Citation
Hammervoll, T. and Jensen, L.-M. (2012), "Guest editoral", International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 42 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPDLM.00542daa.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Guest editoral
Article Type: Guest editoral From: International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Volume 42, Issue 4
The 23rd NOFOMA Conference was hosted by Harstad University College in Norway in June 2011. In good NOFOMA spirit the conference was arranged in cooperation with the neighbouring universities in Bodø and Tromsø, but the organizing committee and the scientific committee also included colleagues from Norwegian Business School (Oslo), Norwegian Defence Command and Staff College (Oslo), as well as Jönköping International Business School (Sweden). A particular theme of this years NOFOMA conference was “Logistics and supply chain management in a High North perspective, including a special track on “Maritime logistics in the High North. Indeed, in the years to come more ships are expected to travel through both the North-West and North-East passages.
In total, 165 abstracts were submitted initially and 82 full papers were eventually accepted by the Scientific Committee for presentation at the conference. A total of 28 less developed papers were presented as works in progress. While the full papers are published in the NOFOMA conference proceedings, work-in-progress papers are not. However, their abstracts are published in the NOFOMA 2011 book of abstracts.
NOFOMA 2011, like previous conferences, was an informal event with a focus on improving research in logistics and supply chain management. This year, more than 100 academics acted as reviewers in the double-blind review process, and delivered close to 300 reviewer reports! Each paper was assigned three reviewers with at least two holding a PhD degree. Needless to say – the NOFOMA community has, as every year since the first NOFOMA conference, again laid down an impressive effort in advancing research in the areas of logistics and supply chain management! The doctoral workshop, NORDLOG, initiated in 1996, was arranged the day before the main conference. The event also included a special Educators session, and both NORDLOG and the Educators session fostered networking and valuable discussions among the participants.
We appreciate the opportunity to publish the best NOFOMA 2011 Conference papers in a high quality, internationally recognized journal – the International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management! We would also like to thank Trond Bottolfsen, Nils Magne Larsen and R. Glenn Richey, Jr for their contribution to the NORDLOG event. The rules of the game and how to actually get papers published in international, peer-reviewed quality journals are of course of huge interest to tomorrows researchers in the field of logistics and supply chain management. Gunnar Ottesen and Eirill Bø scrutinized the pedagogical aspects of modern logistics and supply chain education, and the Educators Session was a success. We would also like to thank the European Editors, Gyöngyi Kovacs and Karen Spens for guiding the best paper selection process and preparation, together with the NOFOMA 2011 Scientific Committee. Finally, but not least, we would like to express our thanks to the reviewers of conference papers – close to 300 reviewer reports speaks for itself; these reviews represent a huge effort by the NOFOMA researchers and should be recognized as such.
The selected papers include the winner of the D.B. Schenker best paper award, as well as the D.B. Schenker doctoral student paper award. Candidates for these rewards were selected on the basis of the reviewers suggestions, but papers written by members of the scientific committee were excluded from the competition.
Papers in this special issue
The first paper, written by Corinna Engelhardt-Nowitzki from Upper Austrian University of Applied Sciences presents the findings from a study on flexibility and adaptability in a company specific setting. This paper received the NOFOMA 2011 best paper award. A literature review is combined with two well executed case studies as a basis for understanding prerequisites for flexible supply chains. The paper successfully combines theory development and interesting case study research, and illustrates well how firms can act quickly and economically under turbulent market conditions.
The second paper, the winner of the best student paper, entitled “Product carbon footprint developments and gaps is written by Jesper Kronborg Jensen from University of Southern Denmark, Kolding. This paper considers product carbon footprint in terms of a number of environmental standards such as ISO 14040, and analyzes these in terms of an extensive literature review on the topic. It addresses a highly relevant topic in need of more solid frameworks and contributes to building a bridge between the actual standards observed, and the literature. The scope of the literature reviewed is extensive and well documented demonstrating a high level of academic rigor.
The third paper, Establishment of temperature “Criteria for temperature alerts in Cod supply chains is written by Tómas Hafliðason, Guðrún Ólafsdóttir, Sigurður Bogason and Gunnar Stefánsson, University of Iceland. The reported research employs sound methodology as it addresses an important area in logistics and supply chain management; namely testing a developed framework within supply chain monitoring and quality control. The paper can be directly related to practice.
The fourth paper, “Dynamic capabilities and sustainable supply chain management, is written by Philip Beske, University of Kassel. This is a conceptual paper that combines literature on dynamic capabilities, supply chain management and sustainable SCM. It is quite ambitious to develop a framework integrating DC in Sustainable SCM, but the author offers an interesting and comprehensive discussion and gives a good direction for future research.
The fifth paper, “Revenue management in road-based freight transportation is co-authored by Jörn Schönberger and Herbert Kopfer, University of Bremen. The paper demonstrates that revenue management is a challenging task in many companies, and one major contribution of this paper is its innovativeness in terms of solution and the methodology applied for developing a useful tool.
Hopefully, you will enjoy and be inspired by these papers addressing important topics within logistics and supply chain management!
Trond Hammervoll, Leif-Magnus Jensen
Guest Editors