Author:
Giuffrida Maria,Mangiaracina Riccardo,Perego Alessandro,Tumino Angela
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to support companies’ risk-informed selection of a logistics solution to operate in China via cross-border e-commerce (CBEC).
Design/methodology/approach
Decision theory is applied to the recent field of CBEC. This theoretic setup involves a decision maker who must choose among a set of alternatives, whose consequences depend on uncertain factors (Savage, 1954). The study develops an activity-based model to calculate logistics costs in a deterministic setting. Simulations and probabilistic sensitivity analyses are later performed to evaluate the impact of uncertainty.
Findings
There are four main solutions to enter China, determined by the adopted international transport mean and the presence of a local warehouse. The most important risk factors affecting the choice of the logistics solution are change of CBEC regulation, product value, expected service level and demand level.
Originality/value
From a theoretical perspective, this study improves CBEC literature, so far characterised by descriptive papers, often lacking industry focus or empirical exploration. It also provides new application opportunities for decision theory, whereas previous contributions have proposed different theoretical approaches, such as transaction cost or institutional theory. From a practical viewpoint, the paper is the first to compare the costs of the main logistics solutions to sell online to China, by taking uncertainty into account. The results can be used to better understand the differences among solutions and identify the most critical parameters. Finally, this research provides some observations for policy implementation.
Subject
Management of Technology and Innovation,Transportation
Reference64 articles.
1. Revelation of cross-border logistics performance for the manufacturing industry development;International Journal of Mobile Communications,2016
2. Logistics and distribution innovation in China;International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management,2018
3. How useful is quantitative risk assessment?;Risk Analysis,2004
4. Ballering, T. (2017), “China Cross Border E-commerce Guidebook”, Consulate-General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Shanghai, Shanghai, available at: https://bit.ly/2xxhGer (accessed 3 August 2018).
5. Invariant probabilistic sensitivity analysis;Management Science,2013
Cited by
43 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献