Critical success factors of supply chain integration in container shipping: an application of resource-based view theory

ABSTRACT

The container shipping industry is receiving growing attention in driving the performance of global supply chains. This phenomenon has accelerated supply chain integration (SCI) within the industry. Although SCI could offer numerous benefits, it is often quoted to be implemented easier in theory than in practice. The high failure rate that is associated with SCI is often not addressed in the literature. Grounded on resource-based view (RBV) theory, this paper is aimed at identifying the critical success factors (CSFs) and examining their influence on SCI and supply chain performance (SCP). Survey questionnaires were administered on 164 container shipping firms. The constructs were validated empirically using confirmatory factor analysis and were subsequently analysed using structural equation modelling. The proposed CSFs in this study are found to be positively corelated with SCI, which, in turn, is positively correlated with SCP. This paper has contributed to both theory and practice by applying RBV theory to identify the key resources and capabilities that are necessary for SCI in the container shipping industry.     

Long-memory characteristics of urban roadside air quality

Carbon monoxide is a major contributor to air pollution in urban cities, particularly at the roadside. Hourly, monthly and seasonal mean carbon monoxide concentration data are collected from a roadside air monitoring station in Hong Kong over 7-years. The station is a few metres from a major intersection surrounded by tall buildings. In particular, hourly patterns of concentrations on different days of the week are investigated. The data show that hourly carbon monoxide concentrations resemble the traffic pattern of the area and tend to be lower in the summer. Using a seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average models shows that the daily traffic cycle strongly influences concentrations. Further, it is found that urban roadside carbon monoxide monitoring data exhibits a long-memory process, suggesting that a model incorporating long memory and seasonality effects is needed simulate urban roadside air quality.     

Fatigue life prediction of welded stiffened 350WT steel plates

The propagation of fatigue cracks under constant amplitude cyclic loading was studied in welded stiffened steel plates. The residual stresses in the stiffened plates were measured using the neutron diffraction strain-scanning technique. A finite element model of the stiffened plate was constructed to simulate the residual stresses by an uncoupled thermal and thermo-mechanical analysis. Both the finite element model and the neutron diffraction measurements indicated that in general the residual stresses were tensile near the welded stiffeners and compressive between the stiffeners and ahead of the starter notch tip. Fatigue testing indicated that the fatigue crack growth rates of the stiffened plates were in general lower than that of a corresponding unstiffened plate, especially near the notch tip where compressive residual stresses existed. Both the finite element method and Green's function predicted the fatigue crack growth rates with reasonable accuracy.     

Pedestrian streets in Singapore

A fair amount of literature pertaining to pedestrian streets has been produced but for the most part it is on the American and European developments. There has been surprisingly little published research on pedestrian street development in Asia. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to examine pedestrian streets in Asia, using the city-state of Singapore as a case study. Since the mid-1980s, pedestrian streets have been adopted as a policy in the conservation and planning of Singapore's city centre. The resulting pedestrian streets came in many forms, from a single pedestrian-only street to a whole precinct of several streets.     

让速度去配合你

高铁还是飞机?飞机抑或驾车?看来非单纯关手速度。也许中国要开始接受一个事实:不要先考虑到是否世界第一,是否创下纪录,是否需要那么快。而选择出行工具,是关乎到一整套出行文化与生活方式,不单纯是一个交通工具的问题。中国,快也好,慢也行,最重要的不是速度本身是否快或慢,而是这速度是否适合中国,是否配合到     

是时候为中国制造了

香港的购物名区铜锣湾有一个以年青人顾客为对象的小商场"银座商场",熟悉此商场的人都知这里是潮流服饰小店的"英雄地"——很多抱着潮流时装梦的小店老板满腔热血地开业,预算付出一年半载的"进场费"(包括租金、买货和销售的成本)来证明自己的时尚触觉和眼光,更关键的是用有限的时间去摸索商场的客路、时尚品味,以至细微到顾客喜欢的颜色、不会碰的剪裁、购物的习性等     

Port competitiveness from the users' perspective: An analysis of major container ports in China and its neighboring countries

The objective of this paper is to explore the relative importance of factors that determine container port competitiveness from the users' perspective. Three groups of port users – shipping liners, forwarders and shippers – are considered in this paper. The importance of the various factors is determined on the basis of survey results from the industry experts and then obtained via the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Furthermore, we use the results to evaluate ports in Mainland China, Hong Kong and other Asian cities. Given our results, operators of our sample ports could benchmark their performance with their competitors and identify the areas that they need to improve.     

淘宝卖车,噱头还是趋势?

吉利淘宝商城全球鹰旗舰店正式上线不到1分钟,300辆吉利轿车被抢拍光。当天吉利迅速追加了200辆同款熊猫车,也在3分钟内被抢光。兰博基尼LP-700在淘宝上架的4天时间(5月20日到23日),兰博基尼专卖店的浏览量PV高达204万,抢占汽车类店铺浏览top榜、店铺浏览量飙升榜双第一。此前淘宝还曾推出过团购奔驰smart活动,200辆价值10多万的奔驰车smart短时间被抢光,团购变成了秒杀。与     

Corporate social responsibility and service quality provision in shipping firms: financial synergies or trade-offs?

This study examines whether the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and provision of service quality (SQ) to satisfy shippers result in financial synergies or trade-offs for shipping firms. To address this question, a contingency framework was introduced in this study. The literature was first reviewed for hypotheses development, followed by interviews with eight industry practitioners. Subsequently, an internet survey was administered to 156 shipping firms in Singapore, and the obtained data were analysed using path model analysis and simple slope analysis. The results indicate that CSR complements SQ and provides additional but modest financial contribution to shipping firms via customer satisfaction. In addition, synergistic interactions between SQ and CSR were found. Although there are financial synergies from the implementation of CSR and provision of SQ, the analysis reveals that CSR should only be engaged when a shipping firm is fairly competent at delivering quality shipping services. This paper contributes to both theory and practice by framing business decisions on implementing CSR under contingency theory and offering a strategic approach to managing SQ as well as CSR of shipping firms.