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The construction industry shows an increased interest in how to manage logistics within construction projects. Often construction logistics is outsourced to a logistics service provider (LSP). However, construction logistics is normally approached either as a strategic decision or as an operational issue and rarely as a tactical concern. The purpose of this study is to explore how to organize the logistics outsourcing decision at strategic, tactical and operational levels.

This study is performed as a single-case study within a construction corporation, containing (amongst others) a building contractor (BC) and a construction equipment rental company (CERC) offering logistics services.

The study shows that to procure construction logistics service successfully, BCs need logistics capabilities at strategic and tactical levels to maintain an alignment between the use of logistics services and operational characteristics. Simultaneously, CERC’s need to design their service offerings to correspond to the needs of the BC.

This study builds on a single-case study of a Swedish construction corporation. Further research is needed to better understand current logistics outsourcing and development practices and how these can be improved to foster better logistics management at the project level.

BCs find suggestions of different logistics organization structures and suitable outsourcing arrangements. CERCs and LSPs can use the findings to understand their customers’ needs and adapt service offerings.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first studies of how two companies within a corporation can work together to develop construction logistics service offerings.

The aim of this research is to underscore the pivotal role of warehouse management in the current turbulent global landscape exacerbated by the confluence of a health crisis and geopolitical instability in Europe. In today's interconnected global economy, the turbulence of the global supply chain causes a lack of its resilience among companies. Facing this critical crisis context, companies are refocusing on business processes and outsourcing support processes such as logistics. In this paper we have empirical and methodological objectives. Methodologically, we employ a qualitative research approach utilizing action research in a collaborative framework that involves academics and practitioners. The purpose of this methodology is to empirically investigate warehouse outsourcing as a solution for enhancing a company's performance and agility within the crisis context.

The authors’ action research based on case study approach is conducted through an immersion within the ALCL French multinational company located in Morocco. The authors mobilize the theory of constraints, which allows us to set up a process of identification and optimization of managerial constraints (Goldratt, 1990). The approach allows to set up a retroactive loop to increase the performance of the constraint.

The study shows that ALCL has a storage over-dimension constraint due to the decrease of physical flows caused by the global crisis. The results of action research protocol show that the optimization of warehousing constraint is achieved by the total outsourcing of the process.

The study provides new insights into how action research can improve management practices within companies and explore concrete solutions to the logistical challenges faced by businesses.

The purpose of this study is to examine the benefits and challenges of using logistics service providers (LSPs) for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large corporations.

This study uses the focus group interview method with eight LSP companies of varying sizes in the UAE. The aim is to obtain detailed insights into the advantages and obstacles associated with using LSPs.

The interview results reveal differences in the services and payment options offered by large and small-medium-sized LSPs, leading to varying impacts on SMEs. Additionally, both large and small-medium-sized LSPs encounter challenges in delivering services to SMEs, including sustaining logistic excellence in a competitive market, meeting the high customer expectations from SMEs and large enterprises, difficulty in recruiting skilled and competent employees and high costs of business technology.

This study is limited to the UAE context and the perspectives of eight LSP companies. The findings may not be generalizable to other regions or industries.

The findings of this research provide valuable insights for SMEs and large corporations considering the use of LSPs. Understanding the benefits and challenges associated with outsourcing logistics services can assist in making informed decisions and developing effective collaborations with LSPs.

This research contributes to the existing literature by specifically examining the benefits and challenges of using LSPs for SMEs and large corporations. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the factors that influence logistics outsourcing decisions and highlights the unique challenges faced by LSPs and SMEs in the context of the UAE.

This study aims to study the moderating effects of private ownership and government support on the relationship between outsourcing and product innovation in entrepreneurial ventures in a transition economy.

The data of 10,296 Vietnamese entrepreneurial ventures from the four rounds of the survey conducted by the General Statistics Office (GSO) of Vietnam to investigate the moderating effects of private ownership and government support on the association between outsourcing and entrepreneurial ventures’ product innovation performance. The Probit regression model is employed to estimate such associations.

Our research uncovered that the impact of outsourcing on the likelihood of product innovation is more significant for entrepreneurial operations characterized by a substantial degree of private ownership and government backing as opposed to those without.

The results of our research indicated that the resource-based perspective and extended resource-based view (ERBV) are essential in examining the impact of gaining resources or skills from external sources on the growth of entrepreneurial enterprises. These ideas have significance and importance not just in industrialized economies but also in countries undergoing transition. Our findings suggest that entrepreneurial enterprises should have the ability to manage a wide range of resources and make decisions about which activities should be handled internally and which should be delegated to other parties.

Our findings also imply that entrepreneurial ventures should be able to control many resources and choose which tasks should be performed in-house and which should be outsourced to third parties.

By adopting and leveraging the resource-based view (RBV) and extended resource-based views (ERBV), our study developed a theoretical model about private ownership and government support for moderate outsourcing’s impact on entrepreneurial innovation in a transition economy.

This study identifies and characterizes configurations of generic business models for logistics service providers (LSPs) in the context of industrial additive manufacturing (AM). A literature-based framework of the AM service supply chain (SC) is developed to embed the generic configurations in their SC context.

Following an exploratory research design, 17 interviews were conducted with LSPs, LSPs' potential partners and customers for industrial AM services.

Six generic configurations are identified, the LSP as a Manufacturer, Landlord, Logistician, Connector, Agent and Consultant. The authors outline how these configurations differ in the required locations, partners and targeted customer segments.

The current discussion of reshoring and shorter, decentralized AM SCs confronts LSPs with novel challenges. This study offers guidance for managers of LSPs for designing business models for industrial AM and raises awareness for LSPs' resource and SC implications.

This study contributes to the scarce literature on AM business models for LSPs with in-depth empirical insights. Based on the six identified configurations, this study sets the ground for theorizing about the business models, in particular, the value creation, value proposition and mechanisms for value capture of the business models. In addition, this study suggests how the generic configurations fit the features of specific types of LSPs.

The ecosystem concept has attracted attention in information system research to explain business competition, innovation and many other emerging phenomena. Existing studies focus more on a single ecosystem type or a single ecosystem goal and pay little attention to the ecosystem’s evolution. The objective of the study is to investigate the factors that impact the evolution of the information ecosystem (IE) to gain a better understanding of strategic thinking.

The IE involves many actors, so the multi-case study approach is conducted with purposeful sampling to recruit all the significant ecosystem actors. The collected qualitative data are analyzed by coding data, exploring data relationships and structuring pattern steps; institutional theory is used as a theoretical framework.

The results demonstrate that industry practices, laws and regulations, new actors and the mimetic pressure of outsourcers drive the growth of the ecosystem. Strategy intention, cost pressure and normative pressure all contribute to the IE’s evolution.

The concept of ecosystems has attracted attention in information system research. The study investigates the factors contributing to the evolution of the IE from an institutional theory perspective. Our suggestion is that new players can find a niche in offering information technology (IT)/ information services (IS)-related solutions to survive in the ecosystem; however, they need to pay attention to the normative pressure.

To co-create value through dynamic collaborations, enterprises and their suppliers need to orchestrate the integration of complementary resources when providing business services. As such enterprises' strategic decision to apply a plural sourcing strategy to establish dynamic collaborations with their suppliers implies that both in-house and outsourced business services should be bundled into a business services portfolio. However, the antecedents that affect a business services portfolio have rarely conceptually been identified.

Drawing on resource orchestration theory, the authors theoretically developed and empirically validated a business services portfolio conceptual model. The model aims at explaining the critical antecedents to a business services portfolio based on a unique data set, comprising 121 international enterprises with variation in the degree of outsourcing, size, geographies and maturity. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to examine the relationships among the antecedents and a business services portfolio.

The findings show that the antecedent, i.e. plural sourcing strategy, modularised business processes and customer orientation have a direct and significant effect on the enterprises' business services portfolio orchestration. The results of the mediation test indicate that modularised business processes fully mediate the relationships between three independent variables with the orchestration of business services portfolio.

This study is the first to analyse the impact of plural sourcing strategy, modularised business processes and customer orientation on the business services portfolio orchestration from a plural sourcing context. Additionally, it examines the mediating role of modularised business processes in the relationship between the antecedents and business services portfolio orchestration.

An increase in outsourcing of consultancy services has been observed during procurement and delivery of public-sector infrastructure projects. However, the incidence of project failure has continued unabated despite this shift by public-sector entities. Also, there appears to be limited literature focussed on seeking to provide the rationale governing the decision to outsource or insource consultancy services by public-sector organisations. The purpose of this study was to appraise the performance of public-sector projects in which consultancy services have been outsourced or insourced. These are the gaps which this study was undertaken to fill.

A grounded theory methodology (GTM) research design was adopted based on the nature of evidence sought and gathered from a Provincial Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (PDPWI) in South Africa. Data was obtained from a mixture of semi-structured interviews and project-specific documents spanning a five-year period and was analysed according to the procedures associated with GTM. Accordingly, open coding, axial coding and pattern matching were carried out at several intervals to develop categories and themes.

The findings of the study showed the absence of a structured approach within the PDPWI for facilitating decisions pertaining to outsourcing or insourcing consultancy services within construction projects. Furthermore, the study established that both approaches yielded similar results across all performance facets of cost, time and quality. In addition, a detailed insight into the steps required for the successful application of GTM in built environment research has been provided in the study.

Limited studies have been undertaken to compare the impact of either outsourced or insourced services on the organisational and project performance. This was the gap to which the study reported in this paper was undertaken to contribute.

3D printing has been warmly welcomed by clothing enterprises for its customization capacity in recent years. However, such clothing enterprises have to face the digital transformation challenges brought by 3D printing. Since the business model is a competitive weapon for modern enterprises, there is a research gap between business model innovation and digital transformation challenges for 3D-printing garment enterprises. The aim of the paper is to innovate a new business model for 3D-printing garment enterprises in digital transformation.

A business model innovation canvas (BMIC), a new method for business model innovation, is used to innovate a new 3D-printing clothing enterprises business model in the context of digital transformation. The business model canvas (BMC) method is adopted to illustrate the new business model. The business model ecosystem is used to design the operating architecture and mechanism of the new business model.

First, 3D-printing clothing enterprises are facing digital transformation, and they urgently need to innovate new business models. Second, mass customization and distributed manufacturing are important ways of solving the business model problems faced by 3D-printing clothing enterprises in the process of digital transformation. Third, BMIC has proven to be an effective tool for business model innovation.

The new mass deep customization-distributed manufacturing (MDC-DM) business model is universal. As such, it can provide an important theoretical reference for other scholars to study similar problems. The digital transformation background is taken into account in the process of business model innovation. Therefore, this is the first hybrid research that has been focused on 3D printing, garment enterprises, digital transformation and business model innovation. On the other hand, business model innovation is a type of exploratory research, which means that the MDC-DM business model’s application effect cannot be immediately observed and requires further verification in the future.

The new business model MDC-DM is not only applicable to 3D-printing garment enterprises but also to some other enterprises that are either using or will use 3D printing to enhance their core competitiveness.

A new business model, MDC-DM, is created through BMIC, which allows 3D-printing garment enterprises to meet the challenges of digital transformation. In addition, the original canvas of the MDC-DM business model is designed using BMC. Moreover, the ecosystem of the MDC-DM business model is constructed, and its operation mechanisms are comprehensively designed.

This paper aims to explore the conditions in a business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) context characterized by new technologies. Innovations enhance disintermediation and pursue sustainability goals that drive customers’ willingness to use eco-friendly delivery options, namely, parcel lockers – in e-commerce and their impacts in terms of communication and transparency along the supply network.

The study conducted an extensive survey in Italy and Germany, collecting 1,010 usable responses. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data with the aim of identifying the factors that drive customers’ willingness to use parcel lockers and the effect on customers’ behaviour as determined by the disclosure of information about the environmental performance of different delivery options.

The results highlight several factors affecting the willingness to use parcel lockers, namely, performance and effort expectancy, social influence, technology anxiety, hedonistic motivation and environmental knowledge. The results also demonstrate that the disclosure of information about the environmental performance of different delivery options influences customers’ behaviour.

This paper faces several limitations, mostly related to the focus on just two countries, the use of cross-sectional data and the survey’s explicit reference to just one type of product. Nevertheless, the findings contribute to the discussion on the relevance of information sharing along the supply chain, providing favourable evidence in this regard. It also improves the stream of research concerning technology adoption in the context of e-commerce, highlighting factors that can lead consumers to use eco-friendly self-service technologies.

The results can support companies in understanding how they can design and manage the last mile of delivery to jointly achieve customer satisfaction, process efficiency and superior environmental performance.

This pioneering contribution studies the adoption of delivery solutions for e-commerce and its implications for the supply network.