Horizontal collaboration has been considered as effective practice for sustainable logistics and freight transport and it has gained increased attention in recent years. This paper aims to provide a survey of the development of horizontal collaborative transport (HCT) over the past ten years, to identify research trends and gaps, then to propose some research opportunities. The paper also aims to provide guidelines to logistics companies who wish to embark on HCT, to help them choose which HCT solution to implement. To provide a comprehensive and structured review, the paper follows the methodology for Systematic Literature Review proposed in the literature. A total of 120 scientific papers published between 2007 and 2017 were reviewed. A survey framework based on two axes – HCT solutions and implementation issues – is developed to analyse and position the papers. The results show that, regarding HCT solutions, carrier alliance and flow controller collaboration were the most frequently studied. But recent innovative solutions such as pooling and physical internet are also gaining increased attention. Regarding implementation issues, the focus of the literature has been on the development of decision-making models, including transport planning, lane exchange, and gain sharing. Conversely, managerial and technological issues have received less attention.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the state-of-the-art E-commerce logistics in supply chain management by investigating worldwide implementations and corresponding models together with supporting techniques via furniture industry. Design/methodology/approach: Typical E-commerce logistics companies from North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific are comprehensively investigated so as to get the lessons and insights from these practices. Findings: Future technologies like Internet of Things, Big Data Analytics, and Cloud Computing would be possibly adopted to enhance the E-commerce logistics in terms of system level, operational level, and decision-making level that may be real time and intelligent in the next decade. Research limitations/implications: This paper takes the furniture industry for example to illustrate the E-commerce logistics and supply chain management (LSCM). Other industries like electronic appliance industry are not considered. Practical implications: Opportunities and future perspectives are summarized from practical implementations so that interested parties like E-commerce and logistics companies are able to get some guidance when they are contemplating the business. Social implications: E-commerce is booming with the development of new business models and will be continuously boosted in the near future. With large number of enterprises carrying out E-commerce, logistics has been largely influenced. Originality/value: Insights and lessons from this paper are significant for academia and practitioners for considering E-commerce LSCM.

The primary aim of this research is to define smart construction objects (SCOs), the fundamental building blocks of future construction. SCOs are construction resources (e.g., machinery, device, and materials) that are made smart by augmenting them with technologies conferring autonomy, awareness, and the ability to interact with their vicinity. This smartness can enable better decision making in construction. Understanding of SCOs, however, is still in its infancy. Informed by theories on ubiquitous computing and general smart objects, this paper first defines the panoramic and interconnected properties that differentiate SCOs from conventional construction objects. Second, representative scenarios of the use of SCOs are given to illustrate the new workflow with enhanced smartness in the future. Next, using prefabrication construction as an example, this paper further elaborates SCOs using Industry Foundation Classes Extensible Markup Language and exploring their software/hardware representations. This is the first-ever research to articulate canonical SCOs and their core properties, computing applications, and representations. More specific and applicable SCOs are compellingly desired as the future study. Properly linked to building information modeling and Internet of Things, SCOs can enable a safer, greener, more efficient, and more effective construction system that has ever been seen.