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A number of literature contributions have underlined the importance of developing value-added logistics activities or VALS in order to help improve customers’ satisfaction. However, there is usually very little attention given regarding where to perform these VALS. This study aims to: (1) identify a comprehensive set of factors which may influence the location of VALS, (2) to analyze to what extent those factors influence location decisions, and (3) to distinguish the determinants behind the location choices for distribution centers and for the kind of VALS that will be developed in these distribution centers.

In this paper, we will present a conceptual framework on the locations of VALS in view of the identifying determinants for assigning VALS to logistical centers. We argue that the optimal location of VALS is determined by complex interactions between the determinants at the level of the choice of a distribution system, distribution center location factors, and different logistical characteristics regarding products.

In Italy, worker cooperatives (WCs), whose workers hold major control rights over collectively-owned assets, are the leading vehicle for the promotion and development of employee ownership. Worker cooperatives are present in all regions and in most economic sectors, employing about 506,000 workers and generating a turnover of about €22 bn. Despite their history and diffusion, the high prevalence of WCs in Italy is under-researched and -thematised and requires new research.

The paper leverages unpublished primary and secondary data from Centro Studi Legacoop databank, the Aida-Bureau Van Dijk databank and the Cooperative Registry of the Ministry of Economic Development (CRMED) to explain the spread of WCs in Italy.

This paper reveals descriptive statistics of WCs and investigates their distribution across economic sectors and regions, their economic and financial performance and gives an overview of the relevant legislation. The paper indicates that older small- and medium-sized cooperatives located in central and north-eastern Italy perform best economically. However, in recent years, an increasing number of young cooperatives has emerged in South Italy thanks to favourable legislation, cooperative finance and the diffusion of cooperative know-how. Limitations to such results are reported in the conclusions.

The paper sheds light on past and recent development trends of WCs in Italy, highlights their growth in South Italy and revitalises the debate on the drivers, structures and rationales of employee-owned enterprises in Italy. Findings generate implications for research and practice. Given the tendency of WCs to better protect jobs than investor-owned enterprises, the spread of these enterprises may help workers find better and more stable jobs, counter-cyclically mitigating the dangerous effects of macro- and meso-economic fluctuations and instability.

Ports are often seen as engines behind regional economic development, because ports attract a variety of economic activities. This paper focuses on the role of ports in global supply chains and the opportunities to attract new economic activities in logistics. The central argument of the paper is that the role of ports as a location for logistics activities evolves with the evolution of logistics concepts. Evidence from West Europe is discussed. With the evolution of logistics concepts towards central coordination and more decentralized physical distribution, ports will see its multinational function diminish, eventually replaced by logistics activities with a more regional function and stronger integrated with production activities. Ports then have to face the competition from inland locations for value added logistics activities. The case of logistics developments provides a basis for analysing the increasingly important questions “What logistics activities ports can attract?” and “What is the appropriate strategy to result in this?”

Financial and nonfinancial disclosures are still anchored to conventional notions of transparency, whereby corporations “push” information out to various stakeholders. Such information is now “pulled” from various sources and addresses aspects of corporate behavior that go well beyond those envisioned by the disclosure framework. This shift makes notions of values, measurement and accountability more fragmented, complex and difficult. The paper aims to bring the accounting scholarly debate back to what and how transparency can be achieved especially in relation to issues of social inequality and sustainability.

After an analysis of the limitations of current approaches to disclosure, the paper proposes a shift toward normative policies that profit of years of critique of positivism.

Drawing on the notion of value-added, the paper ends with a new income statement design, labeled as Value-Added Statement for Nature, which recognizes Nature as a further stakeholder and forces human stakeholders to give voice, or at least acknowledge the lack of voice, for non-human actors.

The author proposes a shift in the perspective, practice and institutional arrangements in which disclosure occurs. Measurement and transparency need to happen in communication exercises, which do not presuppose what needs to be made transparent once and for good but define procedures on how to make fragmented, complex, multiple and volatile notions of value transparent. Income statements and accounting more in general is to be reconceived as a platform where stakeholders will have to continuously negotiate what counts as the common good in the interest of all, including Nature.

The Incheon Region has numerous assets that fall within a Pentaport model.' These include the Incheon International Airport, the Port of Incheon, a coastal industrial park, free economic zones, a leisure port, and Songdo new town designed to be the future Silicon Valley of Korea. This paper looks at how Northeast Asia trade flows between China and Korea might be enhanced by application of the Pentaport model in making the Incheon region a North East Asian Hub. It looks also at their trade and logistics systems as well as their water borne commerce. It proposes an integrated transportation system for the Yellow Sea Region being beneficial to the economies of the Northeast Asia. It also stresses that innovative technologies for ships, terminals and cargo handling systems should be introduced to develop a competitive short sea shipping system in the region and cooperation among the regional countries will be essential to achieve the final goal. The potential of methods of container shipping is discussed as it might apply to short sea shipping in the Yellow Sea Region that could greatly facilitate Incheon's situation with respect to the broader region in application of the Pentaport model.

This paper focuses on dry port as a key notion in port-hinterland development. We first discuss the concept of dry port by reviewing existing literature. Then, we explore the reasons behind the emergence and development of inland node systems in different geographical, economic and institutional contexts. Next, the paper presents a classification of dry ports based on a multitude of factors and dimensions and the respective benefits to different parties. The study then focuses on the specific characteristics of dry ports and associated transport networks in developing countries.

In the last part, we present a case study on the dry port system in Vietnam by reviewing the seaport and inland transport system and analyzing the current status of inland terminals in Vietnam. To conclude, a SWOT analysis is presented with regard to the development of the dry port network in Vietnam, followed by recommendations for policy makers.

Facing the diverse needs of large-scale customers, based on available railway service resources and service capabilities, this paper aims to research the design method of railway freight service portfolio, select optimal service solutions and provide customers with comprehensive and customized freight services.

Based on the characteristics of railway freight services throughout the entire process, the service system is decomposed into independent units of service functions, and a railway freight service combination model is constructed with the goal of minimizing response time, service cost and service time. A model solving algorithm based on adaptive genetic algorithm is proposed.

Using the computational model, an empirical analysis was conducted on the entire process freight service plan for starch sold from Xi'an to Chengdu as an example. The results showed that the proposed optimization model and algorithm can effectively guide the design of freight plans and provide technical support for real-time response to customers' diversified entire process freight service needs.

With the continuous optimization and upgrading of railway freight source structure, customer demands are becoming increasingly diverse and personalized. Studying and designing a reasonable railway freight service plan throughout the entire process is of great significance for timely response to customer needs, improving service efficiency and reducing design costs.