Search results

As China’s e-commerce and cross-border e-commerce rapidly develop, the cross-border e-commerce supply chain exhibits characteristics of globalized development scale, collaborative multiparty participation, streamlined management processes, digitalized production and trade and flexible strategic choices. It tends toward data-driven intelligence, interoperable information collaboration, personalized order responses, sustainable supply chain management and secure blockchain technology. These characteristics and trends provide critical references for businesses, governments and investors.

In response to issues such as inconsistent legal regulations, imbalanced logistics and transportation, imperfect payment settlements and opaque supply chains.

It is recommended to take measures to strengthen cooperation and communication, optimize logistics, reduce customs clearance difficulties, reinforce safeguard measures and promote sustainable development, collectively fostering the healthy growth of cross-border e-commerce.

With the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce, green and low-carbon initiatives have become a significant trend in this sector. The cross-border e-commerce supply chain refers to the mechanism that reduces environmental impacts and enhances resource efficiency from manufacturers to consumers. It primarily involves manufacturers, e-commerce platforms, logistics companies and payment and settlement processes. The cross-border e-commerce supply chain is gradually becoming a highlight in China’s foreign trade, supporting the concept of “buying globally and selling globally” and connecting the “world’s factory” with the “world’s market.”

This study aims to examine the effect of Industry 4.0 technology on resilience in established cross-border supply chain(s) (SC).

A literature review provides insight into the resilience capabilities of cross-border SC. The research uses a case study of operational international SC: the producers, importers, logistics companies and UK Government (UKG) departments. Semi-structured interviews determine the resilience capabilities and approaches of participants within cross-border SC and how implementing an Industry 4.0 Internet of Things (IoT) and capitals Distributed Ledger (blockchain) based technology platform changes SC resilience capabilities and approaches.

A blockchain-based platform introduces common assured data, reducing data duplication. When combined with IoT technology, the platform improves end-to-end SC visibility and information sharing. Industry 4.0 technology builds collaboration, trust, improved agility, adaptability and integration. It enables common resilience capabilities and approaches that reduce the de-coupling between government agencies and participants of cross-border SC.

The case study presents challenges specific to UKG’s customs border operations; research needs to be repeated in different contexts to confirm findings are generalisable.

Operational SC and UKG customs and excise departments must align their resilience strategies to gain full advantage of Industry 4.0 technologies.

Case study research shows how Industry 4.0 technology reduces the de-coupling between the SC and UKG, enhancing common resilience capabilities within established cross-border operations. Improved information sharing and SC visibility provided by IoT and blockchain technologies support the development of resilience in established cross-border SC and enhance interactions with UKG at the customs border.

Servitization is a business transformation that increases service provision in manufacturers. This study aims to empirically examine how a manufacturer's global supply chain dependence and its power positions affect its servitization output.

This study employs secondary longitudinal datasets and econometric specifications to test the relationship between global supply chain dependence and servitization. It further examines the moderating roles of the firm's market power and the degree of being principal customers and principal suppliers. Heterogeneity analyses are performed to verify the robustness of the results.

The findings indicate that fewer global suppliers and more global customers contribute to a higher level of servitization. The negative effect of global supplier dependence is mitigated when manufacturers have less market power and are the principal customers for most of their suppliers. The positive effect of global customer dependence is stronger when manufacturers have less market power and their customers are less dependent on the manufacturers.

Data mixing manufacturing and service inputs and data on public US manufacturers may restrict the generalizability of the findings. Nonetheless, the study urges future research to focus more on other countries/markets.

This study encourages manufacturers who servitize their businesses to connect with more global customers and fewer global suppliers and manage powers among stakeholders. Other recommendations for policymakers and industry associations are also proposed.

This study is the first to explore the impacts of the global supply chain dependence on servitization. Multiple-level findings offer important implications for researchers and practitioners.

Recent research has recognised the importance of supply chains and ecosystems as key drivers of successful servitization strategies, especially in the context of inter-organisational relations (IOR). The body of knowledge has, however, become increasingly fragmented and diverse due to different disciplinary roots of both servitization and IOR research. The purpose of this paper is to take stock of current knowledge and to generate a set of future research directions for servitization-related supply chain and ecosystem research.

A systematic review methodology was applied. A thematic analysis was conducted on a sample of 34 papers in the period 2010–2021 to identify the key themes within the servitization-related supply chain and ecosystem literature.

The review revealed a limited, but expanding, knowledge base for servitization-related supply chain and ecosystem research. The findings provide insight into current trends across four thematic areas: theoretical orientation, methodological approaches, research context and research content. Within these themes, it was found that four main areas of research content have been studied (supplier relationships, risk perception and uncertainty, capability development and resource integration), with most research adopting case-based methodologies within three main industrial contexts: manufacturing, industrial and software. Finally, a broad range of theoretical orientations have led to an increasingly fragmented and diverse literature base.

This study is the first to review servitization-related supply chains and ecosystems. It contributes insights through an IOR lens to categorise and organise a core set of themes and concepts for servitization-related supply chain and ecosystems research. It identifies research gaps within the extant literature and presents a set of future research directions.

The advantages of blockchain technology are being widely discussed by academics, the business community and government, because blockchain can promote data sharing, optimise business processes, reduce operation costs, improve collaborative efficiency and build credible systems. The supply chain is becoming a key area for the application of blockchain technology. However, few studies have discussed the effect of such emerging technologies on the supply chain in depth. Therefore, this paper aims to analyse how blockchain empowers supply chain and promotes supply chain management.

Based on a review of relevant literature and blockchain applications in practice, this paper analyses the development and research status of blockchain technologies. In addition, considering the different operational processes within the supply chain, the authors discuss the opportunities and challenges of blockchain technologies, such as the transparency of supply, intelligent manufacturing, the security of logistics, the platformisation of sales and the ecology of governance.

The authors find that information sharing, information traceability and trust establishment are the key categories of research achievements and applications of supply chain management. The central issues for blockchain researchers are the authenticity of transaction data, the traceability of long supply chains and the establishment of trust for all participants.

From the practical and theoretical perspectives, this paper shows the development of blockchain technologies to clarify the challenges, opportunities and prospects. This paper elucidates and facilitates the development of emerging interdisciplinary research and the practice of supply chain.

This study aims to investigate the contribution of blockchain technology to supply chain risk management and its impact on performance among Indian manufacturing companies.

Drawing on a resource-based view, dynamic capability and system of systems theory, this study examines the direct relationships between blockchain, supply chain risk management and supply chain performance. The authors validate the mediating effects of three supply chain risk management components, namely supply risk management, demand risk management and cyber security management, on financial transaction reliability and information reliability. Data were collected from 204 Indian manufacturing companies that have adopted blockchain technology.

The results demonstrate that companies adopting blockchain technology have experienced positive outcomes in managing supply chain-related risks, financial transaction reliability and information reliability. These findings provide valuable guidance to managers, highlighting blockchain as a competitive advantage for supply chain management.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous research on blockchain-based risk management capabilities has been conducted.

Know your customer (KYC), accounting standards, issuance, clearing, and trade settlement became the major barrier to implement accounting, accountability and assurance process in supply chain finance (SCF). Blockchain technology features have the potential to solve accounting problems. This research focuses on exploring how blockchain technology provides solutions to overcome the barriers of accounting process in SCF. The benefits, opportunities, costs and risks related to blockchain adoption are also explored.

Multi-case study and qualitative methods are used with a framework based on blockchain role to overcome the accounting process barriers. Ten blockchain projects in SCF and 29 interviews of participants as a unit of analysis are considered.

The findings indicate that blockchain technology offers solutions to solve accounting, accountability and assurance problems in SCF. Validity, verification, smart contracts, automation and enduring data on trade transactions potentially solve those barriers. However, it is also necessary to consider costs such as implementation, technology, education and integration costs. Then there are possible risks such as regulatory compliance, operational, code development and scalability risk. This finding reflects the current status of blockchain technology roles in SCF.

This study unveils blockchain's SCF accounting potential, emphasizing multi-case method limitations and future research prospects. Diverse contexts challenge findings' applicability, warranting cross-industry studies for deeper insights. Addressing selection bias and integrating quantitative measures can enhance understanding of blockchain's accounting impact.

Accounting professionals can get an idea of the future direction and impact of blockchain technology on accounting, accountability and assurance processes.

This study provides initial findings on the potential, costs and risks of blockchain that is beneficial for parties involved in SCF, especially for banks and insurance underwriters. In addition, the findings also provide direction for the contribution of blockchain technology to accounting theory in the future.

Supply chain vulnerability (SCV) analysis is vital for manufacturers globally because it creates a pathway for building resilient supply chains in uncertain environments. This study aims to identify drivers of SCV in the Indian manufacturing sector.

Sixteen drivers were identified from the literature review and followed by expert interviews. Interpretive structural modeling was used to determine the hierarchical structural relationship among identified SCV factors.

It was found that risk is not a board room agenda. Misaligned performance measures with incentives and lack of risk dashboard are the causal factors of SCV. Supply chain security, centralized production and distribution and lack of trust in the supply chain were driven factors.

This provides new insights to assess and prioritize initiatives for supply chain sustainability in terms of continuing business operations. The structural model provides a systemic view of SCV and helps reduce vulnerability.

This study aims to examine the evolution of the tourism supply chain (TSC) and its future development factors. To this end, a quantitative bibliometric analysis was conducted to provide insights from a statistical perspective, including the evolution of the TSC and an outlook on current characteristics and future research trends.

This paper presents a quantitative bibliometric study of selected papers on the Web of Science. The study of the evolution of the TSC is based on analyses of bibliographic coupling and co-occurrence of keywords.

Bibliographic coupling analysis identified 10 clusters defined by coherent groups of theoretical perspectives. The keyword analysis explains the occurrences in the TSC concept. It also helps to determine the future main drivers of TSC research. In the post-COVID-19 era, the tourism industry needs to focus on green transformation and new technologies to transform TSC, supply chain management and B2B relationships. It also needs to ensure employee retention and policies to attract new talent.

This study provides a comprehensive, objective and integrative overview of the evolution of TSC. It is one of the few original works on supply chain development and will be helpful for scholars and practitioners alike to understand the subject.