Aseem Kinra

Emerging logics of competition : Paradigm shift, fantasy, or reality check?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to elicit the subtle but progressive shift in organizational/institutional interaction with its rivals within a competitive framework, and thereby discusses and analyses paradigm shifts in competition and competitiveness. The paper argues that interorganizational networks and the recent concept of supply chain management may have induced a change in how competitiveness is viewed at the national, industry, and firm levels of interaction.Design/methodology/approach – The paper conceptualizes extant literature into distinct themes of (organizational and institutional) analysis – micro, macro, and meso – and based on this review the paper seeks to identify emerging logics and shifts within mainstream competitiveness literature over the last decade.Findings – The paper suggests that the micro‐macro theme of competition and competitiveness remains dominant in mainstream literature. Results from the analysis also support the notion of emergent logics of competition and comp...

Methodological Demonstration of a Text Analytics Approach to Country Logistics System Assessments

The purpose of this study is to develop and demonstrate a semi-automated text analytics approach for the identification and categorization of information that can be used for country logistics assessments. In this paper, we develop the methodology on a set of documents for 21 countries using machine learning techniques while controlling both for 4 different time periods in the world FDI trends, and the different geographic and economic country affiliations. We report illustrative findings followed by a presentation of the separation of concerns/division of labor between the domain expert and the text analyst. Implications are discussed and future work is outlined.

Big Data Analytics: A Case Study of Public Opinion Towards the Adoption of Driverless Cars

With the growth of textual data and the simultaneous advancements in Text Analytics enabling the exploitation of this huge amount of unstructured data, companies are provided with the opportunity to tap into the previously hidden knowledge. However, how to use this valuable source, still is not unveiled for various domains, such as also for the transportation sector. Accordingly, this research aims at examining the potential of textual data in transportation. For this purpose, a case study was designed on public opinion towards the adoption of driverless cars. This case study was framed together with the Danish road directorate, which is, in this case, the problem owner. Traditionally, public opinion is often captured by means of surveys. However, this paper provides demonstrations in which public opinion towards the adoption of driverless cars is examined through the exploitation of newspaper articles and tweets using topic modelling, document classification and sentiment analysis. These analyses have for instance shown that Text Analytics may be a supplementary tool to surveys, since they may extract additional knowledge which may not be captured through the application of surveys. In this case, the Danish Road Directorate can use these result to supplement their strategies and expectations towards the adoption of driverless cars by incorporating the public’s opinion more carefully.

Big Textual Data in Transportation: An Exploration of Relevant Text Sources

With the emergence of Big Data and growth in Big Data techniques, a huge number of textual information is now utilizable, which may be applied by different stakeholders. Formerly unexplored textual data from internal information assets of organisations, as well as textual data from social media applications have been converting to utilizable and meaningful insights. However, prior to this, the availability of textual sources relevant for logistics and transportation has to be examined. Accordingly, the identification of potential textual sources and their evaluation in terms of extraction barriers in the Danish context has been focussed in this paper.

How Blockchain Could Be Implemented for Exchanging Documentation in the Shipping Industry

The purpose of this study is to investigate the conditions under which blockchain technology can be adopted and the design criteria that are needed for exchanging shipping documentation in containerized shipping. To alleviate the impact of current documentation exchange mechanisms on supply chain efficiency in the maritime industry, this study aims at presenting guidelines for leveraging blockchain technology as a solution for exchanging documentation in the shipping industry. We conduct semi-structured interviews with representatives from business, IT, and public institutions. This qualitative data is analyzed through a theoretical framework comprising transaction cost economics, diffusion of innovation and design theory. Based on the theoretical model and stakeholder analysis, a set of eight design principles are proposed for the successful implementation of blockchain. These are (1) Immutability, (2) Decentralization, (3) Security, (4) Privacy, (5) Compatibility, (6) Scalability, (7) Inclusiveness and (8) Territoriality. Furthermore, the study investigates four potential approaches for the implementation phase affecting the likelihood of adoption by industry stakeholders. The exploratory approach and generic framework provides the groundwork and inspiration for further research in supply chain management and the emerging field of blockchain technology.

What Hinders the Implementation of the Supply Chain Risk Management Process into Practice Organizations

Supply chain risk management process (SCRMP) is being advanced as a systematic and structured approach for identifying, assessing, mitigating, and monitoring all risks arising from complex supply chains. However, while the literature deems it necessary to implement such a process as the solution to the increasing vulnerability companies face, there is a lack of empirical evidence on whether the process model can be implemented. This paper shows possible hindrances in the implementation of SCRMP for companies with global supply chains based on the findings of an in-depth case study. Our empirical findings indicate that the unavailability of information and lack of proper data management hinders the implementation of SCRMP in the context global supply chains.

Internationalisation within liner shipping: An examination of the sales network structures of shipping lines

Purpose Container shipping is generally considered a global business. This truth may not hold from a single-company perspective. The companies’ physical operation networks show that container carriers operate differently and follow different paths in their internationalisation development. Additionally, the degree of internationalisation, measured on the basis of sea-oriented operations, differs from that measured according to land-oriented front-end marketing and sales activities. The purpose of this study is to further examine the internationalisation patterns of shipping lines. Design/methodology/approach An examination of the front-end activities and the structures of leading container-shipping companies is conducted. The sales office networks of the sector’s 20 largest companies worldwide (by twenty-foot equivalent unit capacity) are analysed as key indicators. The numbers of sales offices are measured by analysing the websites of the sample (20 companies), as well as annual reports and other publicly available data sources. Findings The findings show that not all shipping companies are international, by virtue of the industry. While it is difficult to observe differences in the overall patterns of the sales networks at a macro level, some companies differ in their activities. The data set also shows that market share and total capacity are not necessarily good indicators of a carrier’s worldwide presence. Research limitations/implications This research is based on secondary data. Other important transactional and market-oriented considerations should be examined before drawing conclusions about the internationalisation of container-shipping companies and of the industry. Originality/value This paper contributes to the relevant existing research, particularly by adding its view on the demand-oriented criteria as suggested by Dunning and Lundan (2008).

Macro-institutional Complexity in Logistics: The Case of Eastern Europe

In this paper, the interlink between the concept of macro-institutional complexity in logistics and the dynamics in the logistics practice of Eastern Europe will be examined. Referring to the importance of different authors having ascribed to the external environmental uncertainty on organizational structure and transactional costs, the concept of environmental complexity is applied to the logistics management perspective. Thereby, the impacts which a given framework on a macro-institutional level might have on the situation and leeway in decision-making at the firm (micro) or the supply chain (meso) levels will be analysed. Furthermore, a quantitative modelling approach will be presented and exemplified by using the case of logistics infrastructure in Eastern Europe.

Logistics in the Oresund Region of Scandinavia

Much has been documented about the logistical efficiencies created in the traditional European trade corridors. Those corridors, spanning countries like the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, thereby create an important economic region of its own. This is, however, to the detriment of the informational content of decision making on site selection. It is also to the disadvantage of other important regions that offer unique competitive advantages to foreign firms trying to base their value proposition on location in the sub-continent, especially those regions that have not yet matured in their place-branding initiative. The Oresund region is one such logistics hotspot in Scandinavia, where “Oresund” is the name of the narrow strait between the eastern part of Denmark and Southern Sweden. The two countries have been connected via ferries for centuries, but economic integration activities really took off when the fixed link (bridge and tunnel) was established in 2000. The Oresund region not only performs the important logistical function of connection and coordination between mainland Europe, the Baltic states and some important parts of Central Europe—it also makes a good logistical location for firms that target emerging consumer needs around sustainability, green supply chain management, and macroeconomic competence and stability. This chapter describes the potential offered by the Oresund region by charting its development, documenting those of its main features related to logistics infrastructure and practices, and tracking its performance on all major levels of logistics decision categories.

A framework for geovalent supply chain competitiveness of nations

Motivated by the understanding of competitiveness in interorganizational settings, this paper proposes a framework for the study and measurement of geovalent supply chain competitiveness. Geovalent supply chain competitiveness is understood as the ability of nations to provide support for the management of the total flows associated with goods and the ability to adapt and adjust the related activities to the geovalent conditions, which are all the macro-level external factors impacting supply chain operations like institutional rules, regulations, cultures, exchange rates etc. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is applied to generate a part model for measurement and results of this illustrative application are presented through an index, which ranks the Supply chain competency of the Nordic countries.