A study of logistics infomediary in air cargo tracking
| Date | 01 February 2003 |
| Published date | 01 February 2003 |
| Pages | 5-13 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635570310456841 |
| Author | Sheng‐Tun Li,Li‐Yen Shue |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
A study of logistics infomediary in air cargo tracking
Sheng-Tun Li
Information Management Department, National Kaohsiung First University of
Science and Technology, Taiwan, ROC
Li-Yen Shue
Information Management Department, National Kaohsiung First University of
Science and Technology, Taiwan, ROC
Introduction
The advent of the Internet has given birth to
electronic commerce (EC). In the short space
of ten years, EC has shaped a new type of
business world; it has greatly affected
operations between business (B2B) and
changed transaction channels between
business and individuals (B2C). In general,
effect of the Internet on commercial activity
can be characterized by the three well-known
facts. First, it is the shifting of power from
sellers to buyers through the reduction of the
cost of switching and the free distribution of
a huge amount of price and product
information. Second, it is the stimulation of
economic activity through the reduction of
transaction costs. Last, it is the creation of
new commercial opportunities through low
cost of distributing and capturing of
information, which is carried out with a
speed and wide range that has never been
seen before. However, at the same time,
buyers can feel overwhelmed by this new
power in their hands, and they may want
one-stop-shopping. This one-stop-shopping
collects information, adds values to it, and
distributes it to those who will find it useful.
The need of this one-stop-shopping has
helped in creating the infomediary,
information intermediaries, which is
sometimes called re-intermediation as
opposing to the earlier understanding of dis-
intermediation with traditional
intermediaries (Grover and Teng, 2001).
Depending on relationships between
providers (sellers) and customers (buyers),
infomediary can be classified into four types
(Grover and Teng, 2001):
1 specialized agents;
2 generic agents;
3 supplier agents; and
4 buyer agents.
The specialized agent serves a specialized
market, thus is featured with a closed
relationship with both providers and
customers. The generic agent, on the
contrary, maintains open relationships
between providers and customers, and relies
on open search capabilities for any customer
to look for a provider. The supplier agent is
featured with specific companies with a
vested interest being the provider of the
information, thus they do not necessarily
provide unbiased options for customers.
Finally, the buyer agent establishes
relationships with a core set of buyers, and
works on their behalf with any number of
suppliers. The roles of infomediaries and
business models associated with them have
been discussed extensively in (The
Economist, 1999; Hagel and Singer, 1999;
Bailey and Bakos, 1997; Bakos, 1998; Malone
and Yates, 1987; Rao, 1999; Sarkar et al., 1996;
Daniel and Klimis, 1999).
For the air cargo logistics industry, the
reduction of delivery lead time of the supply
chain system is paramount in the present EC
environment. The delivery lead time could
mean supplier's raw material or parts to the
customers, or producer's product to the
customer. A massive amount of data is
processed and communicated in-between
parties, which may include packing and
unpacking, transportation and handling,
customs clearing, carrier bookings,
warehousing, and other related activities
such as insurance. At present, most service
providers do allow their customers to access
their Internet cargo tracking systems to
search for correct consignments and related
flight information. However, the lack of
coordination between agents is making it
very difficult for a customer to track down
the complete status of a shipment. The
problems are, first of all, different systems
may use different search keys in the
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-5577.htm
[5]
Industrial Management &
Data Systems
103/1 [2003] 5-13
#MCB UP Limited
[ISSN 0263-5577]
[DOI 10.1108/02635570310456841]
Keywords
Logistics, Electronic commerce,
Cargo, Tracking
Abstract
In e-commerce, the infomediary is
rapidly becoming an important
business model on the Web. A low
cost Web-based infomediary for
the air cargo industry can help
integrate Air Cargo service
providers and their customers, and
thus improve the productivity of
the logistics chain. Customers can
access flight information of cargo
carriers through the infomediary in
a much more simplified way, thus
management can better plan the
subsequent operations. Proposes
a three-tier paradigm for
developing an air cargo logistics
infomediary. This paradigm
integrates emerging technologies
of the next-generation Web-based
systems to address the three
issues for the development. A
prototype system was developed
to demonstrate its capability in
accepting requests from general
browsers, retrieving data from
different platforms, and presenting
data in a consistent and
personalized format.
To continue reading
Request your trial