Incoterms® define obligations, risks and costs that each of the seller and buyer must incur in the movement of the goods for a trade. New versions are issued when deemed necessary by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and are aimed at including new trade realities and fostering trade. A new version Incoterms® 2020 is now available to replace the previous version, namely Incoterms® 2010. The research using Construct Clarity theory shows there are issues with the Incoterms® 2020 both as to the holistic ability to cover all trade as well as in the individual Incoterms® themselves. These issues are analysed in detail and, based on this research, the authors synthesize these into the reasoned aspects the Incoterms® drafting committee missed to further improve the Incoterms® rules. The authors extend this research and present the improvements that could be achieved in a future issue of the Incoterms® rules.

Among the many sources of financial and operational risk in supply chains are the Incoterms^®, which are terms of trade used to decide who does what in a cargo movement, when risk passes from seller to buyer and who pays for which part of the movement. Wrong Incoterms^® create unexpected costs or risks, at best, and inoperable contracts at worst, with all the challenges implied. This paper analyzes risk in supply chain management (SCM) through the lens of the responsibilities and costs imposed by Incoterms^®. The authors also conducted a survey of 100 supply chain decision makers on supply chain contracts creation and Incoterms^® knowledge in the population. Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) of Incoterms^® reveals many scenarios that pose financial, operational, and even legal risk to firms. Results suggest Incoterms^® rules are poorly understood by supply chain practitioners in general, are often chosen by personnel who are not aware of the implications of their choices, and are therefore frequently chosen incorrectly or non-strategically, thereby increasing cost and risk. This paper discusses the implications of the analysis and survey results on supply chain performance as well as mitigation strategies for practitioners in strategically using Incoterms^® to remove cost, risk, and delay from supply chain transactions.

The rise of social media technology has led to new customer relationship management tools that engage customers more easily and directly (social customer relationship management, SCRM). However, the usefulness of SCRM is contingent upon a successful adoption by an organization. Various technology adoption theoretical frameworks have been proposed for social media technologies generally, and for SCRM specifically. This paper extends the literature by exploring network externalities as a potential driver of SCRM adoption in organizations by surveying 363 supply chain professionals regarding their behaviors and uses of SCRM. The results suggest that network externalities have a substantial effect on adoption of SCRM in business organizations and that a perception of higher network externalities has a positive effect on adoption. This implies that organizations should select SCRM systems with better network externalities and also that they should educate their workforce about those strong network externalities leading up to the adoption.

We explore the complexity issue relevant to a logistics service process characterized by unpredictable service stages and service sequences in the context of chemical tankers’ call in the Port of Houston. The operational dimensions of uncertainty and conflict surrounding process complexity are examined through a mixed-methods approach using both qualitative and quantitative data collected from the Port of Houston. We propose a taxonomy to classify several uncertainty and conflict factors emerged from our qualitative analysis, including structural conflict, structural uncertainty, infrastructural conflict, and infrastructural uncertainty. The case study findings are validated and triangulated by a quantitative analysis which quantifies the time and cost impacts of unproductive chemical tanker movement on port-call service performance. We contribute to the complexity theory by introducing four dimensions of process complexity to the stream of process-oriented logistics service research. These four complexity dimensions can be used by managers to untangle their process complexity. Our pseudo-service-stage based mapping technique will also be valuable for managers to visualize their service processes with unpredictable service sequences. Finally, we call for future research on synchronization across operational processes between service stages.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the contingency effects that contextual factors of a networked service environment have on the phased Lean Six Sigma (LSS) implementation frameworks.Design/methodology/approach: This paper employs the critical realism (CR) case study research methodology to examine the contingent and causal relationships between contextual configurations of business networks, the DMAIC or PDCA phases in an LSS implementation agenda, and business management functions. The authors conducted a single case study on the basis of challenges they met in kicking off lean transportation in the Port of Houston.Findings: The key finding from the study is a mid-range theory regarding the contingency effects of contextual factors of service business networks on the phased LSS implementation frameworks. The authors found that when there are complexity and dynamics of contextual factors at the field layer, management should focus more on tasks in early LSS phases to emphasize influencing. When there is no centralized authority in the network and the value-system is loosely coupled, management needs to execute more tasks as described in the define, measure and analyze phases with the purpose of both influencing and orchestrating. When individual actors have goals not aligned well with the goal of the business network and have unmatched operations capabilities, these factors should be considered as early as possible in these LSS phases. When a business network has complicated business processes with high unpredictability and uncertainty and individual actors’ value-creation systems are not well embedded in the entire value-creation system, PDCA will be the preferred core structure of an LSS implementation agenda.Research limitations/implications: This study contributes to the LSS research stream by introducing a causal/contingency model that prescribes the contingency effects of three contextual configurations on LSS implementation. It also contributes to the emerging discipline, business network management, regarding how to use LSS frameworks in strategic planning. It also contributes to the CR school of problem-driven case study by using a strategic initiative framework as a platform and each phase in the framework as a unit. This conceptualization of the entity of interest helps explore the interactions among three theoretical constructs: contextual configurations, phased LSS implementation agenda and management functions.Practical implications: Managerial implications of this study are twofold. One is the procedure of analyzing the impacts of contextual factors on the causal relationships between LSS implementation phases and network management functions. The entire procedure represents the agenda-setting process of LSS implementation, the most daunting and challenging managerial task in LSS projects. Another one is the guideline on how to determine whether DMAIC or PDCA is appropriate for the LSS agenda when used in a networked environment.Originality/value: This paper would serve as an excellent resource for both academicians and LSS practitioners in initiating, orchestrating and managing an LSS project in a networked service environment. This study represents the first effort to explore the impact of contextual factors of business networks on lean transformation.