Institute for Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Contextual Research

Overview

This category of research, Contextual/Foundation Research, represents the traditional foundation domain of the research program and works is done on the development of a knowledge base for Logistics Cities which will include an Ontology of Logistics Cities and related structural aspects defining Logistics Cities and their regional and economic development contribution to the region served. This component of the Research Program includes the development of a data base on “Logistics Cities of the World,” which has the objective to be an authority on Logistics Cities globally, and maintained on a regular bases.

The Institute for Logistics and Supply Chain Management focuses its research on the “Logistics Cities” concept. This particular category of the ILSCM Research Program forms the contextual framework for the overall program and is designed to build a knowledge base in the context of the relationships between the characteristics of Logistics Cities and the Regional and Economical Development of a region and therefore its competitiveness. The Logistics City concept is relatively new in the global economy. The emergent Logistics City concept is used very freely and seems to be accepted by industry as a viable and unique concept. There is however an absence of an academically founded conceptual description which adequately or clearly identifies distinct physical characteristics, logistics and value-added services of such a concept. Additionally literature lacks the ability to explicitly explain how and to what extent the sectors of the Logistics Cities strengthen the economy and regional competitiveness.

The growth of this concept in industry makes it imperative that a scientific knowledge base is developed to ensure an orderly development of Logistics Cities and supporting concepts. The contextual research therefore will begin to close the knowledge gap in this area by identifying the determinants of the Logistics Cities in the context of Regional Competitiveness and Economic Development as well as to examine the characteristics and elements of the concept as an Integrated Logistics Platform. This then will be compiled and comprised into a new knowledge base to further build a substantive theory.

Consequently, the outcomes of this area of the ILSCM Research Program will support decision making in the areas of investment in infrastructure and operational services. Additionally the potential to improve the quality and effectiveness of Logistics Cities and therefore possible regional competitiveness can be exploited. Besides the mentioned practical significance, it is well worth studying from an academic perspective. Since there is not much knowledge available in the literature, this research will begin to fill the gap in the understanding of characteristics, relationships, and contribution of Logistics Cities towards Regional Competitiveness and Economic Development.

Research Objective

Establish a Logistics City component framework. The objective of this is to identify design patterns in logistics cities and to describe these component parts in a formal and unambiguous way. This establishes the framework on which further qualitative and quantitative and model based work will be based upon.