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Increasing personnel costs and labour shortages have pushed retailers to give increasing attention to their intralogistics operations. We study hybrid order picking systems, in which humans and robots share work time, workspace and objectives and are in permanent contact. This necessitates a collaboration of humans and their mechanical coworkers (cobots).

Through a longitudinal case study on individual-level technology adaption, we accompanied a pilot testing of an industrial truck that automatically follows order pickers in their travel direction. Grounded on empirical field research and a unique large-scale data set comprising N = 2,086,260 storage location visits, where N = 57,239 storage location visits were performed in a hybrid setting and N = 2,029,021 in a manual setting, we applied a multilevel model to estimate the impact of this cobot settings on task performance.

We show that cobot settings can reduce the time required for picking tasks by as much as 33.57%. Furthermore, practical factors such as product weight, pick density and travel distance mitigate this effect, suggesting that cobots are especially beneficial for short-distance orders.

Given that the literature on hybrid order picking systems has primarily applied simulation approaches, the study is among the first to provide empirical evidence from a real-world setting. The results are discussed from the perspective of Industry 5.0 and can prevent managers from making investment decisions into ineffective robotic technology.

This research investigates how to optimize storage location assignment to decrease the order picking time and the waiting time of orders in the staging area of low-temperature logistics centers, with the goal of reducing food loss caused by temperature abuse.

The authors applied ABC clustering to the products in a simulated database of historical orders modeled after the actual order pattern of a large cold logistics company; then, the authors mined the association rules and calculated the sales volume correlation indices of the ordered products. Finally, the authors generated three different simulated order databases to compare order picking time and waiting time of orders in the staging area under eight different storage location assignment strategies.

All the eight proposed storage location assignment strategies significantly improve the order picking time (by up to 8%) and the waiting time of orders in the staging area (by up to 22%) compared with random placement.

The results of this research are based on a case study and simulated data, which implies that, if the best performing strategies are applied to different environments, the extent of the improvements may vary. Additionally, the authors only considered specific settings in terms of order picker routing, zoning and batching: other settings may lead to different results.

A storage location assignment strategy that adopts dispersion and takes into consideration ABC clustering and shipping frequency provides the best performance in minimizing order picker's travel distance, order picking time, and waiting time of orders in the staging area. Other strategies may be a better fit if the company's objectives differ.

Previous research on optimal storage location assignment rarely considered item association rules based on sales volume correlation. This study combines such rules with several storage planning strategies, ABC clustering, and two warehouse layouts; then, it evaluates their performance compared to the random placement, to find which one minimizes the order picking time and the order waiting time in the staging area, with a 30-min time limit to preserve the integrity of the cold chain. Order picking under these conditions was rarely studied before, because they may be irrelevant when dealing with temperature-insensitive items but become critical in cold warehouses to prevent temperature abuse.

This paper aims to identify why warehouses do or do not succeed in putting to use digital technologies for order picking.

Building on structuration theory, the authors investigate the situated use of one such a digital technology, more particularly the head-worn display (HWD). Based on a most-similar comparative case study of two Belgian warehouses pioneering HWDs, the authors focus on whether and how order pickers and their manager interact to modify the properties, functionalities, and the context in which the HWD is used.

In one warehouse, using the HWD was discontinued after implementation. In the other, order pickers and the order pickers' manager succeeded in implementing the HWD into their work. The authors find that the prime explanation for these opposite findings lies in the extent to which order pickers were given room to improve the properties and functionalities of the HWD as well as the conditions that unfold in the HWD's use context. In the latter warehouse, pressing issues were overcome and improvement suggestions were implemented, both regarding the HWD itself as well as regarding the job-related and person-related conditions.

Theoretically, the authors contribute to the situated use of technology stating that (1) giving room to alter the use of digital technologies, and (2) fostering continuous employee participation regarding conditions stemming from the use context are necessary to realize the promising and unexploited potential of digital technology in practice. Empirically, this paper exposes distinct types of interactions that explain whether and how digital technologies, in particular HWDs, are put to use for order picking practices.

Information infrastructures can enable or constrain how companies pursue their visions of sustainability reporting and help address the urgent need to understand how corporate activity affects sustainability outcomes and how socio-ecological challenges affect corporate activity. The paper examines the relationship between sustainability reporting information infrastructures and sustainability reporting practice.

The paper mobilises a socio-technical perspective and the conception of infrastructure, the socio-technical arrangement of technical artifacts and social routines, to engage with a qualitative dataset comprised of interview and documentary evidence on the development and construction of sustainability reporting information.

The results detail how sustainability reporting information infrastructures are used by companies and depict the difficulties faced in generating reliable sustainability data. The findings illustrate the challenges and measures undertaken by entities to embed automation and integration, and to enhance sustainability data quality. The findings provide insight into how infrastructures constrain and support sustainability reporting practices.

The paper explains how infrastructures shape sustainability reporting practices, and how infrastructures are shaped by regulatory demands and costs. Companies have developed “uneven” infrastructures supporting legislative requirements, whilst infrastructures supporting non-legislative sustainability reporting remain underdeveloped. Consequently, infrastructures supporting specific legislation have developed along unitary pathways and are often poorly integrated with infrastructures supporting other sustainability reporting areas. Infrastructures developed around legislative requirements are not necessarily constrained by financial reporting norms and do not preclude specific sustainability reporting visions. On the contrary, due to regulation, infrastructure supporting disclosures that offer an “inside out” perspective on sustainability reporting is often comparatively well developed.

Literature reviews help summarize the field of a research area and identify gaps to be addressed as part of a future research agenda. Many types of literature reviews can be undertaken, including narrative literature reviews, scoping literature reviews, integrative literature reviews, and systematic literature reviews. While every researcher has undertaken some form of narrative literature review, the more advanced types of literature reviews require careful planning and following well-established protocols. This chapter discusses the various types of literature reviews, with an emphasis on the systematic literature review. It details the steps required in conducting a systematic literature review and provides some practical tips to enhance the quality of such studies and their contribution to the research field.

This chapter draws upon our experiences of using materials in research interviews. We build on the work of Woodward (2016, 2020) by reflexively exploring how our use of material objects; in this case, Lego enabled both participants and researchers to connect more fully with the entrepreneurial phenomena under investigation (Williams et al., 2021). In doing so, we unpack how our use of objects reveals the research interview as a more complex phenomenon than is typically represented (Gubrium et al., 2012).

Demonstrate proof-of-concept for conducting NFL Draft trades on a blockchain network using smart contracts.

Using Ethereum smart contracts, the authors model several types of draft trades between teams. An example scenario is used to demonstrate contract interaction and draft results.

The authors show the feasibility of conducting draft-day trades using smart contracts. The entire negotiation process, including side deals, can be conducted digitally.

Further work is required to incorporate the full-scale depth required to integrate the draft trading process into a decentralized user platform and experience.

Cutting time for the trade negotiation process buys decision time for team decision-makers. Gains are also made with accuracy and cost.

Full-scale adoption may find resistance due to the level of fan involvement; the draft has evolved into an interactive experience for both fans and teams.

This research demonstrates the new application of smart contracts in the inter-section of sports management and blockchain technology.

This study considers the potential of logistics 4.0 for supply chain (SC) optimization in French retail. The authors investigate the implementation of Industry 4.0 technologies to optimize SC performance in the retail sector and SC's role in the digital transformation in supply chain management (SCM).

The authors first carry out a comprehensive bibliographic taxonomy to highlight the different existing digital tools. Based on this, the authors posed three research questions (RQs) and hypotheses to examine the contribution of logistics 4.0 in improving the performance of retail logistics. Then, the authors considered a case study of retail in France based on qualitative and quantitative analysis to answer all the RQs and examine the hypotheses.

The results showed that digital tools such as Cyber Security Systems (CSS), Big Data Analytics (BDA) and Blockchain (BC) technology are the most effective and appropriate tools to optimize the SC performance in retail.

This research work showed that the implementation of these tools in retail can offer several benefits such as improved productivity, optimized delivery times, improved inventory management and secure real-time communication, which leads to improved profitability of the SC.

The study opens a door to develop practical roadmaps for companies that enable smart deliveries based on logistics 4.0.

Informal conversational encounters are explored using free indirect discourse (FID) as a novel storytelling method to gain a multi-generational understanding of the experiences of women working in public relations (PR) in 1960s/1970s Britain.

Echoing a literary tradition, anonymised transcripts of recordings provide impressionist accounts that immerse the reader in the thoughts and feelings of novelistic characters. An informal network of women narrate their stories with a much younger listener enabling exploration of intergenerational relationships and the intersection of gender and age.

This unstructured approach develops a complex yet natural flow to create unique withness-understandings. The author/narrator introduces a conception of informal conversational encounters, supporting an organic approach of interweaving storying, everyday performance, situated accountings, narrative unfoldings and inside/outside points of view.

An interplay of multiple female voices reveals a degree of symmetry in fractal patterns of women's early career experiences over the duration of a generation. Facilitation of sense-making through intergenerational conversations connects with Mannheim's theory of generational unity.

Women's beginnings of PR careers in 1960s/1970s Britain demonstrate a liberal feminist perspective in taking responsibility for their careers and enjoyment beyond the workplace in a man's world.

This article analyzes the relationships between different conceptions of time, socioeconomic development and cultural values.

We focus on three major aspects of time, namely, 1) duration, 2) orientation and 3) tempo. Furthermore, we draw on modernization theory to distinguish between agrarian/traditional and industrial/modern societies and their respective cultural values.

Analyses indicate that agrarian/traditional societies with cultural values such as collectivism, survival, religiosity and hierarchical structures are marked by subjective/cyclical/inaccurate, past-oriented and slow-paced conceptions of time. In contrast, industrial/modern societies with cultural values such as individualism, self-expression, secularism and egalitarianism are marked by objective/linear/accurate, future-oriented and accelerated conceptions of time.

This paper introduces an original conceptualization of the three dimensions of time – duration, orientation and tempo – previously overlooked in the literature. Additionally, it provides an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of the relationships between time, culture and socioeconomic development.