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This article aims to understand where industry is in terms of digitalizing their operations, what features of this transformation are essential for practitioners, and what barriers they are facing during their journey. In addition, the authors aim to provide recommendations for organization to start their digital transformation.

Through literature review, the authors summarize the emerging tools and technologies in operations and supply chains to inform the practitioners. Then, the authors use surveys conducted on 183 operations and supply chain professionals, and use statistical tools to examine the association between variables of the data set. The authors present real-life case studies to explain important steps of a digital transformation project.

The survey results indicate that real-time monitoring and data analytics are viewed as the most important and needed tools for organizations. High cost, lack of stakeholder buy-in and lack of successful business use cases are major barriers for companies when starting a digital transformation.

The authors provide recommendations for practitioners based on the survey responses, and outline that starting small, focusing on stakeholder buy-in and implementation of software are the three key steps for a successful transformation journey.

Main contributions of this article are to understand practitioner perspectives in digitalization and provide guidelines for organizations to follow when transforming their operations. This research closes the gap between academic research and practice by collaborating with operations and supply chain professionals.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how start-ups with a clear sustainability focus collaborate with multiple actors at different levels to pursue business ideas and develop sustainable freight transport solutions.

This paper builds on a theoretical approach that includes three levels of analysis: the actor level (micro), business-network level (meso) and society and government level (macro). An embedded case study is used of a focal start-up aiming to innovate on networked platforms and electric and autonomous vehicles (EAVs).

Activities and resources are developed at the firm (micro), network (meso) and societal levels (macro), and all three levels need to be considered for a start-up, with a clear sustainability focus. Interaction within as well as between levels affects the innovation development, integration and implementation. The many-folded collaborations at the meso level serve as a locus for the integration of EAVs. The start-up’s networking activities with actors at meso and macro levels contribute to it gaining legitimacy in the transport system.

This paper focuses on the importance of collaboration in the context of developing innovative solutions for environmental sustainability and freight transport and provides a unique case of how a start-up company manages collaborations at the micro, meso and macro levels.

Mountaineering and related activities are increasingly becoming popular and are accompanied by an increase in medical incidents. Emergency operations in mountainous terrain are time-critical and often pose major logistical challenges for rescuers. Drones are expected to improve the operational performance of mountain rescuers. However, they are not yet widely used in mountain rescue missions. This paper examines the determinants that drive the behavioral intention of mountain rescuers to adopt drones in rescue missions.

This is a behavioral study that builds upon an extended model of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and investigates the relationship between individual attitudes, perceptions, and intentions for drone adoption. Original survey data of 146 mountain rescuers were analyzed using moderated ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis.

Results indicate that the behavioral intention to use drones in mountain rescue missions is driven by the expected performance gains and facilitating conditions. Favorable supporting conditions and experience with drones further moderate the relationship between performance expectancy and behavioral intention. The effects for effort expectancy, social influence, and demonstrations were not significant.

Rescue organizations and stakeholders are recommended to consider the identified determinants in the implementation of drones in emergency logistics. Drone manufacturers targeting mountain rescue organizations are advised to focus on operational performance, provide sufficient support and training, and promote the gathering of practical experience.

A tailored-model that provides first empirical results on the relevance of personal and environmental factors for the acceptance of drones in emergency logistics is presented.

Disruptive technologies in the global logistics industry are often regarded as a threat to the existing business models of incumbents’ companies. Existing research, however, focuses mainly on whether technologies have disruptive potential, thereby neglecting when such disruptive transitions occur. To understand the timing of potential disruptive technological change, this paper aims to investigate the elements of the underlying ecosystem shaping these transitions.

Building on the established ecosystem framework from Adner and Kapoor (2016a), this paper constructs four categories of technology substitution to assess how quickly disruptive change may occur in the global logistics industry and defines key technology substitution determinants in logistics to emphasize the role of ecosystems for further consideration into disruptive innovation theory.

Based on the key determinants, this paper proposes first definitions of distinctive ecosystems elements linked to the three types of innovations, namely, sustaining innovations, low-end disruptions and new-market disruptions, thereby integrating ecosystems into Christensen’s (1997) disruptive innovation theory.

By developing a framework that conceptualizes the pace of technology substitution, this paper contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how logistics managers and academics can better predict disruptive transitions and develop strategies to allocate resources.

This paper investigates how the adoption of additive manufacturing (AM) impacts upstream supply chain (SC) design and considers the influence of drivers and barriers towards the adoption.

Ten case studies investigating AM adoption by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in five industries were conducted. This research is driven by a literature-based framework, and the results are discussed according to the theory of transaction cost economics (TCE).

The case studies reveal four patterns of AM adoption that affect upstream SC design (due to changes in supply base or types of buyer–supplier relationships): make, buy, make and buy and vertical integration. A make or buy decision is based on the level of experience with the technology, on the AM application (rapid manufacturing, prototyping or tooling) and on the need of control over production. Other barriers playing a role in the decision are the high initial investments and the lack of skills and knowledge.

This paper shows how different decisions regarding AM adoption result in different SC designs, with a specific focus on the upstream SC and changes in the supply base. This research is among the first to provide empirical evidence on the impact of AM adoption on upstream SCs and to identify drivers of the make or buy decision when adopting AM through the theoretical lens of TCE.