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The purpose of this paper is to argue for the role of the blockchain, i.e., distributed ledger technology, in building innovative business models, including machine money, autonomous economic agents and decentralised organisations.

The paper is conceptual/argumentative. As such, it draws on research on (e-)commerce, theories of markets, disruptive innovation and extant studies and conceptual work at the intersection of cryptocurrencies, machine-to-machine commerce and the Internet of Things.

The authors highlight three application areas for blockchains, whereby they can function as applications, can help develop autonomous economic agents and can lead the development of decentralised autonomous organisations. With regards to the question of market disintermediation, the authors suggest that, rather than complete disintermediation, the most probable scenario is that of new types of intermediaries finding previously unthinkable roles to play in mediating blockchain-based economic transactions. With regards to the inhibitors that slow down the technology’s adoption and, therefore, the development of new business applications, the authors posit that these relate mainly to the inherent risk of the technology, infrastructure requirements, scepticism of early decision makers and the lack of required new skills and competencies.

The authors examine how new forms of digital money and technologies embedding trust in decentralised networks will alter markets and commerce, at a time when many regulatory issues remain unresolved; in doing so, the authors focus on how blockchain-enabled technologies can be used to enable and further develop decentralised trusted peer-to-peer transaction ledger systems and applications and lead to sustainable business models.

The purpose of this paper is to classify research on information and communication technology (ICT) for logistics and freight transportation on the basis of the main themes and methods and proposes directions for future research.

The review is based on 44 papers published from 1994 to 2009 in international peer‐reviewed journals. The academic papers are analysed and classified according to the research methodology adopted and the themes addressed.

While there are many contributions taking the “public transportation” perspective (i.e. the viewpoint of public stakeholders), papers focussing on the “private transportation” perspective (i.e. the viewpoint of the private companies offering logistics and transportation services) are fewer and relatively more recent. Additionally, even though in recent years researchers have also started to examine the decision‐making process of ICT adoption, many themes are under‐represented in literature, such as the subject of integration among different application types, empirical research on ICT adoption and the role of technology providers in the adoption process. As far as the methodology is concerned, the review revealed that many of the papers examined are either conceptual papers or empirical studies (i.e. mostly based on surveys, or else on case studies or interviews), while simulation and modelling are rarely present.

While efforts were made to be all‐inclusive, significant research efforts may have been inadvertently omitted. However, the authors believe that this review is an accurate representation of the body of research on ICT for logistics and transportation companies published during the specified timeframe, and feel that confidence may be placed on the resulting assessments.

The paper offers a guide for the review of previous research on this topic and identifies the most important issues that need to be addressed in future research.

This paper reviews the changing nature of construction design and the potential for e‐procurement to respond to these changes. With the emphasis shifting from supply‐driven to demand‐driven product design the trading relationships within the industry must become more complex. This paper hypothesizes an electronic market in design and supply capability to exploit distributed design knowledge within the supply chain. In their current form, e‐commerce and brokering systems are too immature to support such relationships, but many elements of a technical solution are available. However, how they will reshape working practices is uncertain and this poses architectural and human organization problems for information systems (IS) developers. They must anticipate and address changes in working practices across a whole group of industries competing within a complex market place. We postulate a development approach that uses simulation models supported by soft systems methods to explore these process re‐engineering options and human issues. The simulation of new business processes, combined with prototype IS designs, offers a powerful mechanism for evaluating the effects of proposed architectures for “design transactions” in e‐procurement. The open learning that occurs in simulation experiments is also a key element in helping the management of the individual organizations in understanding how to shape their particular contribution to the new collaborative process. A major barrier to enhancing construction industry performance in this way is the defensive nature of existing contracts and lack of trust between parties; we therefore propose the use of COLA process in parallel with the simulation work to engender trust and improved working relationships between the collaborating organizations.

Although the inherent interrelationships between business processes (BP) and the underlying information technology (IT) infrastructure imply that the design of these two organisational facets should be performed in parallel, this does not seem to be the case in practice. For example, simulation is being extensively used in both the BP and IT domains, albeit in a disjointed fashion. In this paper, we investigate the potential of integrating different simulation models to facilitate concurrent engineering of business processes and information technology and to support the process of investment evaluation. Drawing on the findings of an example case, we identify a number of pertinent issues and articulate future research directions towards the integration of simulation usage in the business domain.

The assessment of information systems (IS) benefits is an important practical problem in IS investment appraisal. After briefly reviewing the nature of IS benefits, we argue that an incremental measurement approach can help an organisation obtain quantitative estimates of expected IS impacts on business performance. Such an approach should start from quantifiable benefits directly attributable to the information system and then gradually consider more intangible and indirect effects. We suggest that Business Process Simulation can be an effective technique in applying this approach and we present a methodology that incorporates incremental, iterative business process modelling and simulation into five practical steps. To illustrate this approach, we present a case of measuring the potential improvements in inventory management introduced by electronic data interchange and discuss issues of feasibility and directions for further research and development.

Companies in the freight transportation industry can currently make use of an increasing number of applications based on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to improve the performance of their processes. Although these applications have become more widely used in recent years, there is still little research focussing on the actual adoption rate. The present study aims to fill this gap and provide a broad empirical analysis of the use of ICT‐based applications in the freight transportation industry in Italy.

The analysis uses multiple‐case studies. It is based on semi‐structured interviews with the management of leading Italian companies involved in transportation processes.

The study provides an insight into the current adoption of ICT applications among companies involved in freight transportation activities in Italy. The results point out the most used functions in each application area and the level of integration across these application areas.

The sample of companies examined in this study was selected by expert assessment, and is biased towards companies willing to provide data and share results. However, the findings provide some interesting results on how and where investments in ICT can be suitable for companies in the logistics and transportation industry.

The paper fulfils an identified need for in‐depth case studies focussing on the adoption level and the implementation process of ICT applications in transportation, and it is of interest to researchers and practitioners in the field of logistics and transportation management.

The purpose of this paper is to present a parametric model to assess the impacts of information and communication technology (ICT) applications on company freight transportation processes (i.e. “company” perspective). The aim is to support both internal monitoring procedures and the decision‐making process of ICT adoption, as well as increase managers' awareness of these solutions in improving their business. The model has been applied to inter‐modal terminal processes, which are particularly critical due to the high number of players involved and the need for integrating different modes of transport throughout the whole delivery process.

The present study is part of a broader research on the topic of ICT adoption in the freight transportation industry. Based on the outcome of the previous stages of this research, the impact of ICT applications on inter‐modal processes has been modeled using an activity‐based costing approach. Interviews were conducted with both inter‐modal terminal managers and technology providers to collect the required inputs and validate the model. A case study has been performed to apply the model and a further sensitivity analysis has been carried out.

The application of the model to the examined inter‐modal terminal showed that the most significant “as is” costs are those connected to handling activities. Three different ICT scenarios have been also explored. Based on the company “as is” scenario, the model provides an assessment of how and when a positive return on investment can be achieved. Results proved that the benefits deriving from ICT adoption are considerable and depend on the level of technology adopted.

The paper addresses an identified need in the literature of quantifying the impact of ICT for freight transportation. It is one of the few attempts to model costs and benefits of ICT for freight transportation, taking into account the major factors involved. Additionally, the model can be a valuable support to practitioners in evaluating their investments, as well as monitoring their company current performance.

The creation of a service is enabled by a “strategic‐level” business model (BM), while the implementation or execution of the service is described by “operational‐level” business processes (BPs). In many innovation projects, especially trans‐sector projects, a lack of alignment between the strategic “what to do” and the operational “how to do it” is often a severe obstacle undermining BM viability and feasibility. The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework that identifies the generic horizontal and vertical inter‐organizational and intra‐organizational interaction components to bridge BM with underlying BPs, with the aim of improving the alignment between the two levels.

This conceptual paper identifies a theoretical gap between strategic BM and operational BPs. Building on existing literature the authors synthesize various theoretical concepts to create a generic framework to analyze the theoretical gap.

The proposed conceptual framework is useful in innovation projects, especially in complex scaled‐up trans‐sector innovation projects, where numerous BPs stemming from multiple actors from diverse industries should support a collective BM. This framework can be used as an analytical basis for further research into BM/BP alignment.

There are many BM theories and concepts, and BP ontologies available. The proposed alignment framework can be used to bridge the gap between the BM theories and concepts such as BMO Canvas and BP tools and ontology's (e.g. ARIS, ArchiMate or BPMN).

Through a novel integration of a number of relevant theoretical concepts, a generic conceptual BM/BPs alignment framework is proposed and the practical implications and applications of the proposed framework are presented.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the applicability of blockchain technology in international trade process from a perspective of letter of credit payment.

A blockchain-based re-engineering process is designed by employing the blockchain and its affiliated smart contract technology to harvest the benefits of distributed ledger and distributed business workflow automation.

Comparative analysis and feasibility study were conducted to identify and validate the prospects, in terms of facilitating process flow and enhancing overall trade performance, of the proposed blockchain-based international trade process model.

Traditional trade processes suffer from a great number of issues about intermediaries, information latency and trust, which, in turn, hinder overall process efficiency. The emerging blockchain technology may have potentials to mitigate those issues by revolutionizing business processes across enterprise borders in various industries.

This study contributes to the conceptual design of a blockchain- and smart-contract-based process along with a provision of practical case in business process re-engineering. Further endeavors devoted to blockchain research and application across different sectors are suggested to reach better performance of business process operations.

Despite the common understanding that business model (BM) innovation is of vital importance for securing competitive positioning in the market place, managers still seem to lack appropriate frameworks and tools which can support them in renewing and rejuvenating their company’s existing BM. The purpose of this paper is to develop a structural and comprehensive toolbox of available BM configurations, from which companies can choose, to innovate their BM upon, and to design an appropriate BM innovation framework which can facilitate them in re-designing, selecting, and implementing new BM configuration possibilities.

A structured literature review is conducted to identify all the relevant BM configurations. Then, a value driver analysis is performed to group these BM configurations into appropriate categories. Finally, an ontological classification scheme and a structural and workable process, i.e. a BM innovation framework, are inductively developed.

The paper systematically develops a list of 71 BM configurations and groups them into an ontological classification scheme according to five groups: Value Proposition, Value Segment, Value Configuration, Value Network, and Value Capture. The paper illustrates how the BM innovation framework, enabled by this ontological classification scheme, provides a platform for identifying BM innovation routes for companies, allowing managers to envisage radical, disruptive, and new-to-the-world BM configuration ideas, or apply existing configurations from other industrial settings in what may be deemed new-to-the-industry innovation.

The paper enriches the amount of potential BM configurations available for managers to choose from when innovating their BMs, and extends the analysis to five core BM configuration categories. Moreover, the BM innovation framework suggested highlights the strong relationships among the value drivers, thus presenting the opportunity for managers to assess potential conflicts or synergies between various value drivers, and to align the BM management process as a whole.