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Internet + and Electronic Business in China is a comprehensive resource that provides insight and analysis into E-commerce in China and how it has revolutionized and continues to revolutionize business and society. Split into four distinct sections, the book first lays out the theoretical foundations and fundamental concepts of E-Business before moving on to look at internet+ innovation models and their applications in different industries such as agriculture, finance and commerce. The book then provides a comprehensive analysis of E-business platforms and their applications in China before finishing with four comprehensive case studies of major E-business projects, providing readers with successful examples of implementing E-Business entrepreneurship projects.

Internet + and Electronic Business in China is a comprehensive resource that provides insights and analysis into how E-commerce has revolutionized and continues to revolutionize business and society in China.

Despite a hangover from the worldwide economic crisis, international trade rebounded nicely with a record-level growth in late 2010. A sharp rise in international trade has sparked the international traffic growth. A majority of this traffic growth originated from maritime logistics which could move cargoes in large volume and at cheaper freight costs. Due to its cost-efficiency and easy access, maritime logistics typically accounts for more than half of the worldwide freight volume. However, maritime logistics poses a greater supply chain risk, since ocean carriers used for maritime logistics are more vulnerable to unpredictable weather conditions, piracy attacks, terrorist hijacking, and cargo damages on the open sea than any other modes of transportation. Also, given the vast areas that maritime logistics covers, it is more difficult to protect maritime logistics activities from potential hazards and threats.

To better protect maritime logistics activities from potential security lapses, this chapter introduces and develops a variety of systematic security measures and tools that were successfully used by best-in-class companies and government entities across the world. Also, this chapter proposes a total maritime security management model as a way to formulate maritime risk mitigation strategies. To elaborate, this chapter sheds light on the roots of maritime security measures and tools, the ways that those measures and tools are best utilized, the roles of advanced information technology in maritime security from the global supply chain perspectives, the visualization and identification of potential maritime and its related supply chain risks, and policy guidelines that will help enhance maritime security.

This chapter aimed to uncover the gaps in the existing construction supply chain management (CSCM) models. Organisational culture and the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) components are the two gaps that were identified through reviewing existing CSCM models. The 4IR is driven by three components which are smart management, virtualisation and cyber-physical system. It was proposed in this chapter that the practice of CSCM should be in tandem with the components of 4IR. This chapter recommended that for the effective practice of the construction supply chain (CSC) in the 4IR era, construction stakeholders should adopt an innovative and collaborative organisational culture. The organisational culture adopted by a construction firm performs a crucial role in encouraging construction stakeholders in adopting 4IR components for CSCM. Each of the 4IR components is driven by technologies like autonomous robots, building information modelling (BIM), radio frequency identification (RFID), the internet of things (IoT) and others. Among all the technologies, it was discovered that RFID and BIM had gained prominence in most CSC literature. The chapter recommended that blockchain, digital twins and the cyber-physical system are the next trending technology for CSCM.

Reverse supply chain (RSC) is an extension of the traditional supply chain (TSC) motivated by environmental requirements and economic incentives. TSC management deals with planning, executing, monitoring, and controlling a collection of organizations, activities, resources, people, technology, and information as the materials and products move from manufacturers to the consumers. Except for a short warranty period, TSC excludes most of the responsibilities toward the product beyond the point of sale. However, because of growing environmental awareness and regulations (e.g. product stewardship statute), TSC alone is no longer an adequate industrial practice. New regulations and public awareness have forced manufacturers to take responsibilities of products when they reach their end of lives. This has necessitated the creation of an infrastructure, known as RSC, which includes collection, transportation, and management of end-of-life products (EOLPs). The advantages of implementing RSC include the reduction in the use of virgin resources, the decrease in the materials sent to landfills and the cost savings stemming from the reuse of EOLPs, disassembled components, and recycled materials. TSC and RSC together represent a closed loop of materials flow. The whole system of organizations, activities, resources, people, technology, and information flowing in this closed loop is known as the closed-loop supply chain (CLSC).

In RSC, the management of EOLPs includes cleaning, disassembly, sorting, inspecting, and recovery or disposal. The recovery could take several forms depending on the condition of EOLPs, namely, product recovery (refurbishing, remanufacturing, repairing), component recovery (cannibalization), and material recovery (recycling). However, neither the quality nor the quantity of returning EOLPs is predictable. This unpredictable nature of RSC is what makes its management challenging and necessitates innovative management science solutions to control it.

In this chapter, we address the order-driven component and product recovery (ODCPR) problem for sensor-embedded products (SEPs) in an RSC. SEPs contain sensors and radio-frequency identification tags implanted in them at the time of their production to monitor their critical components throughout their lives. By facilitating data collection during product usage, these embedded sensors enable one to predict product/component failures and estimate the remaining life of components as the products reach their end of lives. In an ODCPR system, EOLPs are either cannibalized or refurbished. Refurbishment activities are carried out to meet the demand for products and may require reusable components. The purpose of cannibalization is to recover a limited number of reusable components for customers and internal use. Internal component demand stems from the component requirements in the refurbishment operation. It is assumed that the customers have specific remaining-life requirements on components and products. Therefore, the problem is to find the optimal subset and sequence of the EOLPs to cannibalize and refurbish so that (1) the remaining-life-based demands are satisfied while making sure that the necessary reusable components are extracted before attempting to refurbish an EOLP and (2) the total system cost is minimized. We show that the problem could be formulated as an integer nonlinear program. We then develop a hybrid genetic algorithm to solve the problem that is shown to provide excellent results. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the methodology.

This multiple case study investigates the impact of technology on organizational change in public libraries. Over the past 12–15 years, public access computers (PACs) have been introduced into public libraries. Once these PACs were connected to the Internet, they attracted patrons who had not previously used public library services. The main themes around which this study was organized relate to the implementation of technology with facilities and services, city government, and people. The main research questions were following: (1) How has public library culture changed since the introduction of computers for patron use? (2) What adjustments were necessary to deal with the influx of computers and other technology in public libraries? (3) Have PACs changed the way the libraries are organized and how they are staffed? The findings of the study included how technology influenced changes in staffing in the public libraries. Each of the libraries has undergone a culture shift due to the introduction of technology. One of the shifts is the change of the reference desk from general reference to the addition of a help desk with reference responsibilities. Another concern of the directors was constantly funding the upgrades necessary for software and hardware that technology requires. As not all of the directors have supportive city government, this can be problematic. Finally, the facilities where the public libraries were housed had undergone changes either through renovations or through new buildings to accommodate technology and the infrastructure needed to support it.

Cross-docking is a supply chain distribution and logistics strategy for which less-than-truckload shipments are consolidated into full-truckload shipments. Goods are stored up to a maximum of 24 hours in a cross-docking terminal. In this chapter, we build on the literature review by Ladier and Alpan (2016), who reviewed cross-docking research and conducted interviews with cross-docking managers to find research gaps and provide recommendations for future research. We conduct a systematic literature review, following the framework by Ladier and Alpan (2016), on cross-docking literature from 2015 up to 2020. We focus on papers that consider the intersection of research and industry, e.g., case studies or studies presenting real-world data. We investigate whether the research has changed according to the recommendations of Ladier and Alpan (2016). Additionally, we examine the adoption of Industry 4.0 practices in cross-docking research, e.g., related to features of the physical internet, the Internet of Things and cyber-physical systems in cross-docking methodologies or case studies. We conclude that only small adaptations have been done based on the recommendations of Ladier and Alpan (2016), but we see growing attention for Industry 4.0 concepts in cross-docking, especially for physical internet hubs.

With the holistic approaches of Industry 4.0, products, services, standards, and application techniques have been improved. This digitalization era has not only impacted the production and service dynamics, but also added advanced dimensions to logistics and supply chain management. According to the current world standards, consumer behavior makes the logistics and supply chain processes more challenging. Especially during the COVID-19 outbreak, logistics and supply chain operations became more crucial for the firms, as most consumers have tended toward online shopping while they are in lockdown. Therefore, the competitive environment today enables firms to adapt the technologies and approaches of Logistics 4.0 and smart/digital supply chain, as they must respond to consumers' demands quickly. Moreover, firms need to have strong relations with their supply chain partners via these technologies. The technologies such as the Internet of Things (IOT), cyber-physical system, Big Data, and cloud computing help to change the fundamentals of logistics and supply chain and improve processes for all industries. This study aims to analyze the transformation of traditional logistics and supply chain activities into Logistics 4.0 and smart/digital supply chain. Primarily, we hope to analyze the existing studies by investigating the concept of Logistics 4.0 within Industry 4.0 dynamics. As firms develop their logistics operations, their supply chain processes will be shaped by the technologies and applications, and this situation also leads us to find out the importance of smart or digital supply chain operations. Discussing the potentials of smart or digital supply chain also lets us to reveal how companies handle their logistics operations during the COVID-19 period.

Food supply chain transparency and traceability is very important to address the issue regarding quality and safety. In traditional tracing system, with increasing the complexity of supply chain making product recalls difficult to manage and putting human lives at risk. To eliminate such types of risks, blockchain technology gives more efficient and reliable system for food tracing. Recently, there is an exponential rise in adoption of blockchain technology and most disparate IOT (Internet of things) devices in agriculture and food supply chain. It is an evolving technology that comforts the food supply chains by providing transparent data records and manage the food movement in the chain using distributed (P2P) network. That is more secured and there's no need for third party verifications. Our focus in this research will be on the Indian wheat supply chain and issues related to food losses caused by a lack of transparency and traceability. In order to improve the transparency of the wheat supply chain, we created an end-to-end smart wheat supply chain solution that combines blockchain technology, NFC tags, IoTs, and smart contracts. The solution is supported by entity relationship diagrams, information and money flow sequence diagrams, and a blockchain network diagram. We also used a security algorithm and the “NFC-Tag writer by NXP” program to validate and assess our system. This work could serve as a springboard for more in-depth research in this area. Depending on the existing situation in the industry, this research can also advise corporate procedures to deploy blockchain-based applications in the supply chain and logistics industry.