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This exploratory study aims to explore the operational and financial constraints faced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper highlights the role of supply chain finance (SCF) in the uncertain business environment caused by the pandemic.

The study adopts an inductive approach and conducts convergent interviews with 32 SME owners and bank officials who are associated with SME-related financial transactions. The analysis of the interview data has been done through a grounded theory approach.

The findings portray four key themes representing the operational and financial constraints faced by SMEs during the pandemic. Further, the study identifies four drivers of SCF adoption among SMEs, including capital constraints, high inventory turnover cycle time, high order fulfilment cycle time and long debtors’ collection period.

The study provides various insights to the managers and owners of SMEs to deal with the economic crisis and eliminate the financial pressure created by the pandemic. The study enlightens the policymakers about the struggles of the SMEs during the economic turmoil created by the pandemic and guides them to introduce the relevant policies to resolve their problems.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to identify the factors driving the SMEs to adopt SCF due to the economic chaos created by the pandemic. Also, the study theoretically contributes to the literature by developing a theoretical framework for SCF adoption based on grounded theory.

Describes research to identify and pilot an improved planning and fulfilment process at Noramco, a manufacturing division of General Pump. The focus was to develop a synchronized system from source to consumption with continuous flow of information and materials for one of Noramco’s main product lines. System‐wide changes were accomplished using a cross‐functional team with the goal of reducing waste and investment in inventory. Traditional measures of manufacturing efficiency and utilization were compared with proposed measurements of through‐put (T), investment in inventory (I), and operating expense (OE). Although traditional measures showed actual decline, proposed measures showed improvement and increased profitability of 200 per cent for this product line. These new performance measures reflected a change from local to global thinking. Improved capacity management in the system was achieved by sharing information between suppliers and customers.

Study in supply chain performance research on the shipbuilding industry is lacking. The purpose of this research is to study and provide guidelines to improve the performance of traditional shipbuilding supply chains in Indonesia.

The paper develops an empirical study gathered from a traditional shipbuilding industry, its suppliers, and customers. This study consists of three sections: the traditional shipbuilding industry, the suppliers, and the individual supplier scores. The internal and external performances in this study are measured using Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) metrics. The SCOR model identifies five performance measurement attributes, including reliability, flexibility, responsiveness, cost and assets. Instead of using “responsiveness,” this study applies the schedule performance index, and supplements “cost” with the cost performance index in order to accurately reflect the traditional shipbuilding supply chains processes.

By analyzing SCOR metrics in the traditional shipbuilding industry, it has been found that the ideal shipbuilding supply chain metrics are order fulfillment, flexibility, asset turnover and total supply chain costs. The lowest performance metric value in the traditional shipbuilding industry is the cost of goods. Some improvements are proposed to lower the high cost of ship building. An integrated economic ordering system in collaboration with all the suppliers is one of the most effective ways to reduce the cost of the traditional shipbuilding supply chains. The implementation of SCOR metrics enables management to identify the critical issues to improve.

The study applies SCOR metrics to improve the traditional shipbuilding supply chains performance. The study is limited because the data collected are based on one shipbuilding industry only.

To the author's knowledge, this is the first empirical analysis on the implementation of SCOR metrics to the traditional shipbuilding industry. The analysis to improve the traditional shipbuilding supply chains performance can provide managerial insights to other industries.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the components of logistics value and examine their influence on customer satisfaction in e-commerce. This study investigates the moderation effect between those two variables using the overall service level in the different industries of e-commerce.

A total of 592 correctly filled questionnaires from telephone and web interviews (computer-assisted telephone interviews and computer-assisted web interviews) were scrutinized. Hierarchical linear modeling (as a part of a wider group of multilevel modeling studies) was used to verify the dependencies between variables from an organization and industry levels.

The logistics factors indicated and described in the paper differently affect the value for the customer. This value is subjective and dynamic. For this reason, the online seller should develop a system to create a sustainable value proposition. It is plausible due to the possibility of choosing the type of delivery, date of collection and change thereof, as well as that of returning the product. Because of all this, the customer decides on the way of the order execution and creates the value chain.

The developed model is aimed at identifying universal relationships that create the customer satisfaction mechanism for the logistics value. However, this may result in other aspects of customer satisfaction being neglected. The authors are aware that the creation of value by a company in e-commerce must be approached in a systematic manner.

The results obtained and the representativeness of the surveyed sample of companies lead to the formulation of implications for business practice. The conclusions of the research definitely indicate a need to build awareness of logistics value and its influence on customer satisfaction through the service level in the industry. Because of the identified components of the logistics value and industry characteristics, managers of online retailers can better run their businesses, increase customer satisfaction, and thus improve their performance.

It is the first study that concerns e-commerce in individual industries, with particular emphasis on logistics and its impact on customer satisfaction.

Projects are one of the main ways used to develop organisations and turn their strategic initiatives into a reality. To support project management, several entities (e.g. associations, institutes, etc.) provide standards, guides and project management methodologies. However, despite its wide coverage of project management knowledge areas, standards currently have no specific processes focused on planning and evaluating success. The absence of these processes can limit the vision of managers and their teams on what most contributes to the success of a project. Aiming at contributing to fill this gap, this paper proposes the integration of success management processes in the ISO 21500 standard.

To develop the integration model, a Design Science Research approach was adopted for the construction and evaluation of the resulting artefact.

The result is an integrated model and insights for its application in practice. The model aims to help managers and their teams to identify which success management activities need to carry out and how to integrate them with the other processes of the ISO 21500 standard.

The integrated model was applied in only one project. Another limitation is the difficulty in comparing the results obtained due to the small number of works focused on success management (namely related to planning, measuring, controlling and reporting success in practice) and its integration with project management standards, guides and methodologies.

The integrated model, based on success management and the ISO 21500 standard, is an important and original contribution to understand and achieve success in projects. This promotes a new vision of balanced management, directing the management effort to the areas that effectively contribute to success in each project.

The overuse and scarcity of resources emphasize the importance of the circular economy. The technology facilitated by Industry 4.0 stimulates the implementation of the circular economy that aims to reduce resource use and enhance operational efficiency. This study focuses on enhancing delivery efficiency in an online-to-offline (O2O) context from an Industry 4.0 technology-facilitated personal configuration perspective, that is, comparing in-house and crowdsourced delivery efficiency in China's O2O on-demand food delivery context.

The authors collect 128,152 orders from 38 restaurants of an online restaurant chain in China. The authors adopt multiple regression analysis to examine the delivery efficiency gap between in-house and crowdsourced deliverymen and the determinants of this efficiency gap.

The findings of this study reveal that crowdsourced deliverymen exhibit higher delivery efficiency, in terms of a shorter delivery time, than in-house deliverymen. In addition, the authors find that platforms providing monetary incentives or implementing late delivery penalties enlarge this efficiency gap. Furthermore, the authors show that external factors, such as working on weekends and bad weather conditions, contribute to the narrowing of this performance efficiency.

The study's findings suggest that platforms should use advanced technologies facilitated by Industry 4.0 to optimize their personnel configuration to enhance their delivery efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. The effective approaches include using financial incentives and improving working schedules.

The authors' findings contribute to the online fulfillment literature by focusing on delivery efficiency in the O2O context from the Industry 4.0 technology-facilitated personnel configuration perspective. The authors examine how internal and external factors moderate the performance efficiency between these two types of deliverymen.

Current online business development redistributes last-mile logistics (LML) from consumer to retailer and producer. This paper identifies how empirical LML research has used and defined logistic performance measures for key grocery industry actors. Using a multi-actor perspective on logistic performance, the authors discuss coordination issues important for optimising LML at system level.

A semi-systematic literature review of 85 publications was conducted to analyse performance measurements used for effectiveness and efficiency, and for which actors.

Few empirical LML studies exist examining coordination between key actors or on system level. Most studies focus on logistic performance measurements for retailers and/or consumers, not producers. Key goals and resource utilisations lack research, including all key actors and system-level coordination.

Current LML performance research implies a risk for sub-optimisation. Through expanding on efficiency and effectiveness interplay at system level and introducing new research perspectives, the review highlights the need to revaluate single-actor, single-measurement studies.

No established scientific guidelines exist for solving LML optimisation in the grocery industry. For managers, it is important to thoroughly consider efficiency and effectiveness in LML execution, coordination and collaboration among key actors, avoiding sub-optimisations for business and sustainability.

The study contributes to current knowledge by reviewing empirical research on LML performance in the grocery sector, showing how previous research disregards the importance of multiple actors and coordination of actors, efficiency and effectiveness.

Jarsh Safety received an order of 500 units of its Model S helmet. However, the order must be delivered within 15 days. Jarsh Safety was founded by three engineering college peers, who conceptualized air-conditioned, industrial safety helmets. This innovative revolutionary product offered industrial workers not only safety but aesthetics and comfort. The founders hoped that the product could change the perception of safety helmets from mandatory wear to desired wear. The case details the production process, staffing, raw material required and procurement lead time.

The paper presents an exploratory study to investigate the impact of B2e MI applications and, in particular, an empirical analysis of the main features of Italian B2e MI applications for automating sales‐ and field‐force activities.

The study has been carried out with 16 case studies of B2e MI applications employed in different Italian companies.

The paper describes the main features and impacts of the applications, showing how the network is utilized, how the device and the usage mode (online or offline) affect these applications and indicating the major opportunities for improvement.

Some indications for management regarding B2e mobile applications are the need: to develop simple applications; and to start mobilizing the sales‐force, because this provides faster pay‐back and easiest implementation.

The paper provides material to illustrate the current situation and serve as a starting point for scientific analysis. Findings regarding the use of mobile phones and mobile networks as compared to fixed‐line solutions are presented and explained. Differences in the use patterns of the applications are also discussed with real case examples.

The purpose of this paper is to focuss on customer driven supply chains and what this means for the management of freight transport, a key process in the supply chain as it acts as a physical link between customers and suppliers. It aims to assess whether some of the new collaborative models for transport management are delivering better optimised solutions.

The paper is based on a multi‐dimensional methodological approach, which includes empirical, model building, opinion and archival evidence. Much of the thinking and findings in this paper have been derived from a series of quasi‐delphi discussion sessions with logistics industry experts from three sectors, steel, grocery and construction and experienced academics in the fields of logistics and supply chain management.

The paper sets out to argue that new innovative solutions are emerging for better transport optimisation, that exploit the competitive power of collaboration, both vertically with supply chain partners and horizontally with other logistics service providers (LSPs).

The research was largely focused on the road freight transport industry in the UK and Europe. However, it is felt that similar thinking can be deployed in other settings for alternative transport modes and other geographical regions. From an academic perspective the paper contributes to the notion that supply chain management as well as focussing on vertical coordination and process integration also needs to incorporate the potential considerable power of horizontal collaboration.

In particular it is original in that it highlights how important it is to combine vertical collaboration with horizontal collaboration if better optimised transport solutions are to be achieved. This is of considerable value and interest both to practitioner and academic communities.