المؤلفون: Isaksson, Karin, 1984

المساهمون: Huge-Brodin, Maria, Dr., Björklund, Maria, Dr., Abrahamsson, Mats, Professor, Hellberg, Roland, Dr.

المصدر: Linköping Studies in Management and Economics. Dissertations.

مصطلحات موضوعية: Logistics service providers, new service development, framework, green service offerings, environmental work

الوصف: Environmental impact has increasingly become a “buzzword” and an important topic. This topic has been integrated into the agenda of many companies worldwide, and this dissertation focuses on the transportation and logistics industry. Environmental concerns have gained increased attention among many logistic service providers (LSPs) due to the environmental impact from their operations, and they have been identified of having a significant role in reducing the environmental burden in the supply chain. An environmental approach of the LSPs' business has also been identified as a way to achieve competitive advantage and provide market opportunities where the development and marketing of new products and services associated with green issues are suggested as important aspects for future growth. However, considering the scarcity of research regarding this topic, a study that reveals potential aspects in the development of green service offerings can bridge the knowledge gap and provide opportunities for further research within this field. The purpose of this dissertation is therefore to develop and explain a framework for LSPs’ development of green service offerings. The purpose is addressed by first investigating LSPs' service development from a general perspective in order to, in a second stage, reach a better understanding of the implications when integrating green aspects in LSPs' service development efforts.Theoretically, this dissertation departed from service marketing literature or more specifically new service development (NSD) research. This resulted in a conceptual framework including key dimensions and aspects regarding a company’s NSD efforts and activities. From this foundation, the theoretical framework was developed further based on research regarding LSPs' service development and innovation management. Finally the framework was extended with green logistics literature as well as research regarding LSPs' green development and influences on their service offerings.Empirically, this research is mainly based on qualitative data from an in-depth case study on a large LSP active on the Swedish market. In addition, empirical data from a multiple case study and a questionnaire survey conducted for the Licentiate thesis were used in order to enrich the analysis regarding the LSPs' development of green service offerings. The analysis followed a stepwise approach where literature and empirical data were analysed.One of the main results in this dissertation is the framework for LSPs' new service development, consisting of five dimensions: NSD culture, NSD strategy, NSD process focus, IT use and expertise and NSD knowledge and skills. The NSD framework presents a holistic view of the LSPs’ NSD efforts by revealing different dimensions, their roles and relations to each other as well as the pre-requisites to take into consideration in the development of new services. Thus, the different NSD dimensions should not solely be viewed as isolated dimensions; instead, there is a need for LSPs to have a holistic view and understanding of the NSD activities’ reciprocity.Another main result concerns the adaption of the NSD framework to green service development. The results reveal some pre-requisites relevant for LSPs to consider in their efforts to develop green service offerings and are summarised in the following main dimensions:

• Creating green awareness in the NSD culture – encourage participation regarding green initiatives within the organisation, defining a “common picture” in order to facilitate collaboration efforts and knowledge exchange concerning green expertise. The support from top management was also identified of having an influencing impact. Defining the strategic approach of green service offerings – integrate a green concern in the overall business strategy and to define the strategic role and incentives for developing green service offerings. The results also suggest LSPs to adapt green NSD efforts to different business contexts and market possibilities to match existing resources and skills with customers’ green requirements, and to perform a segmentation of customers’ environmental work and ambitions to increase the understanding of customers’ green attitudes and requirements.
• Create processes and routines to facilitate spreading of green knowledge – highlights the relevance of a process focus for spreading green knowledge both from an external and internal perspective. It involves e.g. adoption of certifications, procedures for environmental calculations and documentation as well as routines to spread and integrate green knowledge among employees as well as identification of customers’ green requirements.
• Improve green internal knowledge and build green collaborations – provide training and education to increase the level of green awareness and knowledge among employees as well as customers and strive for collaboration efforts both internally and externally to utilise each other’s knowledge and resources towards the development of green service offerings.
• Increase transparency of green information both internally and externally – improve green information transparency to build both internal and external trust and increase possibilities to effectively use other actors’ knowledge and resources to develop environmental improvements in the supply chain. Integration of IT expertise and synchronisations of IT systems to facilitate and support environmental work and development of green service offerings.

وصف الملف: electronic

URL الوصول: https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-106783
https://liu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:718842/FULLTEXT01.pdf
https://liu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:718842/COVER01.pdf

المؤلفون: Forslund, Helena, 1964

المساهمون: Abrahamsson, Mats

المصدر: Linköping Studies in Management and Economics. Dissertations.

مصطلحات موضوعية: logistics quality, quality deficiencies, performance management, order fulfillment process, information quality, logistik, kvalitetskontroll, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

الوصف: Measuring logistics quality is related to meeting customer expectations and needs, regardless of what those may be. Both over- and under-performance of logistics quality were found in previous studies. Diverging perceptions of logistics performance between customer and supplier were also fo.und in previous studies. The importance of defining relevant performance metrics was found in performance management theory, where defining is the basis for measurement, analysis and improvement. From quality management theory the idea of working With quality deficiencies was borrowed. Quality deficiencies are a metric supporting a performance management approach. A possible explaining variable for logistics quality deficiencies to study was information quality of order information. The overall research question of this study was "How can logistics quality deficiencies be used as a basis of performance management in the dyadic order fulfillment process and how is information quality related to logistics quality deficiencies? With a positivistic, hypothetic/deductive and quantitative approach the research question was addressed. Survey was chosen as the data generating method. The population to address was the dyadic order fulfillment process between Swedish manufacturing companies with over 100 employees in four industries represented by purchasing managers, and their most important Swedish supplier, represented by the purchasing manager's contact person. 136 dyads were captured which corresponded to a response rate of 36%.Four types of logistics quality deficiencies (LQDs) were found. External performance LQDs were found on all nine studied dimensions (promised lead time, on-time delivery, rush orders when needed, promised inventory availability, undamaged deliveries, accurate orders, accurate invoices, availability of delay information and convenient order placement procedures) of logistics quality. Inter-organizational interpretation LQDs were found to exist on six out of nine dimensions. This gap was however positive in suppliers over-target customers' expected logistics quality. Internal performance LQDs were found on all nine dimensions. Inter-organizational perception LQDs were found on all nine dimensions. Suppliers rate their performance higher than customers do. Information quality in the dyadic order fulfillment process was assessed for order and forecast information. Information quality deficiencies (IQDs) were found for both order and forecast information. Inter-organizational perception IQDs were found. The impact of information quality on internal performance LQDs was also studied. Some impact of information quality on internal performance LQDs was altogether found.The dyadic research perspective applied is a valuable expansion of the commonly used logistics methodology. To logistics performance measurement theory, a new approach for process-based logistics performance measurement was shown. The study has stressed the importance of collaborative definition of relevant performance metrics in the dyad, as a basis for performance management. Together with scales for measuring deficiency types, descriptive contributions were made. By studying the impact of information quality, also explanative contribution was given. Quality management theory was expanded by showing a new application for quality deficiencies. Practical contribution is a new awareness of the mechanisms in the order fulfillment process, together with an understanding of the state of communication in important dyads. This could be the foundation for practical logistics performance measurement applications were better metrics could avoid diverging perceptions and better synchronize measurement systems and targets.

وصف الملف: print

URL الوصول: https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-24188