E-Commerce-Logistics--A-Literature-Research-Review-and-Topics-for-Future-Research - 图文

International Journal of E-Services and Mobile Applications, 4(3), 1-22, July-September 2012 1

A Literature Research Review and

Topics for Future Research

Anu??Bask,??Aalto??University??School??of??Economics,??FinlandMervi??Lipponen,??Aalto??University??School??of??Economics,??FinlandMarkku??Tinnil?,??Aalto??University??School??of??Economics,??Finland

E-Commerce Logistics:

ABSTRACT

E-commerce??has??attracted??increasing??interest??at??the??beginning??of??the??21st??century,??in??both??academia??and??practice.??Today,??the??Internet??is??commonly??used??by??both??consumers??and??businesses??as??a??means??of??purchasing??goods.??The??authors’??study??focuses??on??e-commerce??logistics,??focusing??on??the??physical??delivery??of??goods??sold??over??the??Internet.??Based??on??a??systematic??review??of??articles,??the??authors??will??summarize??and??analyze??the??main??findings??of??academic??literature??and??highlight??certain??research??issues??recognized??on??this??topic.??The??main??objec-tive??is??to??study??the??state-of-the-art??of??e-commerce??logistics??research??and??future??research??needs.??The??reviewed??articles??have??been??formed??into??seven??categories,??and??each??category??is??discussed??in??the??paper.??The??largest??categories??discuss??e-commerce??logistics??in??relation??to??retail??strategies,??logistics??strategies??and??structures,??and??buyer??preferences.??Although??logistics??is??a??critical??part??of??e-commerce,??it??seems??based??on??the??review??that??not??many??e-commerce??logistics??solutions??have??been??developed??or??studied??in??current??research,??and??logistics??has??often??been??treated??as??only??a??minor??issue??among??other??issues??in??e-commerce.Keywords:??

E-Commerce,??E-Commerce??Logistics,??Logistics,??Online??Shopping,??Systematic??Literature??Review

INTRODUCTION

In this study, we are particularly interested in the physical delivery of goods in e-commerce (e-commerce logistics). By e-commerce we mean Internet-based sales. In this context, we will focus on business-to-consumer (b-to-c), business-to-business (b-to-b) and consumer-to-consumer (c-to-c) e-commerce logistics. As e-commerce logistics often involves both consumer customers and business customers,

DOI: 10.4018/jesma.2012070101

and because the sales channel is separated from the delivery channel, deliveries can be handled in many ways. The delivery channel can adopt the traditional retail chain structure, for example, or it can be completely disintermediated (Ben-jamin & Wigand, 1995; Delfmann et al., 2002), resulting in a geographical fragmentation of delivery points. E-commerce also emphasizes the role of logistics companies as service pro-viders and opens up business opportunities for them, as the logistical requirements differ from those of traditional channels and are not easily managed by retailers themselves (Delfmann et

Copyright ? 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

2 International Journal of E-Services and Mobile Applications, 4(3), 1-22, July-September 2012

al., 2002). The increasing importance of con-sumer delivery capabilities for LSPs has been reflected in the development of cost-efficient delivery networks that can reach consumers.

There are several issues that have motivated a review of studies conducted in the area of e-commerce logistics. E-commerce has taken off in the past decade, and, in many cases, has become business-as-usual. As a result, logistics should also have been developed to meet the challenges described in e-commerce studies. It can further be expected that studies have been made analyzing how logistics can help to exploit the opportunities and benefits of e-commerce, and what the customer requirements for logistics actually are. Thus, it is interesting to see what kinds of logistics issues have been researched, how such issues have evolved during the life cycle of e-commerce, and what issues still re-quire further research. We also aim to discuss the lessons learned from past e-commerce logistics research and certain important issues for future research.

The following characteristics are typi-cal for e-commerce logistics: (1) Market: In ‘traditional’ retail logistics, the customers of logistics service providers are usually only businesses, but in e-commerce logistics they are often both businesses and consumers. Op-erationally this means that the required network of delivery points is more dispersed than in the ‘traditional’ retail chain, as deliveries can be ordered to individual consumer addresses. Consumers are also often considered to dif-fer from businesses in their preferences and decision making principles when choosing services. (2) Role of LSPs: Because the sales channel is separated from the delivery channel in e-commerce, suppliers without a retail and distribution infrastructure can sell their prod-ucts globally to both business and consumer customers. This provides opportunities for LSPs to offer the required services. Moreover, small businesses may require different services than large retail chains.

The objectives of this study are threefold. First, we are interested in the aspects that have been studied in e-commerce logistics. Secondly,

we aim to summarize interesting key research issues related to e-commerce logistics and dis-cuss them. Thirdly, we seek to discuss future research issues that have not been resolved yet.

The paper is structured as follows. First, we will describe the methodology and objectives of the study. Then, we will discuss and analyze the articles reviewed and organize them under seven themes. After that, we will provide more in-depth discussion of the selected research is-sues and draw attention to future research needs. Finally, conclusions will be drawn.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The objective of this study is to provide a system-atic literature review of e-commerce logistics. A systematic review approach has been earlier conducted by e.g., Cooper (1989), Tranfield et al. (2003), Bontekoning et al. (2004), Pit-taway et al. (2004), Karjalainen et al. (2009), and Islam and Scupola (2011). According to Cooper (1989, pp. 12-13) researchers usually conduct one of two possible types of literature reviews – an integrative research review or a theoretical review. The former summarizes and draws conclusions based on relevant studies, and the latter focuses on the theories employed to explain the phenomena and evaluates them. In this study the appropriate strategy is the integrative research perspective, because the focus of the paper is to discuss the aspects that have been studied in e-commerce logistics, to summarize the key issues studied by analyzing the state-of-the-art of research, and to identify important issues that were unresolved in earlier research, i.e., an agenda for future research arising from the literature review.

Research Process

Integrative research review methodology is applied by using the general steps proposed by Cooper (1989). Based on Cooper (1989, p. 14) the design of an integrative research review contains five stages: problem formulation, data collection, evaluation of data points, analysis and interpretation and presentation of results.

Copyright ? 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

International Journal of E-Services and Mobile Applications, 4(3), 1-22, July-September 2012 3

Regarding problem formulation, e-com-merce logistics is the focus of this research. The concept includes logistics phenomena arising from the use of e-commerce. These phenomena include requirements, opportunities and changes related to the physical delivery of goods sold by means of e-commerce and changes in the logistical collaboration between manufacturing companies (integration of supply information flows, for example). Although the purpose of this study is to focus principally on the physical delivery of goods in the age of e-commerce, the issues involved are sometimes intertwined. The specific research questions are the following:1) What aspects of e-commerce logistics

have been studied in articles published in scholarly journals?

2) What are the key state-of-the-art research

issues that can be identified?

3) What are the important topics that earlier

research has not resolved?In data collection we focused on research that is published in academic journals. Articles are expected to provide an overview of the general state-of-the-art in e-commerce logistics research. Academic research can be considered as public knowledge which indicates the general state of thinking and knowledge in the field. To conduct the review of articles published in academic journals, we used the ProQuest database, as it covers an extensive range of aca-demic journals. This database covers important logistics journals. In addition to this database, the International??Journal??of??Logistics:??Research??and??Applications (IJLRA) was searched, as it was not included in the database and was seen as a potential source of relevant articles, being a journal focusing on logistics. The articles looked for were those examining the physical delivery of products in e-commerce, not for example those dealing with website production.

As a starting point for evaluating the ar-ticles we used several keywords. The search was started with the keywords “e-business??and??logistics.” When we used these, the ProQuest database suggested using the term “electronic??

commerce” instead of e-business. The database also suggested other topics that produced more focused results than a search based purely on key words. Additionally, keywords related to logistics processes, such as order management and deliveries were used in combination with the term electronic commerce. We also extended the search by treating topics related to mobile and multichannel commerce as forms of elec-tronic commerce. These topics were combined with keywords related to logistics, to retrieve articles that discuss these aspects together. The search in the ProQuest database was limited to articles published in the years 1999-2009, as the preliminary search found no articles before 1999. When we noticed that the IJLRA was not included in the ProQuest database, we made a supplementary search of this journal, using the same keywords. Articles published in or before 2009 were included. More detailed data on the keywords used and the articles found can be seen in the research process model in Figure 1.

At the start of the evaluation and selection process there were 178 articles. After clearing out the overlapping articles, the authors of this paper evaluated each article individually with the help of the article abstracts. Thereafter, we met and decided together which articles would be selected for further analysis. This resulted in 60 articles being chosen for the study, based on their relevance (Appendix A, Table 2). The main selection criterion was to choose articles related to e-commerce logistics.

To facilitate analysis, we read through the articles and divided them into seven categories based on their general themes and focus. Later in this paper we will discuss these categories in more detail and present issues for future research based on the literature review.

Statistics on the Articles

A total of 60 articles were selected for further analysis. Figure 2 shows the distribution of the articles by their publication year. The first article was published in 1999, and the number increased until 2002. This may be explained by initial enthusiasm concerning the potential

Copyright ? 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

4 International Journal of E-Services and Mobile Applications, 4(3), 1-22, July-September 2012

Figure??1.??The??research??process??model

Figure??2.??Number??of??articles??by??publishing??year

Copyright ? 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.