A considerable body of literature deals with the creation of economic value while increasing corporate environmental and social performance. Some publications even focus on the business case for sustainability which aims at increasing corporate economic value through environmental or social measures. The existence of a business case for sustainability is, however, mostly seen as an ad hoc measure, a supplement to the core business, or simply a coincidence. As a contrast, this paper argues that business model innovations may be required to support a systematic, ongoing creation of business cases for sustainability. A framework for business model innovation is proposed as a means to strategically create business cases on a regular basis as an inherent, deeply integrated element of business activities.

Business Cases for Sustainability: The Role of Business Model Innovation for Corporate Sustainability

Purpose: This paper investigates the way in which blockchain technology is likely to influence future supply chain practices and policies. Design/methodology/approach: A systematic review of both academic and practitioner literature was conducted. Multiple accounts of blockchain adoption within industry were also consulted to gain further insight. Findings: While blockchain technologies remain in their infancy, they are gaining momentum within supply chains, trust being the predominant factor driving their adoption. The value of such technologies for supply chain management lies in four areas: extended visibility and traceability, supply chain digitalisation and disintermediation, improved data security and smart contracts. Several challenges and gaps in understanding and opportunities for further research are identified by our research. How a blockchain enabled supply chain should be configured has also been explored from a design perspective. Research limitations/implications: Our systematic review focuses on the diffusion of blockchain technology within supply chains and great care was taken in selecting search terms. However, we acknowledge that our choice of terms may have excluded certain blockchain articles from this review. Practical implications: This paper offers valuable insight for supply-chain practitioners into how blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt existing supply chain provisions as well as a number of challenges to its successful diffusion. Originality/value: Ours is one of the first studies to examine the current state of blockchain diffusion within supply chains. It lays a firm foundation for future research. Keywords: blockchain, distributed ledger technology, supply chain management, peer-to-peer communication, systematic literature review

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Understanding blockchain technology for future supply chains: a systematic literature review and research agenda

A review of Internet of Things (IoT) embedded sustainable supply chain for industry 4.0 requirements

Supply chain finance: A systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis

Issues related to flows of goods and information are frequently discussed in the logistics and Supply Chain Management literature. But, only few contributions are exploring the financial flows associated with supply chains. This article reviews the state-of-the-art of research regarding financial flows in supply chains. In doing so, it becomes apparent that an explicit examination and optimisation of the cost of capital has been missing so far. In order to close this gap, a conceptual framework and a mathematical model of “Supply Chain Finance” is proposed.

Supply chain finance: optimizing financial flows in supply chains

It is now accepted that logistics and supply chain management (SCM) have great potential for improving bottom line results. This paper proposes a framework for investigating the financial issues in logistics and SCM and shows that taking a supply chain perspective on financial issues offers great opportunities for SCM professionals. SCM can not only contribute to improvements in sales, cost of sales, and the invested capital, but also has the potential to improve the capital cost rate as a long neglected supply chain driver of shareholder value.

Supply chain finance: applying finance theory to supply chain management to enhance finance in supply chains

Transport by private car has been challenged due to its high environmental impacts. Ride sharing (i.e. people with the same routes sharing a car) contributes to sustainable mobility by increasing the capacity use of cars. Still, when arranging 'Ride Access Points' (RAPs), intense communication and coordination between drivers and riders is necessary and thus transaction costs arise. Based on the fact that information and communication technologies can reduce transaction costs and that local geographical knowledge is distributed across distant individuals, we focus on community–based toolkits for user innovation and design to improve ride access. A case study at the German ride sharing service provider Momax GmbH shows how a toolkit has been used for crowdsourcing a virtual mobility network consisting of RAPs. Based on this example from the service industry, we argue that real–time translation of user content into service production is crucial for increasing the intrinsic motivation of lead users.

A community–based toolkit for designing ride–sharing services: the case of a virtual network of ride access points in Germany

Supply Chain Finanzierung : Optimierung der Finanzflüsse in Wertschöpfungsketten

Die Verflechtung von Industrie- und Handelsunternehmen mit Finanzdienstleistern wachst. Ebenfalls nimmt die Industrialisierung der Finanzwelt stetig zu. Das aus dem Supply Chain Management hervorgehende Financial Chain Management adressiert Fragestellungen der Finanzflusse in und zwischen Industrie- und Handelsunternehmen sowie Finanzdienstleistern. Um zielgerichtet Verbesserungspotenziale in den Finanzflussen zu realisieren, spielt die Identifizierung der masgeblichen Werttreiber eine entscheidende Rolle. Basierend auf einer empirischen Studie unter den 1.000 umsatzstarksten Industrie- und Handelsunternehmen in Deutschland werden exemplarisch fur die Financial Chain Werttreiber aufgezeigt. Fur die Teilprozesse Qualifikation und Rechnungsstellung zeigt sich, dass eine Reduktion der Prozessdauer den Unternehmenswert signifikant erhohen kann.

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Moritz Gomm

Papers

Supply chain finance: optimizing financial flows in supply chains

Supply chain finance: applying finance theory to supply chain management to enhance finance in supply chains

A community–based toolkit for designing ride–sharing services: the case of a virtual network of ride access points in Germany

Supply Chain Finanzierung : Optimierung der Finanzflüsse in Wertschöpfungsketten

Die Financial Chain im Supply Chain Management: Konzeptionelle Einordnung und Identifikation von Werttreibern