Call for papers

NOFOMA is the place to pick up the most recent trends in logistics and supply chain research, and my posts on the trends from the NOFOMA 2009 conference has remained one of the most visited posts on this blog ever since. A particular theme of the NOFOMA 2011 conference is ‘logistics and supply chain management in a high north perspective’, including maritime logistics. In the years to come, with the possible opening of the Northern Sea Route, it is only fair to assume that there will be increased activity levels in supply chains involving firms in the High North. Needless to say, the Northern Sea Route has its own set of challenges, and risks…

Topics for NOFOMA 2011 include the following:

• Maritime logistics in the High North
• Operations management and manufacturing logistics
• Logistics modeling and simulation
• Transport and distribution
• Purchasing and sourcing of services
• Logistics services and third party logistics
• Value chain organization and design
• Reversed logistics/closed-loop logistics
• SCM/humanitarian logistics
• Research methodology
• IT Strategy
• Costing and performance measurement
• Innovation
• Sustainability/CRS
• Demand management/marketing

Please not that selected papers from the NOFOMA 2011 conference will be published in a special issue of the International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, thus testifying to the solidity and academic excellence of the conference.

Why Harstad?

I have to admit that I am somewhat baffled as to the choice of location for the NOFOMA 2011 conference. Not geographically, but institutionally. The host is Harstad University College (or HiH as it is abbreviated in Norwegian), and I have hitherto never considered them as a college that offered anything related to logistics and supply chain management. That said, I just discovered that HiH does offer a Master degree course in Logistics and Cross-Cultural Business. The college next door to me, Molde University College, which calls itself a Specialized University in Logistics, is the only academic institution in Norway offering BSc, MSc and PhD programs in logistics and supply chain management, and thus regarded as the leading academic  institution in the field of logistics in Norway. However, in a globalized world, logistics and supply chain management are becoming more and more important, and it is only natural for colleges offering business degrees (as HiH does) to include logistics in their course offereings.

Link

• nofoma.net: NOFOMA 2011

Download

• nofoma.net: Call for Papers – NOFOMA 2011

Top of the pops

Why are downloads interesting? As more and more journals go online, the number of downloads an article has measures how popular or sought after an article is. Downloads are interesting because they not only reveal what is read but also which topics academics currently work on or what ‘previous’ and ‘published’ research they use in their current work. So what DO academics work on? Mind you, the list is based on the Emerald statistics for IJLM, IJPDLM and SCM:IJ, so it is highly selective and highly biased, and thus not fully representative. Nonetheless, it does suggest that some themes have a higher readership than others:

• Supply chain risk management
  • Christopher & Lee (2004)
    Mitigating supply chain risk through improved confidence
• Supply chain integration and collaboration
  • Pålsson & Johansson’s (2009)
    Supply chain integration obtained through uniquely labelled goods
• Corporate social responsibility, ethics, and green/reverse supply chains
  • Hanafi et al. (2008)
    Reverse logistics strategies for end-of-life products
• Lean and agile supply chains
  • Masson et al. (2007)
    Managing complexity in agile global fashion industry supply chains
• E-commerce
  • Cho et al.  (2008)
    Logistics capability, logistics outsourcing and firm performance in an e-commerce market
• RFID
  • Spekman &Sweeney (2006)
    RFID: from concept to implementation

I am not at all surprised that corporate responsibility and green/reverse logistics rank high on the list, and they are certainly not going to be less popular in the future, as noted by Betty Feng in her post on green versus efficient. Update: To read what the latest trends are in 2011 and which forces that are expected to be a major trend towards 2020, please see my post on Future Value Chains and Strategies for 2020.

Other hotbeds

Several other fields also make an impact, and again, no surprises here:

• Value chain analysis
• Humanitarian logistics
• Demand management
• Logistics outsourcing
• Warehousing and inventory management
• Transportation
• Implementation of SCM

You may also be interested in Hameri and Hintsa (2009) and what they wrote about trends and drivers for international supply chains.

And the trend?

Well, quoting Gyöngi,

Integration, CSR, risk management, even humanitarian logistics were already hot topics the last time we looked at them. Optimisation doesn’t make the list any more – though that can be due to the convenience sample of these very journals. The same goes for customisation and modularisation, and supply chain design. “Global” this and that has been dropped.

So now you know what to research, if you want to be in the hot seat.

And I have a lot of reading to do…

Reference

Pålsson, H., & Johansson, O. (2009). Supply chain integration obtained through uniquely labelled goods: A survey of Swedish manufacturing industries International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 39 (1), 28-46 DOI: 10.1108/09600030910929174

Christopher, M., & Lee, H. (2004). Mitigating supply chain risk through improved confidence International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 34 (5), 388-396 DOI: 10.1108/09600030410545436

Hanafi, J., Kara, S., & Kaebernick, H. (2008). Reverse logistics strategies for end-of-life products The International Journal of Logistics Management, 19 (3), 367-388 DOI: 10.1108/09574090810919206

Masson, R., Iosif, L., MacKerron, G., & Fernie, J. (2007). Managing complexity in agile global fashion industry supply chains The International Journal of Logistics Management, 18 (2), 238-254 DOI: 10.1108/09574090710816959

Cho, J., Ozment, J., & Sink, H. (2008). Logistics capability, logistics outsourcing and firm performance in an e-commerce market International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 38 (5), 336-359 DOI: 10.1108/09600030810882825

Spekman, R., & II, P. (2006). RFID: from concept to implementation International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 36 (10), 736-754 DOI: 10.1108/09600030610714571

Links

• interorganisational.org: Trendspotting
• gscmotion: When Green encounters Efficiency

Related

• husdal.com: Future Value Chains for 2020
• husdal.com: Trends and drivers for cross-border supply chains
• husdal.com: NOFOMA

NOFOMA

The aim of NOFOMA is to contribute to the continuous improvement and further development of Nordic logistics research and researchers. Researchers belonging to the NOFOMA network are mainly from the Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The main activities of the network include:

• The Annual NOFOMA Conference on logistics research.
• The Nordlog Doctoral Symposium focusing on issues of particular relevance to Doctoral students. This event takes place in connection with the annual conference.
• The NOFOMA Educators Conference focusing on issues of particular interest to teaching and education. This event takes place in connection with the annual conference.
• The Joint-Nordic PhD Program in Logistics.

Unfortunately this Annual Conference takes place in June, so I missed this year, but next year I most certainly plan to attend.

If you want to join up, it’s free; there’s no membership fee. Read more about NOFOMA on the NOFOMA home page.

Links

NOFOMA: nofoma.net

Related

• husdal.com: The latest trends in logistics and supply chain management research
• husdal.com: Is there a distinctive Nordic approach to Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Publisher’s review

I haven’t actually read the book yet, but I certainly look forward to getting my hands on it, since it looks very promising, based on the reviews on the publisher website:

This book encourages European researchers to dare diverge from mainstream ‘American way’, and to explore new avenues in line with hot topics and key questions within European business. (Paul D. Larson, Professor, University of Manitoba, Asper School of Business, Canada)

The authors of this book make a synthesis of the research conducted in the Nordic countries compared with conventional mainstream research. As a result a Nordic approach to logistics research has crystallized, and that is what this book is about.
(Nathalie Fabbe-Costes, Professor, Université de la Méditerranée-Aix-Marseille II, France)

The chapters provide an understanding and, perhaps more importantly, consciousness for scholars that are part of this research environment: Where are we now, what have we been influenced by, and in what area are we able to provide positive impact?
(Daniel Knudsen, Senior Project Manager, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, Sweden)

Based on my own experience, yes, there may in fact be a Nordic approach to Supply Chain Management, an approach that is less concerned with cost-effectiveness and hardcore business thinking, but more leaning towards the societal impact of sound and sustainable supply chain management.

Read online

Buy this book

• Buy this book at amazon.com
• Buy this book from the publisher

Related

• husdal.com: NOFOMA
• husdal.com: The latest trends in logistics and supply chain management research