Emerging Technologies in E-Commerce Operations and Supply Chain Management

The past two decades have witnessed the introduction of many emerging technologies, such as blockchain, advanced robotics, augmented reality, additive manufacturing, the Internet of things (IoTs), machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI), to firms’ operations and extended supply chains. With the rapid development of the internet, e-commerce has been widely connected with operational intelligence supported by cloud computing. Digital production generates a massive amount of data which could improve operational capacities. E-commerce operations and supply chains are driven by Industry 4.0 technologies. Looking into the future, these emerging technologies could fundamentally change the business models with which firms have worked for a long time. Hence, it is important and crucial for us to identify the value of emerging technologies for the success of e-commerce.

Inevitably, emerging technologies help tackle emerging challenges that conventional technologies cannot even realize. However, they could also bring about new problems such as infringement of users’ privacy, additional costs for system upgrading and staff training, etc. Thus, researchers strive to develop novel models and analytical techniques to evaluate the impacts of new technology adoption on e-commerce operations and supply chains to facilitate optimal decision-making and achieve high operational efficiency.

In this special issue, we aim to publish e-commerce operations and supply chain management research with real industry cases and applications. Each real industry case should discuss unique problems relating to the Special Issue topic while providing tailored e-commerce operations and supply chain management solutions that can address the specific issues in such cases.

Electronic Commerce Research and Applications is a well-established and reputable electronic commerce journal with a long publishing history. It publishes both applied and theoretical articles that contribute to the field of e-commerce operations and supply chain management, with the development and application of quantitative approaches for problem-solving and optimal decision-making in operations. We invite submissions that present original and high-quality research works on the applications of emerging technology in e-commerce operations and supply chain management studies with real practices. We consider submissions that introduce novel research problems and concepts, develop rigorous methodologies to tackle the problems, and propose innovative applications. Submissions can employ various research methods including, but not limited to, empirical, analytic modeling, theoretical investigation, data-driven methodologies, and simulation. Successful real-world implementation is strongly encouraged.

The main topics of interest include, but are not limited to the following:

• Value of augmented reality on e-commerce operations and supply chains

• Cyber-physical systems with automatic manufacturing in operations and supply chains

• Blockchain-enabled operations and supply chain management

• Using information technology and data analytics for managing e-commerce operations and supply chains

• Drone technologies in e-commerce operations and supply chain management

• AI/Machine learning and IoTs for improving e-commerce operations and supply chain efficiency

• Managing e-commerce operations and supply chain with the application of additive manufacturing

• Using advanced technologies to improve social and environmental impacts in e-commerce operations and supply chain management

• Using emerging technologies to manage e-commerce operations and supply chain during the outbreak of COVID-19

Submission schedule

Submission due: March 31, 2021

1st Round notification: June 30, 2021

Revision submission: September 30, 2021

2nd Round notification: December 31, 2021

Final version submission: March 30, 2022

For further enquiries, please contact the Managing Guest Editor.

Guest Editors

Bin Shen (Managing Guest Editor)

Associate Professor

Glorious Sun School of Business and Management

Donghua University, Shanghai, China

Email: binshen@dhu.edu.cn

Ciwei Dong

Associate Professor

School of Business Administration,

Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, China

Email: dongciwei@zuel.edu.cn

Xun (Bruce) Tong

Assistant Professor

Department of Operations,

University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

Email: x.tong@rug.nl

Eric W. T. Ngai

Professor and Associate Head

Faculty of Business

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

Email: eric.ngai@polyu.edu.hk

The Biographies of the Guest Editors

Bin Shen

Bin Shen is an Associate Professor in Glorious Sun School of Business and Management in Donghua University, Shanghai. He is Humboldt Fellow in Germany. His research interests focus on supply chain and operations management with emerging technologies. His papers have appeared in leading journals, such as Annals of Operations Research, European Journal of Operational Research, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Cleaner Production, Journal of the Operational Research Society, Omega, Production and Operations Management, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, and Transportation Research—Part E. He is editorial broad member of Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review and guest editors for Asia-Pacific Journal of Operational Research, Annals of Operations Research, etc.

Ciwei DONG

Ciwei DONG is an Associate Professor at School of Business Administration, Zhongnan Univesity of Economics and Law. His research interests focus on new technologies in supply chain management. His research has appeared or been accepted in Production and Operations Management, International Journal of Production Economics, European Journal of Operational Research, Annals of Operations Research, Journal of the Operational Research Society, etc. Besides, he is an associate editor for the International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics.

Xun (Bruce) Tong

Xun (Bruce) Tong is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the Department of Operations, University of Groningen. His research interests include socially responsible supply chain management and system dynamics research. He has published papers in a number of international journals including Journal of Operations Management, International Journal of Production Economics, Transportation Research—Part E, etc.

Eric W. T. Ngai

Eric W. T. Ngai is a Professor in the Department of Management & Marketing at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research focuses on AI, IoT, management support systems, and social media technology and applications. He has published in leading journals as MIS Quarterly, Journal of Operations Management, European Journal of Information Systems, Information & Management, INFORMS Journal on Computing, Production & Operations Management, and others. He is an Associate Editor of Information & Management and co-edited several special issues in leading IS and operations management journals.