Cost control and rapid response to market changes have become keys to survival of modern enterprises, especially during today¡¦s ever-increasing business competitions. Communication obstacles such as information inconsistency and delays still exist among members of supply chains, leading to problems like inventory turnover decline and lead time stretch, and eventually are resulting inefficient reactions to the demand of final customers. In recent years, a number of firms have begun to adopt various electronic supply chain management systems to enhance the quality and efficiency of business communication among their suppliers. These systems have helped businesses parties simplify their communication time and enhance business partnerships and alliances, thus enhanced their overall competitive advantages. In additional, the wide implementation of such information technology is promoting healthy integration among industries towards much more efficient supply chains. In a typical supply chain management scenario, businesses with ineffective operation management capability are often disturbed by rapid changes in market demands, short product life cycles, and lacks of integration from levels of suppliers, because the curial marketing information has not been efficiently delivered to proper functional departments, disabling the entire organization to reflect the changing demands and market conditions. This study is aimed to business and industrial models on examining firms¡¦ competitive advantages and their relationship with suppliers. Based on the result of the analysis, it would be the reference to build up the system of e-procurement. Moreover, in market-based systems, it always exits supply-demand relationship between suppliers and buyer powers, when facing high supplier power; companies should provide sufficient information to negotiate with the suppliers. The research is on the basis of Taiwan optoelectronic industry to investigate the companies of the TFT-LCD panel, and the supply chains of the industry. In analyzing the main TFT-LCD panel providers, the paper will probe into TFT-LCD firms to import e- procurement system by building the CPFR mechanism to improve the reaction capacity of businesses and to respond to the market rapid change. The study exerts simulation software, Arena, to conduct simulation and improvement of such models,then according to the simulation results to utilize them as a reference to purchasing cooperative enterprise into the future operation.

Background: Swedish textile waste management ecosystem is recognized to be a multi-actor ecosystem as opposed to a single-actor scenario whereas actors tend to perform their activities single-handedly and in a fragmented manner. Participating actors, each play a significant role in handling and treating the textile waste but this fragmented system renders certain drawbacks. The main treatment of textile waste in Sweden is incineration which addresses environmental damages. This in particular is more worrying when textiles are used as a fuel. This highlights the necessity for the actors to perform in a network and expand their collaboration, thus move more efficiently towards development of a sustainable innovation and find an alternative for the current treatment of textile waste. Purpose: This study strives to investigate the challenges and at the same time opportunities of implementation of a collaborative business model for sustainable innovation. This has been achieved through taking benefits of value mapping tool and actor-mapping. The core values of actors have been identified which was continued by identification of their shared and conflicting values. Methodology: Pre-study was conducted in order to design and develop two mappings, “main actors mapping”, “actor’s activity mapping” which helped the authors and the interviewees to gain a better realization of the Swedish Textile Waste Management ecosystem through visualization. The process of data collection occurred through semi-structured interviews with Open-ended questions which resulted to rich detailed responses from the interviewees. Seven organizations as the representative of Swedish textile waste management ecosystem were reached and studied. The outcomes of the interview were analyzed by the aid of value mapping tool and led the authors to formulate the answer to the research question. Interview findings: Interview findings presents the outcome of the collected data in accordance with the purpose of the study and the answer to the proposed research question. Consequently, this chapter provides a description of the Activity classification in TWM eco-system in Sweden as an outcome of the pre-study, continued by expanding on the results of Actors mapping & their activities in TW eco-system and Activity mapping in relation to actors’ interactions, which were achieved by the aid of value mapping tool. This chapter is concluded by providing actors perspectives regarding the formation and the suitability of a collaborative business model for sustainable innovation on the basis of mapped values within textile waste scenario in Sweden. Analysis& Discussion: This study tends to present rich and comprehensive picture in a descriptive manner in regards with participating actors, their activities, collaboration and value-orientations within Swedish textile waste scenario and propose a solution to the identified short-comings of the system by investigating the potentials of a collaborative business model for sustainable innovation. The literature review confirm and support the interview findings and addresses the need for further dialogue and collaboration among actors while highlighting the need from moving from ego-centric business model to multi-actor business model. This chapter is concluded by the response to the research question.

The bullwhip effect is known as a phenomenon of information distortion due to the lack of information sharing and the forecast error. This phenomenon could cause the productions plan to be instable and the inventory fluctuation among the supply chain members. Those situations above will also cause the fluctuation of purchasing costs to downstream members. The raising costs and inefficiency will be the burden of whole supply chain and not single party can exempts such result. Therefore, the collaboration of supply chain members is aim to solve such problems. In this study, we set the manufacturer as the logistic center among supply chain members, and operate the collaborative business. The artificial leather industry in Taiwan will be the platform of this study. Operation models will be built by the classical type, CPFR type, and CCU (collaborative and coordinative unit) type, and also to be simulated to analyze the performances through several KPIs. The result of this study can be the reference when adopting CPFR or CCU into Taiwan artificial leather industry.

Virtual Organizations (VO)—a network of independent organizations collaborating to address specific business opportunities—have become popular in today’s technology driven business environment. Due to their autonomous and interdependent nature, management of collaboration among such organizations is a challenging task. Although many solutions have been proposed over the past two decades to support inter-organizational interactions, VOs still face several challenges due to their dynamic and temporal nature that cannot be addressed by traditional solutions such as ebXML, RosettaNet and EDI. In this research, we present a framework for process management in service oriented virtual organizations and a distributed architecture for a flexible infrastructure that supports collaborative business process execution, monitoring and management. The framework contains 6 layers with multiple components within each layer. In designing the components of the framework, standard reference architecture such as the Open-EDI reference model and the S3 service oriented architecture, as well as best practices such as ITIL V3 and PMBOK are used. The infrastructure supports the common topologies of inter-organizational collaboration (e.g. peer-to-peer, star, linear), and responds well to changes due to its loosely coupled components. The proposed infrastructure is based on federating multiple SOA infrastructures with the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) as its core. It is implemented using IBM WebSphere ™ products. We demonstrate that VOs built with our framework and implementation architecture facilitate flexibility, rapid process integration and dynamic evolution.

Virtual Organizations (VO)—a network of independent organizations collaborating to address specific business opportunities—have become popular in today’s technology driven business environment. Due to their autonomous and interdependent nature, management of collaboration among such organizations is a challenging task. Although many solutions have been proposed over the past two decades to support inter-organizational interactions, VOs still face several challenges due to their dynamic and temporal nature that cannot be addressed by traditional solutions such as ebXML, RosettaNet and EDI. In this research, we present a framework for process management in service oriented virtual organizations and a distributed architecture for a flexible infrastructure that supports collaborative business process execution, monitoring and management. The framework contains 6 layers with multiple components within each layer. In designing the components of the framework, standard reference architecture such as the Open-EDI reference model and the S3 service oriented architecture, as well as best practices such as ITIL V3 and PMBOK are used. The infrastructure supports the common topologies of inter-organizational collaboration (e.g. peer-to-peer, star, linear), and responds well to changes due to its loosely coupled components. The proposed infrastructure is based on federating multiple SOA infrastructures with the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) as its core. It is implemented using IBM WebSphere ™ products. We demonstrate that VOs built with our framework and implementation architecture facilitate flexibility, rapid process integration and dynamic evolution.

Depuis 2014, la Commission Européenne incite les régions de ses états-membres à établir un nouveau type de stratégies de développement territoriales devant les pousser à se spécialiser dans des domaines qui sont ancrés sur leur territoire afin de dégager des avantages concurrentiels originaux et difficilement imitables : les « Stratégies de Recherche et d’Innovation pour la Spécialisation Intelligente » (RIS3). Depuis 2014, les RIS3 conditionnent également l’obtention des fonds FEDER qui servent à financer le développement de ces régions. Mais la principale originalité des RIS3 réside dans le fait que ces processus de sélection et de priorisation des spécialisations qui s’établissent à l’échelle globale des régions selon une dynamique décisionnelle classique qui va « du haut vers le bas » doivent désormais reposer sur des processus d'identification des domaines à fort potentiel qui doivent être menés « du bas vers le haut » via un processus de Découverte Entrepreneuriale (DE) devant permettre à un maximum d’« Entrepreneurs régionaux » (RE) (de toutes tailles, statuts ou secteurs) de participer à la définition des orientations de leur territoire. Cependant, un certain manque de préconisations méthodologiques se fait ressentir pour instrumenter concrètement ces processus au sein des réalités de chaque système d’innovation régional. Cette thèse présente donc deux prototypes logiciels que nous avons développés pour instrumenter ces mécanismes bidirectionnels au sein du système d’innovation de la Nouvelle-Aquitaine : (1) « WeKeyInnovation, une plateforme collaborative qui doit permettre à tous les RE de partager des informations utiles pour innover, mais aussi de poser les bases d’un véritable observatoire dynamique pour aider la puissance publique régionale à identifier en temps réel les pratiques, les besoins et les initiatives à fort potentiel émanant des acteurs de terrain qui évoluent sur le territoire ; (2) « DialoJ », un outil de matching en ligne reposant sur la résolution de questions dialogiques en amont d’évènements afin d’aider les RE qui entendent y participer à expliciter leurs expectatives et à mieux visualiser celles des autres acteurs dans le but de faciliter les processus d’identification et de correspondance avec des partenaires d’affaires potentiels plus adéquats en tant qu’étape préliminaire à toute démarche d’affaires collaborative. / Since 2014 the European Commission enhanced all member-states regions to establish a new type of territorial development strategies which call them to specialize within areas that are really embedded into their territory in order to push them to build a set of original competitive advantages that are impossible or difficult to imitate. Those new strategies are called: “Research and Innovation Strategies for the Smart Specialization” (RIS3). Since 2014, the formulation of a RIS3 strategy also became the obligation that conditions the possibility for regions to access to the European Regional Development Fund which is one of the main financial resources of regions to finance their development. But the main originality of RIS3 is certainly the fact that the classical “top-down” processes of selection and prioritization of the strategic orientations of territories that will be decided by each public government at regional level will also have to be based now on an “Entrepreneurial Discovery” process: a “bottom-up” process of identification of the domains of strong potential for the region which stresses the need to involve all the “regional entrepreneurs” (RE) (of all size, sectors or status) into the design of their territory orientations. However, it seems that there is a lack of practical recommendations to concretely implement those complex mechanism into the very heterogeneous contexts of each regional innovation system of European regions. Thus, this work present two propositions of tools that we developed to instrument those complex processes within the innovation system of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine: (1) “WeKeyInnovation, a collaborative platform to help RE to share information about innovation supports, and to create also the basis of a dynamic observatory at regional level in order to help policymakers in the design of more suitable territorial strategies; (2) “DialoJ”, a matching tool that will allow to all RE to clarify their needs before to participate to any networking events, in oder to help them to identify and to match with more suitable potential partners before to eventually start any collaborative business process with them.

Electrification of the transport sector is an important step in reducing the global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Compared to traditional internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs), electric vehicles (EVs) produce no tail-pipe emissions and could be coupled with responsible energy production from renewable energy sources to reduce coupled emissions of their operation. One particularly interesting segment of the transport sector is the light-duty trucks (LDTs) commonly utilized in last-mile distribution. These vehicles are responsible for the third largest GHG-emissions in the road transportation sector in Sweden and is not as detailly covered in existing research compared to heavy-duty and passenger vehicles. At the same time usage of these vehicles is increasing due to the rapid increase of e-commerce. The objective of this thesis therefore is to investigate the potential of electrification for LDTs in last-mile distribution, operating in Stockholm, Sweden. The study is conducted through a techno economical optimization along with a business model innovation coupled to the current last mile operation of three collaborating partner companies. In this way, real world cases are included in the study to reflect on the feasibility of electrification of these vehicles. Conclusions of the study shows that electrification of the LDTs in last-mile operation in Stockholm, Sweden is possible. However, it would require value-adding measures to gain economic profit when transitioning from ICEVs. In addition, there also exists practical challenges as there is a significant need for route charging for several vehicles in the analyzed company fleets. This implies that operational driving behavior is required to be reviewed to reduce the requirement of route charging. Additionally, there is a need for investigating how route charging could be supplied to the companies. / Elektrifiering av transportsektorn är ett viktigt steg för att minska de globala utsläppen av växthusgaser (GHG). Jämfört med traditionella fordon med förbränningsmotorer (ICEVs) ger elfordon (EVs) inga direkta avgasutsläpp och skulle kunna kopplas till ansvarsfull energiproduktion från förnybara energikällor för att minska de kopplade utsläppen från deras drift. Ett särskilt intressant segment av transportsektorn är de lätta lastbilarna (LDTs) som vanligtvis används i last-mile distribution. Dessa fordon är ansvariga för de tredje största utsläppen av växthusgaser inom vägtransportsektorn i Sverige och täcks inte lika ingående i befintlig forskning jämfört med tunga fordon och personbilar. Samtidigt ökar användningen av dessa fordon på grund av den snabba ökningen av e-handel. Syftet med denna avhandling är därför att undersöka potentialen för elektrifiering för LDTs i last-mile distribution, verksamma i Stockholm, Sverige. Studien genomförs genom en tekno-ekonomisk optimering tillsammans med en affärsmodellinnovation kopplad till den nuvarande verksamheten hos tre deltagande partnerföretag. På så sätt inkluderas verkliga fall i studien för att reflektera över genomförbarheten av elektrifiering av dessa fordon. Slutsatser av studien visar att elektrifiering av LDTs inom last-mile distribution i Stockholm, Sverige är möjlig. Det skulle dock kräva värdeskapande åtgärder för att få ekonomisk vinst vid övergången från ICEVs. Dessutom finns det praktiska utmaningar i och med ett stort behov av ruttladdning för flera fordon i de analyserade företagsflottan. Detta innebär att det operativa körbeteendet måste ses över för att minska kravet på ruttladdning. Dessutom finns ett behov av att undersöka hur ruttladdning på bästa sätt skulle kunna tillföras företagen.

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The textile industry is considered one of the most challenging industries when it comes to environmental pollution just after the oil industry. It has a huge impact on water pollution and resource consumption in terms of fiber production. Recently sustainability in cotton fiber production is questioned due to the huge uses of land, water, a large number of pesticides, and a significant amount of energy during cultivation. When it comes to cellulosic pulp production, currently fibrous plant material is used which is mainly wood. So, recycling of cellulosic textiles is considered the only option to reduce this impact. The recycling company Renewcell is launching a large-scale plant for cellulosic fiber recycling which is located in Sweden and will use the post-industrial textile waste as one of its feedstocks. The purpose of this research is to analyze the barriers and drivers for collecting this post-industrial textile waste from the garment manufacturing countries to Sweden and analyze the available collaborative business model alternatives. This study was performed by a qualitative study where primary data was collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed by thematic analysis. The data was collected among four stakeholders within this value chain which are the fashion brands, recyclers, garment manufacturers, and waste handlers. The finding shows that this sector is very informal and is yet to be formalized. The external informal influence was identified throughout the value chain as a non-value-added activity.  And the involvement of fashion brands was identified as one of the drivers. Several collaborative business models are discussed considering their applicability in different contextual situations. This analysis was discussed based on the seven themes which were generated during the thematic analysis and later discussed with the current empirical study and theoretical background. Collaboration between the recycler, traders, brands, and the textile manufacturers were discussed in different dimensions such as direct collaboration and logistic partnership approach. Then the research limitation was discussed in both methodological and research contexts followed by future research recommendations.