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In the first paper, "Customer experience dimensions in last-mile delivery: an empirical study on unattended home delivery”, John Olsson, Daniel Hellström and Yulia Vakulenko examine the substantial impact of the pandemic on home delivery of groceries and other online purchases. To fill this gap, the authors have collected primary and secondary data from seven countries to explore how policymakers employed different supply chain risk management strategies for handling shortage risks in their paracetamol supply chains before and during COVID-19. [...]we are very thankful for the time and effort that is put in by the reviewers in this special issue, the support from IJPDLM editorial team and the invaluable guidance from Professor Chee Yew Wong as chief editor, who helped us during the whole process.
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PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the conditional indirect effect of innovativeness on performance via supply chain agility (SCA) in the service industry at higher and lower collaborative relationships.Design/methodology/approachThe hypothesised model is operationalised with survey data from 245 Australian service firms collected via LinkedIn and analysed using structural equation modelling and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).FindingsThe analysis found that SCA significantly mediates the relationship between innovativeness and performance. Further, the conditional indirect effect of innovativeness on performance via SCA was significant when the collaborative relationship was high. Results also revealed that a configuration of both innovativeness and agility better predicts performance.Originality/valueThis study is an early attempt to investigate SCA in service industries by scrutinizing SCA from an innovative point of view. While previous studies have demonstrated the role of innovativeness in enhancing a firm's performance, this study explores this link further by investigating the conditional indirect effect of innovativeness on performance via SCA at different levels of collaborative relationships.
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PurposeThe study focuses on (1) the success of three strategies employed during the pandemic – two "persevering” strategies, curbside pickup and return window extension and one innovative strategy, virtual try-on technology and (2) whether the strategies are likely to be successful in the post-pandemic world.Design/methodology/approachThe authors utilize a panel dataset containing 17 department store chains in the US The panel includes weekly sales by the retailers at the city level from 2018 to 2021, encompassing both a pre-COVID-19 period and a period during the pandemic. A two-way fixed effects model, including retailer-city fixed effects and year-week fixed effects, is used to estimate department store sales.FindingsThe authors find that the two persevering strategies offset the negative impact of government-imposed containment and health measures on sales performance. On the other hand, the innovative strategy is more effective with a low level of containment and health measures, leading to our observation that virtual try-on may be more sustainable than the other two strategies in a post-pandemic environment.Originality/valueThis paper makes the following contributions: First, the authors contribute to the literature on strategies that may be used to respond to crises. Second, the authors contribute to the retail management literature, assessing the impact of the three retail strategies on department store sales. Finally, the authors compare the impact on sales of the two persevering strategies to the innovative strategy and conclude that a mix of these types of strategies may be most effective at generating short-term sales during a crisis and longer-term sales post crisis.
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PurposeThis paper links supply chain risk management to medicine supply chains to explore the role of policymakers in employing supply chain risk management strategies (SCRMS) to reduce generic medicine shortages.Design/methodology/approachUsing secondary data supplemented with primary data, the authors map and compare seven countries' SCRMS for handling shortage risks in their paracetamol supply chains before and during the first two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.FindingsConsistent with recent research, the study finds that policymakers had implemented few SCRMS specifically for responding to disruptions caused by COVID-19. However, shortages were largely avoided since multiple strategies for coping with business-as-usual disruptions had been implemented prior to the pandemic. The authors did find that SCRMS implemented during COVID-19 were not always aligned with those implemented pre-pandemic. The authors also found that policymakers played both direct and indirect roles.Research limitations/implicationsCombining longitudinal secondary data with interviews sheds light on how, regardless of the level of preparedness during normal times, SCRMS can be leveraged to avert shortages in abnormal times. However, the problem is highly complex, which warrants further research.Practical implicationsSupply chain professionals and policymakers in the healthcare sector can use the findings when developing preparedness and response plans.Social implicationsThe insights developed can help policymakers improve the availability of high-volume generic medicines in (ab)normal times.Originality/valueThe authors contribute to prior SCRM research in two ways. First, the authors operationalize SCRMS in the medicine supply chain context in (ab)normal times, thereby opening avenues for future research on SCRM in this context. Second, the authors develop insights on the role policymakers play and how they directly implement and indirectly influence the adoption of SCRMS. Based on the study findings, the authors develop a framework that captures the diverse roles of policymakers in SCRM.
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PurposeThe purpose of this explorative research is to analyse the resilience of the United Kingdom's (UK) healthcare supply chains from a customer's perspective in the light of the coronavirus pandemic.Design/methodology/approachUsing the capabilities of preparedness, robustness, recovery and adaptability as the foundational percept for supply chain resilience, 22 healthcare professionals in 17 of the UK's National Health Scheme (NHS) Trusts were interviewed to explore their personal and organisational approaches adopted relative to the provision of eye protection, gloves, gowns, aprons, masks and respirators. The Dynamic Capabilities View is mapped to the resilience capabilities and used to analyse the data from a transformational supply chain research perspective.FindingsThe supply chains were largely unprepared, which was not particularly surprising even though the availability of gloves was significantly better compared to the other personal protective equipment (PPE). Techniques adopted to ensure robustness and recovery revealed the use of unsanctioned methods such as extended use of PPE beyond recommended use, redefinition of guidelines, protocols and procedures by infection control and the use of expired PPE – all of which compromised customer well-being.Research limitations/implicationsAs the paper views resilience through the lens of customers, it does not provide the perspectives of the supply chain practitioners as to the reasons for the findings and the challenges within these supply chains.Practical implicationsThe compromise of the well-being of healthcare workers due to the vulnerabilities of healthcare supply chains is highlighted to managers and prescriptions for post-disruption adaptability are made.Originality/valueThis paper introduces transformative research to supply chain resilience research by uniquely looking at resilience from the customers' well-being perspective.
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Specifically, they address the following broad topics: the role of organizational intangible resources in facilitating supply chain resilience, the application of resilience to service recovery, the long-term view of supply chain resilience, the multifaceted effect of supply base complexity on supply chain agility and resilience, and the application of agility to improve customer performance. Using a cross-sectional questionnaire, the authors collected data from 180 medium-to senior-level managers and found that organizational learning has a positive impact on supply chain resilience, while organizational innovativeness and organizational agility mediate this relationship. To illustrate, the value of returns in the USA amounted to $400 bn in 2020 (National Retail Federation, 2021). [...]a recent customer survey by United Parcel Service showed that about 58% of consumers are not satisfied with the service they encounter when returning products to retailers (Warren, 2020). Furthermore, in keeping with the focus of the special issue on the theoretical underpinnings of supply chain resilience, the authors draw on procedural justice theory to also explore the mediating roles of procedural justice (i.e. the policies and procedures used to offer the desired customer outcome) and interactional justice (i.e. the customer's interpersonal treatment during service recovery) in the relationship between service recovery resilience on the one hand and customer satisfaction and customer loyalty on the other.
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[...]supply sources were disconnected and production facilities were shut down, creating shortages at the retail/customer end and surpluses at the supplier/manufacturer end (Deloitte, 2020). [...]the COVID-19 outbreak has tested the resilience of global supply chains and has highlighted many challenges. With the substantial magnitude of the COVID-19 disruptions, supply chain resilience has received significant attention from researchers, practitioners, governments and industries (Remko, 2020;Scholten et al., 2020). [...]it was not surprising to see that the accepted papers in this special issue have addressed one or more aspects of supply chain resilience. 2.2 Supply chain resilience Resilience is defined as the way of getting back to normal or “new normal” conditions by destabilising or minimising external shocks or disturbances or threats (Luthar and Cicchetti, 2000). Examples of avoidance in a new normal environment are the selection of alternative suppliers from diversified regions, use of multiple suppliers to avoid the supply risks, having multiple buyers to avoid buyer disruption, having alternative production facilities and maintaining better collaboration and partnership with third-party logistics service providers to prevent the negative impact of supply chain disruption within the supply chain (Chowdhury and Quaddus, 2017;Ivanov et al., 2018;Hosseini et al., 2019;Kaufman, 2020).
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Purpose>Last-mile delivery is associated with a negative environmental impact and high costs. The purpose of this paper is to develop an approach to designing stationary parcel locker (SPL) networks while minimizing both CO2 equivalent (CO2e) emissions and costs during delivery and pick-up.Design/methodology/approach>This study uses a multinomial logit model to evaluate recipients' willingness to use SPLs based on their availability at home and travel distance. To determine optimal SPL locations, this study formulates a mixed-integer linear programming model.Findings>The empirical study of different regional clusters reveals that optimal SPL locations can generate cost savings of up to 11.0%. SPLs have a positive impact on total CO2e emission savings in urban areas (i.e. up to 2.5%), but give rise to additional emissions (i.e. 4.6%) in less populated areas due to longer travel distances during the pick-up process.Originality/value>This paper optimizes SPL locations and the ecological effect of SPLs by minimizing emissions and costs simultaneously. Furthermore, it extends existing discrete choice models by also including recipients' availability at home, increasing the accuracy of recipients' preferences. So far, the effect of SPLs has been studied for metropolitan areas only. A global logistics service provider shared a real dataset which allows us to study seven different regional clusters ranging from rural areas to large cities. Thus, this study contributes to the field of sustainable urban logistics.
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Purpose>This paper identifies, configures and analyses a solution aimed at increasing the efficiency of in-store picking for e-grocers and combining the traditional store-based option with a warehouse-based logic (creating a back area dedicated to the most required online items).Design/methodology/approach>The adopted methodology is a multi-method approach combining analytical modelling and interviews with practitioners. Interviews were performed with managers, whose collaboration allowed the development and application of an empirically-grounded model, aimed to estimate the performances of the proposed picking solution in its different configurations. Various scenarios are modelled and different policies are evaluated.Findings>The proposed solution entails time benefits compared to traditional store-based picking for three main reasons: lower travel time (due to the absence of offline customers), lower retrieval time (tied to the more efficient product allocation in the back) and lower time to manage stock-outs (since there are no missing items in the back). Considering the batching policies, order picking is always outperformed by batch and zone picking, as they allow for the reduction of the average travelled distance per order. Conversely, zone picking is more efficient than batch picking when demand volumes are high.Originality/value>From an academic perspective, this work proposes a picking solution that combines the store-based and warehouse-based logics (traditionally seen as opposite/alternative choices). From a managerial perspective, it may support the definition of the picking process for traditional grocers that are offering – or aim to offer – e-commerce services to their customers.
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Purpose>The purpose of this research is to reveal consumer preferences towards innovative last-mile parcel delivery and more specifically unmanned aerial delivery drones, in comparison to traditional postal delivery (postie) and the recent rise of parcel lockers in Australia. The authors investigate competitive priorities and willingness to pay for key attributes of parcel delivery (mode, speed, method and time window), the role of contextual moderators such as parcel value and security and opportunities for logistics service providers in the growing e-commerce market.Design/methodology/approach>A survey involving stated choice experiments has been conducted among 709 respondents in urban Australia. The authors estimated panel error component logit models, derived consumer priorities and deployed 576 Monte Carlo simulations to forecast potential delivery mode market shares.Findings>The study results suggest that people prefer postie over drone delivery, all else equal, but that drone deliveries become competitive with large market shares if they live up to the premise that they can deliver faster and cheaper. Both drone and postie become less attractive relative to parcel lockers when there is no safe place to leave a parcel at a residence, highlighting the importance of situational context and infrastructure at the receiving end of last-mile delivery. The authors identified opportunities for chargeable add-on services, such as signature for postie and 2-h parcel deliveries for drones.Originality/value>The authors offer timely and novel insights into consumers preferences towards aerial drone parcel deliveries compared to postie and lockers. Going beyond the extant engineering/operations research literature, the authors provide a starting point and add new dimensions/moderators for last-mile parcel delivery choice analysis and empirical evidence of market potential and competitive attributes of innovative versus traditional parcel delivery alternatives.
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Purpose>COVID-19 has pushed many supply chains to re-think and strengthen their resilience and how it can help organisations survive in difficult times. Considering the availability of data and the huge number of supply chains that had their weak links exposed during COVID-19, the objective of the study is to employ artificial intelligence to develop supply chain resilience to withstand extreme disruptions such as COVID-19.Design/methodology/approach>We adopted a qualitative approach for interviewing respondents using a semi-structured interview schedule through the lens of organisational information processing theory. A total of 31 respondents from the supply chain and information systems field shared their views on employing artificial intelligence (AI) for supply chain resilience during COVID-19. We used a process of open, axial and selective coding to extract interrelated themes and proposals that resulted in the establishment of our framework.Findings>An AI-facilitated supply chain helps systematically develop resilience in its structure and network. Resilient supply chains in dynamic settings and during extreme disruption scenarios are capable of recognising (sensing risks, degree of localisation, failure modes and data trends), analysing (what-if scenarios, realistic customer demand, stress test simulation and constraints), reconfiguring (automation, re-alignment of a network, tracking effort, physical security threats and control) and activating (establishing operating rules, contingency management, managing demand volatility and mitigating supply chain shock) operations quickly.Research limitations/implications>As the present research was conducted through semi-structured qualitative interviews to understand the role of AI in supply chain resilience during COVID-19, the respondents may have an inclination towards a specific role of AI due to their limited exposure.Practical implications>Supply chain managers can utilise data to embed the required degree of resilience in their supply chains by considering the proposed framework elements and phases.Originality/value>The present research contributes a framework that presents a four-phased, structured and systematic platform considering the required information processing capabilities to recognise, analyse, reconfigure and activate phases to ensure supply chain resilience.
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[...]the current special section contributes by identifying the required levers and solutions enabling organizations worldwide to respond quickly and thoroughly to the COVID-19 challenges. Special thanks go to the editorial team of IJPDLM for their outstanding support. 2.1 Following are the details of accepted articles The first article attempts to identify the supply chain risks (SCRs) induced in COVID-19 outbreak titled “Supply chain risk mitigation strategies during COVID-19: exploratory cases of “make-to-order “handloom saree apparel industries.” [...]crucial factors and lessons were retrieved from the high-quality papers, supported by different research approaches.