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This research has three objectives: one is to develop measuring criteria for ascertaining performance of customs clearance firms, another is to test reliability and validity of the factors, and the third is to analyze the relationship between customer service and firm performance. This research gathered the data from customs clearance firms. Reliability and validity concerned with the collected data are tested by exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis and the relationship between variables is tested by analyzing structural equation modeling. The results are as follows. There are no problems in reliability and validity. According to the result of the analysis, customer service is divided into customer focus, customer needs, customer response and flexibility and performance is classified into customer performance and financial performance. The result of empirical tests is as follows. Customer focus has a positive effect on customer performance and financial performance. Flexibility has a positive effect on both types of performance. This means that firms which have discriminative services and a high level of flexibility through collaboration with customers can achieve high levels of customer performance and financial performance.

This study has two objectives. The first aim is to ascertain whether innovation and market orientation have direct, indirect, and causal effects on customer service. The second objective is to ascertain whether market orientation has a moderating effect on the relationship between innovation and customer service. This research follows three distinct methodologies. The first approach uses Cronbach’s alpha coefficient in order to check reliability while an exploratory factor analysis and a confirmatory factory analysis ascertain validity. The second method uses the analysis of structural equation models to test a causal link between variables. The third methodology uses a moderated regression analysis to verify the moderating effects. As our analysis results show, intelligence generation and intelligence dissemination have a moderating effect on the relationship between innovation and flexibility. These results can be interpreted as follows: firstly, customs clearance firms can provide superior service to customers if they strive to understand customer needs and provide them with flexible service at the same time. Secondly, these firms can enhance their flexibility of service in all departments though innovation and information sharing acquired from the market.

Seeks to show how developing countries are becoming important links in global sourcing networks. However, inefficient functioning of governments as customs‐clearance agents adversely impacts the flow of goods to and from these countries. This uncertainty not only impacts firms in the developing countries, but also seeps into the global supply networks in which these firms participate. Existing strategic supplier partnership (SSP) models do not address the role of government.

This paper utilizes observations gathered from a field study to understand better the mechanisms that companies use to cope with government‐induced import uncertainty. The paper draws insights from a buyer‐buyer collaboration mechanism found among a few firms in the printed circuit board manufacturing industry in India. To generalize the findings to other settings, the paper investigates how such a mechanism came to be, and how others in different settings might benefit from similar mechanisms.

The paper advances nine theoretically grounded propositions regarding other situations in which such buyer‐buyer collaboration may be suitable in other industries or countries.

The propositions advanced here need to be subjected to empirical examination, to test and extend the theory's boundaries to other industries and countries. Several “original” concepts generated here need to be developed into researchable constructs, and valid, reliable instruments need to be generated.

The propositions advanced here regarding buyer‐buyer cooperation among competing firms represent a clear extension of the traditional buyer‐supplier cooperation extensively studied in SSP models. Moreover, the results are highly usable and add value to supply chain practices.

The information system (IS) literature has previously emphasized the positive contribution of IT‐enabled quality information on decision making and firm performance, particularly when firms operate in highly competitive and uncertain settings. Yet, our understanding of how such information potentially transforms transport operations and generates improvements in organizational performance is limited. In response, the authors conduct an exploratory comparative case study of three transport firms that have introduced the global positioning system (GPS) in their operations. The purpose of this paper is to focus on assessing changes in transport operations due to the use of the quality information GPS provides and the link between these changes and organizational benefits.

Data were collected through semi‐structured interviews, direct observations and archival documentation in the three transport firms. Applying methods of a comparative case study, the data were analyzed by employing iterative and inductive analyses.

The results identify transport operations as the missing element in a more comprehensive explanation of previously hypothesized relationships between information quality improvements and organizational benefits in road transportation. Notably, it was found that different information quality affects transport operations in various ways. In addition, improved transport operations, namely transport service planning, vehicle routing and transport control, result in improved customer service, enhanced transport asset utilization, reduced transport costs and time, and in increased satisfaction of employees working within the transport process.

The paper offers a series of propositions that aims to stimulate empirical research and theoretical thinking on this topical subject.

The findings offer valuable insights to transport firms, while providing and improving information quality for transport service planning, vehicle routing and transport control that results in organizational benefits linked to customer service, transport asset utilization, costs, and employee satisfaction. For information to have practical value, firms must use it in those transport operations identified as adding value to the firms' performance.

To the best of the authors' knowledge this is an early attempt to inform firms in the transport industry about the information quality change following from GPS use and its implications for transport operations.

This research empirically analyzes gaps in performance among development stages of integration in supply chain management (SCM). The used variables are integration such as internal and external and performance such as cost and service. The population is international freight forwarders in the Republic of Korea and the sample frame is the membership list of the Korean International Freight Forwarders Association. The used methodology in this research is various: Cronbach’s alpha, factor analysis, cluster analysis, analysis of variance and post hoc analysis. It is important to ascertain the position in which they are included and the position is concerned with internal integration and external integration because the aim of this research is to ascertain where the forwarders are in development stages of integration. According to prior research, development stages of integration are regarded as the flow from internal to external. However, this research suggests that development stages of integration do not explain the flow of the stages but explain the strategic choice concerned with their current decision-making.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of export logistics components: shipment arrangements, timely delivery, customs quality, trade infrastructure, and tracking and tracing on export competitiveness of firms in the East African Community (EAC).

The study adopted the Structural Gravity Model and the Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood (PPML). PPML a nonlinear estimation method was applied in STATA on a balanced panel data for the period of 2007–2018. Data were obtained from World Bank International Trade Centre (ITC), World Bank Logistics Performance Index (LPI) and World Bank development indicators.

Results show that timely delivery and tracking and tracing of exports are positive and significant predictors of export competitiveness in EAC countries. Conversely, shipment arrangements, customs quality and trade infrastructure have no influence on export competitiveness.

The results of this study show that export logistics components of shipment arrangements, customs quality and trade infrastructure do not matter at the present in improving export competitiveness in the EAC. There is a need to examine the intricate nature of the EAC economy to further this study's findings.

The EAC partner states should embrace deep integration by removing the behind the border trade barriers in addition to other trade restrictions, to create a common economic space among member states. This will further shrink the delivery time and the tracking and tracing of exports hence improving the competitiveness of EAC exports within the region and outside. Also, common and harmonized trade policies and regulations should be implemented through mutual recognition agreements where countries agree to recognize one another's conformity assessments.

This study explains the complex dynamic interactions of export logistics factors in the EAC using quantitative data and that this interaction has an effect on the export competitiveness in import-dominated countries with less harmonization in their trade policies.

Seaports play an immeasurable role in the advancement of international trade. They have been the common avenue for the transportation of goods and services from one continent to another, and it has also been the linking transport of one mode of transport to another. The study sought to assess the effect of paperless information technology (IT)-based custom clearance at Ghana Seaports on businesses and industrial supply chains in Ghana.

The study conducted a survey with a sample size of 200 trading firms in Ghana.

The study discovered that IT-based port clearance has positive impact on customer order fulfillment, transaction cost reduction and supply chain relationships.

With the aim of making Ghana the transportation hub of businesses in the sub region, the paperless custom clearance has the potential to reduce delays at the port and improve their supply chain.

This paper provides researchers with a contemporary perspective toward understanding the effect of paperless custom clearance on the supply chain of businesses in the West African sub region.

The aim of this study is to empirically identify crucial dimensions of security management in the container shipping sector in Taiwan and assess their impacts on security performance.

Data for this study were collected by questionnaire survey. An exploratory factor analysis was performed to identify crucial security management dimensions in the container shipping sector. Multiple regression analysis was then performed to examine the effect of security management on the security performance.

Four crucial security management dimensions were identified: facility and cargo management; accident prevention and processing; information management; and partner relationship management. Multiple regression analysis revealed that information management and partner relationship management had significant positive effects on safety performance, whereas partner relationship management had a significant positive effect on customs clearance performance.

This study primarily focuses on the effect of security management on security performance. Future research could identify the drivers and barriers to comply with supply chain security initiatives.

Container shipping firms can improve safety and customs clearance performance by focusing security management efforts on facility and cargo management, accident prevention and processing, information management, and partner relationship management.

Government administrators or other authorities may want to consider using crucial container shipping security management dimensions as criteria for assessing security performance in container shipping firms.

This study presented is the first to assess the effect of security management on security performance in the container shipping sector. Particularly, partner relationship management is found to be the key dimension for supply chain security success.

The research empirically examines the role of artificial intelligence (AI) integrated with social customer relationship management (SCRM) in multinational enterprises (MNEs) towards international relationship management under social distancing conditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study initially undertakes pertinently focused theoretical research in the fields of international marketing, knowledge management, and customer relationship management. And, utilizing the theories of resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capability view (DCV) theory, the study develops a theoretical model that is subsequently empirically validated through a survey and structural equation modeling.

The study highlights the importance and means of adopting AI-integrated social CRM by MNEs, in the context of international relationship management, under the Covid-19 social distancing conditions. The study more specifically elucidates the role and significance of MNE leadership approach and support towards the adoption of AI-integrated social CRM systems and, ultimately, performance improvement of MNEs under such conditions.

The study presents insights and prescriptive explications on a topic at the heart of state-of the-art technology-based international marketing in the explicit context of the primary business-defining environment of the Covid-19 pandemic. The research provides practicable suggestions to MNEs' leadership towards the adoption of an AI-integrated social CRM system. And the study presents a unique model for international relationship management under social distancing conditions, potentially applicable during other crises.

The research is original and on a ‘fresh’ topic that combines the latest technological advancements in business (AI-integrated CRM) with the present critical business context (pandemic). The research develops a tested theoretical model that (a) is unique in its field; (b) provides a solid foundation for further research; (c) bears generic value and application during other-than-Covid-19 conditions; and (d) enhances the understanding of important fields of international marketing, including international customer relationship management and global knowledge management.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize how information technology (IT) enables supply chain (SC) network capabilities, which is to capitalize on SC’s existing set of resources and, at the same time, manage new combinations of SC resources to meet future market needs. The paper also develops SCM framework associated with IT-enabled SC network capabilities.

Through a case study of a leading Taiwanese petrochemical corporation, qualitative data were gathered on the IT-related SC management practices, in terms of network resource mobilizing and adaptive co-management arrangements to enable SC network capability. This research is based primarily on the interviews of the case company, supplemented by archived documents, published books, and in-depth observations.

Based on the evidence from the case, this study inductively develops a model that includes the operating processes with IT-enabled activities to achieve ambidextrous SC network capability, and the relevant framework functions in network resources and co-management activities include information co-governance, information interoperability, community engagement strategy, cyber-physical dexterity, and control enactment, which lead the SC alliances improvements for dynamic environmental changes.

Practitioners may derive strategies and tactics from the current findings to help them implement innovative information technologies and setup SC framework, during SC network capability development, to achieve SC’s sustainable competence in a dynamic market.

Researchers and practitioners may obtain a more complete view of IT-enabled SC network capability development. The proposed model reveals that developing IT-enabled SC network capabilities is a dynamic process whereby an organization’s major SC managerial activities are divided into specific network resource mobilizing and adaptive co-management arrangements.