive manufacturing (AM) has the potential to transform the organisation of all the activities carried out by firms. The growing diffusion of these technologies is increasingly challenging multinational enterprises to reinvent their businesses. Accordingly, many scholars argue that AM may reduce countries’ participation in global value chains (GVCs) or, at least, affect GVCs’ geography, length and further developments. However, so far, the lack of available data on the real worldwide diffusion of these technologies has precluded the possibility to study this phenomenon from an empirical standpoint.

This study investigates AM technologies, with a particular focus on their possible impact on GVCs, in the framework of the current debate in international business. In order to examine this relationship and overcome the lack of adoption data, the authors identify a potential proxy of AM diffusion – that is, patenting activity. Coherently, the authors employ this proxy and a country-level measure of GVC participation (i.e., the Share of Re-Exported Inputs on Total Imported Inputs) to empirically investigate the role of AM in influencing countries’ participation to GVCs. This country-level analysis is focussed on three specific industries and the aggregate economy in 58 countries for the period 2000–2014.

The results show that AM decreases a country’s participation in GVCs, both at the country level and, in particular, in the sectors which are more likely to be affected by AM technologies. This evidence suggests that this phenomenon might be induced by a decreasing reliance on intermediates processed abroad, hence an increasing importance of domestic goods, manufactured via AM.

The continuing urbanization, the still increasing cargo distribution volumes towards the city centers and the spectacular growth in road transportation are deteriorating the traffic situation in large cities, and so a heavy threat for fast, predictable and cost-effective city logistics. Now is the time to develop new standardized logistic concepts, including the use of all available modes of transport. Standardized city boxes, vehicles, handling equipment and city access rules will support the interchangeability within logistic networks and will encourage the implementation of new concepts for city logistics offering a better service for equal or even lower costs. Shuttle concepts for road-bound distribution will result in better vehicle utilization, less environmental impact and better quality of life. Furthermore, rail-bound systems for the combined transport of passengers and freight have a large potential for regional and city-bound cargo distribution.

For area's with a suitable waterways network, barge transportation can be used both for long-haul and bi-modal (barge-truck) city logistics.

Partnerships between transportation companies, retailers, logistic providers and local/regional authorities will be required to introduce new logistic concepts. These will be necessary to maintain efficient city logistics and to improve the quality of life in the cities.