Strategic Implications of E-logistics

8/3/2019 Strategic Implications of E-logistics

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Strategic Implications of E-logistics

Sindre Bolseth, Department of Production and Quality TechnologyOlav Solem, Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management

Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Trondheim, NORWAY

ABSTRACTBy introducing new ways of combining and integrating actors in the value chain, e-business andInternet are supposed to change business patterns dramatically. A new paradigm of businessstrategic behavior seems to be appearing. In a broad scope the purpose of our paper intends todevelop an understanding of the impact of the e-business and Internet on the logistics and supplychain - the benefits as well as the risks - including impact on supply chain strategy, design,organization design and infrastructure. A relatively wide theoretical and conceptual frame ofreference is presented to be able to describe, analyze and understand the formation of new supplychains and new corporate structures in the era of e-business and web-based communities. Froman empirical point of view we further present a case study of an extensive e-logisticsimplementation project in a larger Norwegian manufacturing company transferring the companyfrom being a brick and mortar to a click and mortar one.

INTRODUCTIONAs an introduction we will briefly describe the development of two of the main concepts in ourpaper: e-business and e-logistics.

Figure 1. The development of Internet applications (Ericsson, 2000)

The development of Internet applications can be divided into three major stages see figure 1.E-presence:

E-presence starts with one-way information about the company, its products and services. TheInternet is primarily used to publish information. Suppliers can deliver product and serviceinformation to customers in a cost efficient way. The next step in the stage of e-presence is tocreate a two-way communication for customers support and for answering question from thecustomers requiring fast answers.E-commerce:

e-presenceInformation;Communication

e-commerceTransactions

e-businessIntegration; Automation

Time

Value

creation


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In the second phase, e-commerce stage, opportunities are opened for transactions. Transactionsare the core elements in commercial activities. A transaction consists of two major parts:transaction creation and transaction fulfillment. In the digital economy transaction creation isdone over the Internet which usually leads to reduced transaction costs. E-commerce can bedivided into two separate areas: B2C and B2B with different e-logistics requirements.

E-business:The third phase, e-business, involves transformation of processes and systems to increaseintegration and automation in order to take advantage of all the possibilities created by theInternet.

The key words of the digital economy can be summarized to contain the following key-words:speed, flexibility, connectivity, interactivity, and intangibles. The advent of this new digitaleconomy has triggered a new type of logistics, which we will denote e-logistics . We will definee-logistics as holistic solutions integrating information- and communication technology (ICT)and logistics in the new strategic landscape opening up. E-logistics can also be seen as thephysical fulfillment of the new transaction possibilities created through e-business. The agile andflexible logistics designed for the digital economy, the e-logistics, can be regarded as the thirdphase in the evolution of logistics, following military and business logistics (Ericsson, 2000).

PURPOSEE-business and Internet are supposed to change business patterns dramatically by introducingnew ways of combining and integrating actors in the value chains and also by automatingbusiness processes crossing earlier organizational and technological barriers.A new paradigm of business strategic behavior seems to be appearing for the new digitaleconomy.In a broad scope the purpose of our work is to develop an understanding of the impact of the e-business and Internet on the logistics and supply chain - the benefits as well as the risks -including impact on supply chain strategy, design, organization design and infrastructure. Wetherefore study the formation of new supply chains and new corporate structures in the era ofelectronic business and web-based communities. Our work includes theoretical as well asempirical studies. The present paper contains some of the results so far.

THEORETICAL PART: FRAME OF REFERENCEThe e-logistics concept is developed in accordance with new rules of playing the business. In thefollowing we intend to outline some of the theoretical background we think we need tounderstand these new rules. We have a broad scope in our theoretical approach. However, due tolimited space available, our treatment will be a survey-type description.

A double perspective approach: transaction and relationship orientations

In a broad scope we intend to develop an understanding of the impact of e-business and Interneton the logistics and supply chain. As our primary theoretical frame of reference we will thereforepresent two central perspectives: a transaction oriented one (Coase, 1937, Williamson, 1985) aswell as a relationship/network theory oriented one (Fathy, 1999, Hkansson and Snehota, 1995).Our arguments for choosing a double perspective approach are among others that we haveobserved that e-business can contribute to tighten the relationships among the actors in the valuechain as well as between the firms and their customers. In turn this will result in more efficient


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material and information flows and a tighter integration in the value chain. Due to this fact thetransaction costs for the different actors can be reduced. In addition e-business and Internet openup possibilities for relationship building which might have a great strategic impact related toproduction of personalized customer adapted products and services.Transaction cost theory (TCT) gives an explanation of the nature of transactions and the possible

savings companies can achieve through strategic use of e-business. TCT has its origin withCoases classical paper The nature of the firm published in 1937, and is basically a way toexplain the costs of doing activities internally versus the cost related to buying the same goods orservices in the market. Like network theory, see next page, transaction costs oppose the neo-classical view, regarding the firm independent of its surroundings. Coase (op. cit.) stated thatthere would be no collaboration in a market with very low transaction costs. The best price andproduct will always be found in the marked. Likewise there would be no collaboration in marketswith extremely high transaction costs. In such markets, the only reasonable actions would be in-house production (Coase, 1952 in Williamson, 1985). The firm will always be able to produce theproduct at lower cost than what is found in the marked. Viewing transaction costs in this waymight help understanding the difference in network structure across different lines of businesses.Making exchanges generate costs. This is the core of TCT and is what distinguishes it from neo-classical economic theory. TCT seeks to explain the organizing of production and trade byexploring the effects of these costs. While there exist a cost of making exchanges there is alsogenerated costs regarded to organizing the internal production. This administration cost seems toincrease with the size of the firm. This phenomenon is called diseconomies of scale.Transaction costs economics employs two basic assumptions about behavior: boundedrationality and opportunism. Further, the basic dimension of transitions relies on three factors: thefrequency they occur with, the degree and type of the uncertainty they are associated with, andfinally the conditions of asset specificity (Williamson, 1985).Reducing the cost by internal organizing and diminish the bureaucracy of traditional functionstructures is the aim of Businesses Process Reengineering (BPR), (Hammer and Champy, 1993).BPR might provide some interesting aspects to transaction cost theory by suggesting that there isdifferent ways of organize internally, going from a functional organizational logic to a moreprocess oriented organizational logic. This introduces yet another aspect complicating thequestion of organizing internally or in the market.However, we can observe a shift in emphasis in marketing literature, and also in strategyliterature, from focusing on transactions to paying more attention to relationships. The newmarketing technique is referred to as one-to-one marketing, relationship marketing, customermanagement and customer relationship management (CRM). In these programs, firms examinean individuals profile, and tailor programs to suit that individual. The basic idea for customerrelationship marketing is establishing a learning relationship with each customer, starting withthe most valuable ones (Peppers et al., 1999), to create repeat purchase. This learning relationshipcan get smarter with each interaction. The supplier learns more about the customer for eachtime they interact, and thereby increases the ability to customize products and services for theindividual customers. With customization the dealer-customer relation grows stronger for eachtime, and gives the selling firm a lead in front of competitors. These relationships can developinto strategic alliances, which are long-term relationships between customers and suppliers, inwhich the mutual interests of the parties become increasingly obvious.Two trends have brought relationship management concepts to the forefront in managementresearch and practice. First, as global competition has increased, it has become harder to


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differentiate between products; companies have started to move from a product-centric view ofthe world to a customer-centric one. Secondly, the use of the Internet and other informationtechnologies facilitate the use of analyzing and deploying customer data to increase customersatisfaction.The network business model was launched in academic circles back in the 1960s as a reaction to

the classical strategic approach that regarded firms resources as independent and enclosed assets(Hkansson and Snehota, 1995). Attention was now brought to the role played by consumers,suppliers and competitors as vital contributions for achieving success. Network theory has overthe years expanded the emphasis on pure vertical integration enclosing horizontal relations aswell. To some extent network theory seeks to raise the same questions as transaction costs theoryon which activities to perform internally, i.e. in the hierarchy, and which activities to integratewith partners, i.e. outsource in the marked. While the transaction cost theory focus upon thesingle transactions, network theory introduces time and seeks to optimize the series oftransactions between companies. In this way network theory is emphasizing trust, transactions bysocial norms and the development of personal relationships, see for instance, Hkansson (1982)These two theoretical perspectives: the transaction and the relationship orientations, will play acentral role in our further theoretical development focusing on how the traditional businessmodels and value chains undergo dramatic changes due to the new technology. For some actorsin the value chain the on-going digital technological development represents threats. However forother actors the same development means and gives possibilities. For instance, this is true fordigital intermediaries creating customer value by new information sources and searchpossibilities, or by helping buyers and sellers to meet on the virtual market arena. Further, thestrategic implications of e-business for the competition structure and dynamics will be focusedon.The characteristic features of e-business and Internet will as a digital intermedium technologycreate new distribution channels, new marketing methods and models as well as new sales formsin the business world. In turn this will dramatically change the strategic assumptions for valuecreation in the firms. The traditional company functions like purchasing, production, sales,marketing and distribution will still exist, but the underlying logic for business doing will change.

Value creation: new and changed business models

There are different models and methods developed to study and analyze value creation in acompany. The most well known model in this context is the famous value chain model of M.E.Porter (Porter, 1985). However, this is a model not that adequate to study value creation in everyfirm. The Porter value chain model is best suited for studying value creation in traditionalmanufacturing companies with a linear, sequential physical material flow. In the new digitaleconomy, now emerging, and supposed to be governing more and more, an increasing part of thecompanies will be service-creating companies for which the Porter value creation model (Porter,op. cit.) may not be the best and most purposeful one.However, Stabell and Fjeldstad (1998) have developed and presented two new and alternativevalue configuration models as an addition to Porters value chain model: value workshop andvalue network, describing respectively problem solving activities and contact establishing,intermediary and disseminating activities. The value workshop is mainly focusing on how valuesare created in technology-intensive companies solving unique problems for the customer. Theproblem is defined as the gap between the present situation and a wished future situation, and thevalue creation is defined as the change going from the first one to the second one. The value


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workshop differs from the value chain model primarily focusing on the value of the product orthe service for the customer. The value network seems, like the value workshop, to be used moreand more to describe and understand value creation. The model is especially suitable foranalyzing value configuration in service companies creating values for their customers byestablishing contacts between different actors and by arranging for co-operation between them.

The company itself is not to be looked as a network, but rather as a supplier of a network buildingservice. The value network arranges co-operation between actors where the value is in thenumber of customers and also the composition of these customers.In the new digital economy, we need, in getting a better understanding of customer valuecreation, all these three models to be more fully equipped from a theoretical point of view.In addition to the above-mentioned works, we have got still other theoretical models, forinstance, the new value creation model by Evans and Wurster (2000). According to Evans andWurster (op. cit.) e-business has changed the economy and the means of attaining competitiveadvantage which implies that e-business demands certain issues to be taken into account whenformulating a strategy. Further, Evans and Wurster proclaim that there are three dimensions:reach, rich and affiliation, to analyze value creation and competition on the new virtualmarket arena. Affiliation changes with e-business and the new economy, shifting the balance ofpower from the sellers to the buyers. This indicates that the purpose of the company strategy is toachieve closer relationships to the consumers, where closer relationships may be attained throughcustomer loyalty. Richness means information, and especially the extended access to information,when doing e-business, indicates and represents the possibilities of a new competitive advantage.The company strategy should therefore try to use richness, such as customer information andproduct information, to deepen customer relationships and build brand loyalty. Reach indicatesthat e-commerce implies more ways of reaching the market and customers. For product suppliers,reach denotes that retailers may become unnecessary in the sales and the distribution structures.Reach nonetheless also implies a risky exposure to comprehensive comparison, and the companystrategy should therefore try to avoid such comparison by keeping the pricing structure opaque orless transparent.However, there are different opinions about how e-business and Internet will change the strategylandscape. Does the new technology render established rules about strategy obsolete? Accordingto a brand new work by M.E. Porter, it is to the contrary, it makes them more vital than ever(Porter, 2001). The reason why is that the Internet weakens industries profitability, as rivalscompete on price alone. And the Internet no longer provides proprietary advantages, as virtuallyall companies now use the Web. Porter (op. cit.) explains that the Internet is no more than a tool albeit a powerful one- that can support or damage a companys strategic positioning. The key tousing it most effectively is by integrating Internet initiatives into your companys overall strategyand operations so that they 1) complement, not cannibalize, your established competitiveapproaches and 2) create systematic advantages that your competitors can not copy.

The virtual market arena: a new dynamics of competition

Not only business processes will change due to the new ICT-technology. When the value chain isbeing reconfigured and, for instance, new intermediaries replace existing businesses, this willalso have a decisive impact on the competition arena with dramatic effects and changes. Underthe new paradigm we will therefore have a need for a new understanding and for remodelingcompetition dynamics. A starting point to understand the new market and competition situationcan be the industry structure model, or the so called five-forces model developed by M.E. Porter


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(Porter, 1980), and this is what Porter has done in his brand new work which we have earlierreferred to (Porter, 2001).However, some of the strategic implications due to e-business and Internet, may not becompletely and fully explained using Porters industry structure model. This model is based on aclassical market and economic view and from a strategic point of view it is anchored in the

positioning tradition. It is therefore, and also as the name of the model says (the five-forcescompetitive model), built on a market view dominated by competition thinking. To understand,however, the dynamic global markets of to day, we may also have to include co-operation asimportant and real phenomena. Nowadays, with the fast changing market structures and withchains competing against each other as a dominant factor, we can experience that co-operationinternally in a chain might be of decisive importance for survival for the member companies. Onthis background, to make co-operative advantages through co-operation in the chain, will becomemore and more important, confer network theory part and the underlying double perspective ofthis paper.

METHODOLOGICAL PARTAs part of our work we have done several case studies related to e-logistics and its strategicimplications for business companies. The research design has involved field survey research aswell as case studies of several companies coming from different industries and branches.Measures for the theoretical constructs have been based on past research. A series of qualitativeinterviews have been conducted, interviewing mainly managers in the case-companies.In the empirical part we will describe and analyze one specific company: the Glamox case.

EMPIRICAL PART: GLAMOX the e-lighting companyGlamox is a Norwegian industry group developing, manufacturing and distributing professionallighting solutions worldwide. Glamox is an international company with production capacities in 5countries across Europe, Asia and North America, a turnover of approximately 1.3 billion NOKand 1,250 employees. The group is divided in two separate sales divisions: European

Professional Lighting (EPL) and Global Marine Offshore (GMO). European Professional lightingis the sales division for the countries where Glamox has established franchise companiesthemselves. In these markets the company has two brands: Glamox and Hvik. The GMOdivision focuses on e.g. marine/offshore installations, an area where Glamox is one of the mostsignificant deliverers in the world. The GMO division also works with lighting projects basedashore all around the world.

Revitalizing Glamox Reclaiming the industrial leadershipIn 1998 the strategy process Revitalizing Glamox Reclaiming the industrial leadership waslaunched, see figure 2. This process was based on a pre-study done in 1997. The pre-study aimedto analyze the market situation, both present and in the future, and map the strengths, weaknesses,

possibilities and threats for Glamox. Based on this pre-study it was formulated business andeconomical goals, as well as detailed strategies for the company.


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The background for starting up this project was Glamoxs bad function towards customers, withfailing communication and an ineffective value chain. The objective for this strategy process wasto achieve a profit margin of 8% (or at least 100-mill NOK operating profit) within two years.Lost market share should be regained and the customers should experience Glamox as the leadingcompany in the chosen core business areas.

Figure 2: Revitalizing Glamox Reclaiming the industrial leadership

The project (Revitalizing Glamox Reclaiming the industrial leadership) had two cornerstones:

Market Strategy Portfolio Analysis Value Chain ReengineeringThe first element, Market Strategy Portfolio Analysis, was based on the McKinsey Industryattractiveness-Business strength portfolio matrix and the M.E. Porters five-forces and valuechain models (Porter, 1980, 1985), where all of Glamoxs business areas were systematically andthoroughly analyzed. This concluded in an action-oriented market strategy, with 9 segments asfuture core business areas.

The second element, Value Chain Reengineering (VCR), aimed to totally rearrange the valuechain in order to achieve a simple, efficient and comprehensive value chain. The reason for thisproject was the inefficient value chain, the lack of ability to satisfy the customers and a

frustrating environment for the employees. The VCR project aimed to implement digital workprocesses throughout the company. The purpose of the digital work processes was that allcommunication between customers, sales personnel, logistic centers, production plants andsuppliers were meant to be digital as illustrated in figure 3. The VCR project was mainly an ICT-project with 7 sub-projects, whereby implementing Baan (ERP-system) and making Glamox e-business ready were two of them.

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Glam ox ga m ep lan 1998 -2001

Acqu ire & alliance in 9 segments Expand strategy scope

- New products

- New markets / segments

Prof it / H a rve s t c ore s tr a t e gy

Fo rmalise organisation and career

development planning

Prof it a nd e xpa n d

Implementmarket strategy

- 9 segments

- Pricing

- Investments

Impl e me nt VC R

- BAAN

Im plement production

efficiency

Establish R&D

Impl e me nt a t i on

1998 1999 2000 2001

Recla iming the ind ust r ia l l eadershipRevi ta li s ing Glam oxVision

Bus iness

objectives8% operating

profit m argin

Win market share and

be p erceived leader

in 9 invest segments

N ew structure N ew leadership team

Mobilise organisation

Analyse

- Market po rtfolio

- V.C.R

- Manuf. Restructuring

M obi l i sa tionStrategics teps


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Figure 3: A complete e-business ready value chain

Glamox believes that e-business can increase the turnover for the company, contribute to gainmarket shares and rationalize the internal value chain. E-business is regarded as important for thebusiness, and the first company to launch it in the market will get a lead.Even though Glamox claims that the VCR-project was mainly an ICT project (in regards ofinvestments), it would not have been carried out without the necessary restructuring of the valuechain. It was the restructuring of the value chain that triggered the other parts of the project. Acrucial element in the restructuring was the change of manufacturing strategy. Firstly, thecompany had done a focusing of the factories, based on products families and competence, seefigure 3. Secondly the principles of manufacturing have also been changed, from make-to-stockto make-to-order.

E-logistics at Glamox: Going from a brick and mortar to a click and mortar companyThe logistic division is built around two logistic centers, see figure 3. The purpose of these twocenters is that they should function as a single point of contact (SPOC) for the customers. Theyare responsible for the order processing, logistic coordination and to coordinate the deliveries. Inaddition they are also responsible for support and divergence on orders. The distribution areexecuted by use of two 3. Parts warehouses and cross docking (from the different productionplants and the 3. Parts warehouses).

In the following we will highlight some of the results and consequences from executing the VCRproject. We will primarily focus on the internal and external integration that have taken place inorder to make Glamox so called e-business ready.

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a comp lete E -business ready value chain .

Vision world class delivery precision

Molde/Vg. Svelvik Bremen/Tet.

Whole-saler

SalesCustomer

Crossdocking

GSS/

Glabase

Optiwin

SPOC, Logistic centreCentral Europe,

Bremen

Trading Product

3.party

logisticsBremen

EDI

SPOC, Logistic centreNorth Europe

Molde

Vr, F in. K eila, E st .

3.party

logisticsOslo

GSS/

GlabaseOptiwin

Whole -saler

Trading product

GlamoxWide Area Network

Customer

WEB

BaaN/Glabase

EDI

BaaN/Glabase

Completedelivery


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The new internal electronic value chain

Earlier the company had 25 different ICT systems installed within the company. During theproject these were replaced by one ERP system (with three special programs in addition) withone common database for all the plants. Thereby all employees are using the same system and theknowledge, integration and co-ordination between the different plants are increased.

The Value Chain Reengineering project was a typical business process reengineering project, aBPR project, confer theoretical part, were the goal is to dramatically change and improve thebusiness structure of a company. There were four important conceptual elements in thereengineering of the value chain at Glamox.The vision of the mobile salesman has been the cornerstone of the restructuring andsimplification of the value chain. This means that the process from order to delivery has beenredesigned and standardized in order to find the optimal way of serving the customers the bestpossible way. Now each salesman is equipped with portable computers installed with a customerrelationship management (CRM) system, called Glamox Sales System (self developed). Thesalesman connects to the network and the main system either via mobile or fixed communication,and is able to transfer information electronically to the BaaN ERP system and to get out on-lineinformation.The second element is the idea of Single Point Of Contact (SPOC). From all points of thenetwork Glamox employees have access to all kind of information and are able to carry out alltypes of transactions. This has made it possible to centralize logistics information to two mainlogistics centers. The sales representatives work now directly towards their Single Point OfContact at one of the logistic centers. The SPOC is the sales representatives permanent contactperson and takes the responsibility from order entry through the delivery chain until the order isdelivered and invoice sent.The third element is the concept of Modular Products. All new high end products developedin Glamox lately, demanding a considerable extent of flexibility, are now constructed on modularbasis production. This means that with a few basic common components various completeproducts can be assembled in a short time, and only the basic modules are stored (masscustomization).The last element is the idea of Complete deliveries to customers direct from factories and 3.party stock via cross docking. The modular product design philosophy makes it possible todeliver directly from factories, or should an order consists of products manufactured by severalfactories and stocks, it is possible to make all products to meet somewhere on the road to thecustomer, through the cross docking system. In this way the customer receives a completedelivery and one invoice.

The new external value chain

Glamox is now in the project phase to undertake the electronic integration of external co-operation partners, that is customers and suppliers. The aim is gradually to obtain the samedegree of seamless integration with the companys surroundings as they have achieved internallybetween the different companies in the Glamox group. The biggest customers in Norway havealready been connected to make transactions through EDI solutions. Internet and Extranetsolutions will also play along in this integration process. The company has the intention oflaunching an e-service menu with priority.Glamox has approximately 150 suppliers of critical components for the production. Of these 150suppliers about 10 are chosen to contribute in the research and development tasks. These are


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supposed to be tightly integrated into the value chain with high degree of exchange ofinformation. The most important suppliers are now ready to interact digitally with Glamox (eitherby EDI or other IT-solutions).

Conclusions:

In this paper we have tried to develop an understanding of the impact of the e-business and theInternet on the logistics and supply chain. We have chosen a double perspective, a transactionand a relationship oriented, approach in order to understand how e-business and Internet impactsupply chain strategy, design, organization design and infrastructure. Through our case, Glamox,we have tried to illustrate the importance of restructuring the value chain by implementing e-business in order to get a well function e-logistics.We will summarize the results of our studies in the following way:

Consequences of e-business for the logistics:

Reduced number of suppliers and with more concentrated relationships. The costs of the suppliers, and not the prices, will be of decisive importance-(partnerships in

profitability). Simplified and reduced inventories and transaction costs between sellers and buyers. Reduced number of levels in the distribution chains. More reflected attitudes towards outsourcing, or reengineering of existing logistical

processes.

Reduced number of competitors. A noticeable increase in the number of bonds in the supply chains based on ICT.Logistics as a competitive edge:

The logistics processes will be performed in a new or more automated way and with a highpotential for profitability increase.

Global competition plus IT will give higher degree of distribution directly to the customerwhich means new solutions for actors, and new design of supply chains and the physicallogistics.

Smaller transaction costs will change the rules of the game for optimal inventory. The relative costs of transportation and distribution is increasing. Automation of business processes along the value chain. Large challenges in coordination of information and the physical flow along the supply chain. Dislocation of activities between the actors along the supply chain.Some further trends:

Internet will make logistics to be one of the key factors for product differentiation. Marketing on the Internet will probably in a short time fall off as a competitive edge due to

the fact that all enterprises will be able to do it.

The enterprises just looking at the Internet strategies as an IT-question, and forgetting toinclude the logistics solutions, will fail.

In a few years wholesalers and distributors will probably have a substantial part of its resultfrom post sales and post sales service.


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REFERENCES:Coase, R.H. (1937): The Nature of the Firm,Economica, Vol. 4, pp. 386-405.Ericsson, D. (2000): E-logistics-Key to Success in the Digital Economy, Paper given at aConference in Athens May, 15 2000.Evans, P. and Wurster, T.S. (2000): Blown to Bits. How the New Economics of Information

Transforms Strategy, Harvard Business School Press, Boston.Fathy, N. (1999): E-commerce: All about Customer Relationship Management,URL:http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/elecronic_commerce/16952 .Hammer, M. and Champy, J. (1993):Reengineering the corporation, Harper, New York.Hkansson, H. (1982): International Marketing and Purchasing of Industrial Goods: AnInteraction Approach, Wiley, Chichester, U.K.Hkansson, H. and Snehota I. (1995): Developing Relationships in Business Networks,Routledge, London.Peppers, D., Rogers, M. and Dorf, B. (1999): The one to one fieldbook: The complete toolkit forimplementing a 1 to 1 marketing program, Oxford, Captone.Porter, M.E. (2001): Strategy and the Internet,Harvard Business Review, March, pp. 63-79.Porter, M.E. (1985): Competitive Advantage-Creating and sustaining superior performance, FreePress, New York.Porter, M.E. (1980): Competitive Strategy, The Free Press Collier MacMillan Publishers, NewYork.Stabell, C.B. and Fjeldstad, E.D. (1998): Configuring Value for Competitive Advantage: OnChains, Shops, and Networks, Strategic Management Journal, Vol.19, pp. 413-437.Williamson, O.E. (1985): The Economic Institution of Capitalism, Free Press, New York.
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm.elecronic_commerce/16952http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm.elecronic_commerce/16952http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm.elecronic_commerce/16952

Strategic Implications of E-logistics

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