农村物流外文文献.docx

农村物流外文文献.docx

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Freightlogisticsservicesforruraleconomies:

Userneedsandfuturechallenges

AngelaCristinaMarqui

MartinJ.Kollingbaum

LiangChen

TimothyJ.Norman

PeterEdwards

JohnD.Nelson

dot.ruralRCUKDigitalEconomyResearchHub,UniversityofAberdeen

Abstract:

Thepurposeofthispaperistoidentifyrequirementsforlogisticsandtransportservicesofsmallandmicroruralbusinesses.Thispaperexplorestheempiricalfindingsoftwocasestudiesofsmallruralbusiness.Thesefindingssuggestthatbusinessesareconfinedtosmall-scalecommercialactivitiesduetoabasiccommunicationandinformationsharingproblem.Wearguethat,inorderfbrbusinessestooperateonalargerscale,appropriatesupportforthelogisticsrequirementsofruralbusinessescallsfbrintelligentsoftwareplatformsthatprovidesolutionstothisbasicproblem.WesuggesttheuseofElectronicLogisticsMarkets（ELM）fbrchoosingservicesandinfrastructurestomanagetrans-shipmentsinanefficientmannerandtoallowserviceproviderstooffercertifiedservices,viatrustedthirdparties.

Keywords：

Logisticsandtransportsolutions,freighttransport,digitaleconomies,intelligentagents.

1Introduction

Today9sruraleconomyisacomplexmixofcommercialactivities,wherefoodproductioncoexistswithtourism,recreation,andvariouspublicandprivateservices（HMGovernment,2002）.Asignificantpotentialfbrgrowthhasbeenrecognisedfbrtheruraleconomy（LoweandWard,2007）andwiththeadventofthedigitaleconomy,onlinesalessystemsandinformationplatformsbecomeenablers,inparticular,forsmallandmicroruralbusinessestoexpandtheircommercialactivitiesbeyondlocalandregionalareas.

Althoughsellingproductstoconsumerswithoutgeographicalboundariesisnowareality,thereisgenerallynostraightforwardstrategyfbrhowbusinesseshandlethelogisticsofdistributingtheirproductsglobally.We,thereforeconductedadetailedstudyintohowsmallruralbusinessesoperateand,inparticular,howthedeliveryofgoodstocustomersisplannedandmanaged.Weidentifiedthephenomenonofsmallbusinessesestablishinglocalised“ecosystems”-acompanyproducinggoodsisworkingtogetherwithoneortwotrustedtransportserviceprovidersfbrdeliveryand,often,areservingonlyasmallclientelewiththeirproducts.

Thepurposeofthispaperistoidentifylogisticsandtransportneedsofmicroandsmallruralbusinesses.Thepaperalsoseekstoexaminetheuseofexistinglogisticssolutionsandtheirapplicabilityinaruralbusinesscontext.Ultimately,weaimtoelicitthefeaturesrequiredofasoftwaresolutionthataidsbusinesseswithintheruraleconomytoovercomelogisticsissues.

Withbusinessesdeliveringtowidertargetmarkets,thereisalsonowagrowingneedtoconsidertheenvironmentalimpactoftheirlogisticsoperations.AnexampleofhowtechnologycanhelpintacklingsuchissuesistheMITm-Logisticsinitiative（MITCenterfbrTransportationLogistics,2010）,whichpresentsamobilesoftwareplatformthatcanenabledistributionofproductstolow-incomemarketswithsubstantiallyloweroverhead.Theremainderofthispaperwilloutlinethetheoreticalbackgroundtotheempiricalinvestigation;addressthemethodfbrdatacollection;showtheresultsofthefieldworkfollowedbydiscussionspointingoutkeyrequirementsfbrlogisticsservicesfacedbysmallruralbusiness.Finally,futurechallengesandconclusionsprovidesomeinsightsintothekindsofdigitaltechnologiesthatcouldbeappliedinordertoestablishsolutionstotheserequirements.

2LogisticsCustomerService

"Customerserviceisaprocessforprovidingsignificantvalue-addedbenefitstothesupplychaininacosteffectiveway”（LaLondeetal.,1988,p.5）.Fromalogisticperspective,customerserviceistheresult（output）ofalllogisticsactivitiesorprocesseswithinthesupplychain（logisticssystem）（Ballou,2004,Lambert,StockandEllram,1998）.Overtheyears,themeaningofcustomerservicepresentedherehasbeenidentifiedindifferentways,includinglogisticscustomerservice（HuiskonenandPirttila,1998）andphysicaldistributionservice（Mentzerelal.,1989）.InthisstudyweusethetermLogisticsCustomerService（LCS）.

LaLondeandZinszer'swork（1976）isamongthoseseminalinthedisciplineoflogistics.TheyclassifytheelementsofLCSintermsofpre-transactionelements,transactionelements,andpost-transactionelements（Figure1）.Thisclassificationwasusedasthebasisforthedevelopmentofourstudy.Thisperspectiveofthelogisticsystemisparticularlyusefulinthisresearchforgroupingintoonesinglemodelthekeyelementsofinterest.Otherframeworksbasedontheprincipleofintegratedbusinessprocessesacrossthesupplychain（Lambert,CooperandPagh,1998）wouldaddcomplexitythatisnotrelevanttosmallruralbusiness,eventhoughtheyareimportanttoLCSingeneral.

ItisworthmentioningthatLCSmodelsagreethatthedegreeofimportanceattachedtoeachserviceelementvariesfromcasetocase.Inotherwords,differentgroupsofcustomerstendtohavespecificneeds,whichshouldresultindifferentservices.Fisher'swork（1997）canbeusedasanexampleofhowtoaddressdifferentneeds.Heclassifiesproductsasfunctionalversusinnovative,whichwouldrequireaphysicallyefficientprocessandamarket-responsiveprocessrespectively.Thediscussionofthepossiblecategorizationsofproductsandtherelationshipwiththesupplychaindesignarebeyondthescopeofthispaper.

3ResearchMethod

Theresearchdesignappliedwasanexploratoryqualitativeapproachwithmultiplecasestudies.Suchadesignemphasizestheperspectiveofpeopleinvolvedwithresearchissues,thedescriptionofcontextwherethestudiedphenomenahappensandthetimelineofevents（Bryman,1989,Yin,2003）.Onecharacteristicofthequalitativeapproachthatisworthyofnoteistheflexibilityitprovidestheinvestigationthroughtheuseofobservation,interviewsanddocumentanalysis（Bryman,1989）.

Thechoiceofmultiplecasestudieswasmotivatedbytheneedtocoverdifferenttypesofsmallbusinessesatthisexploratorystage.Therearebenefitsofcarryingoutmorethanonecasestudyasthisprovidesmoreexternalvalidityoffindingsandenablesarangeofcompanieswithdifferentservicelevelrequirementstobesurveyed（Yin,2003）.

TheelementsofLCS（LaLondeandZinszer,1976）providedthefoundationforasemistructuredquestionnaire.Bytakingthesmallruralbusinessasthefocalcompanyinasupplychain,weexploredtheLCSthatthefocalcompanyofferstotheircustomersandwhatistheexpectedlogisticservicelevelinthislinkwithinthesupplychain.

4MainEmpiricalFindings

WeconductedseveralinterviewswithownersofsmallandmicrobusinessesfromdifferentsectorslocatedinruralareasinNortheastScotland.Inthispaper,wehighlighttheresultsfromtwoofthesecases,whicharereferredtoasCompanyAandCompanyBinordertokeeptherealnamesofthecompaniesconfidential.Thereasonsforemphasizingthesetwocasesare:

first,becausetheyrepresenttwocompletelydifferentsituations,oneofthembeingmorefocusedonbusinesstoconsumer（B2C）salesandtheotherbusinesstobusiness（B2B）;andsecond,becausetheshelf-lifeoftheproductssoldbyeachcompanydiffersignificantly.ThemainproductofCompanyAhasashelflifeofoneday,whilethoseofCompanyBhaveashelflifeofatleast12months.Eventhoughthemarketsectorstheyoperatewithinaredifferent,theyfaceacommonissue-bothhavehuman-basedprocedures,whichcouldbeautomated.

4.1Case1-CompanyA

CompanyAisasmallfarm-basedbusinesslocatedinaruralarea,whichstartedoperationsin2006andcurrentlyemploys3peoplefull-time.ThemainproductsofCompanyAarepremiumfreshfruitcoatedwithchocolate.Theirannualturnoveris£80,000andtheyselltheirproductsviatwodifferentchannels:

50%throughtradepartners,and50%throughonlinesalesdirectlytoconsumers.Weinterviewedtheownerofthecompanyasthemainsourceofdata,andalsogathereddatafromthecompany'swebsite.

4.1.1Pre-transactionelementsofcustomerservice

CompanyAdoesnothaveanexplicitpolicyintermsofdelivery,warrantyandreturns.Theintervieweejustifiedthissinceeachcaseisslightlydifferent.Forexample,sometimesthereceiverdoesn'tknowabouttheorder,becauseitisagift,ortheymaynotbeathomeoronholidayatthetimeofdelivery.Ifproblemsoccurduringdeliveryorwiththequalityoftheproductdelivered,thecompanyencouragesthecustomertogetintouchwiththemassoonaspossible,sotheycansolvetheproblem.Besidesthis,acustomercancontactthecompanyanytimeviaphoneore-mail,ifthereisaproblemwithanorder.

4.1.2Transactionelementsofcustomerservice

MostcustomersuseCompanyA'sonlineecommercesystemtoplaceorders,withordersoverthetelephonebeingtheexception.Inordertomaketheonlinesystemasfriendlyaspossible,itwasextensivelytestedbeforemakingitavailabletoconsumers.WhenCompanyAreceivesanorder,thepriorityistomakesurethattheproductisdeliveredinthebestpossiblecondition.Giventhattheproducthasashelflifeofoneday,punctualityofdeliveryiscritical.Oneorderdispatchedbutnotdeliveredwillbecomewaste.Failuretodeliveralsoincreasestheriskoflosingthecustomer.

CompanyAusescouriercompanies（3rdpartycouriers（3PC））,asalogisticserviceproviderforthedistributionofalltheirproducts/orders.Mainlytheyusetheservicesprovidedbyacourier,whichwecall"3PC-a”,fordeliveriesinmainlandUK,andadifferentcourier（whichcallu3PC-b^^）asasecondoptionforl