Virtualisation of floricultural supply chains: A review from an Internet of Things perspective

Abstract

Supply chains are increasingly virtualised in response to market challenges and to opportunities offered by nowadays affordable new technologies. Virtual supply chain management does no longer require physical proximity, which implies that control and coordination can take place in other locations and by other partners. This paper assesses how the Internet of Things concept can be used to enhance virtualisation of supply chains in the floricultural sector. Virtualisation is expected to have a big impact in this sector where currently still most products physically pass through auction houses on their fixed routes from (inter)national growers to (inter)national customers. The paper defines the concept of virtualisation and describes different perspectives on virtualisation in literature, i.e. the organisational, team, information technology, virtual reality and virtual things perspectives. Subsequently it develops a conceptual framework for analysis of virtualisation in supply chains. This framework is applied in the Dutch floriculture to investigate the existing situation and to define future challenges for virtualisation in this sector.