Flexible Business Models Research Articles

Corporate social responsibility during unprecedented crises: the role of authentic leadership and business model flexibility

PurposeThe purpose of the present research is to explore the relationships between corporate social responsibility (CSR), authentic leadership and business model flexibility during times of unprecedented crises.Design/methodology/approachThe research approach in this study is conceptual. After a brief review of the literature associated with CSR, authentic leadership and business models, the authors introduce a model describing the interaction of authentic leadership and business model flexibility on CSR heterogeneity.FindingsThis research explains how firms that are led by authentic leaders and that have flexible business models will be more engaged with their stakeholders than firms with less authentic leaders or more rigid business models during unprecedented crises.Practical implicationsPrescriptions for practitioners are suggested for improving authentic leadership as well as making adaptations to the firm's business model. Regarding authentic leadership, firms can screen potential new hires and existing employees for authentic leadership qualities. Firms can also rely upon existing interventions shown to assist in authentic leadership development for current leaders. At the business model level, firms can focus on core resources and their application in related product and service markets.Originality/valueFirms engaged in CSR activities benefit more from those activities when leaders are authentic. However, in times of unprecedented crises, business model flexibility may also dictate the extent to which firms can satisfy their stakeholders. The authors introduce a conceptual model that takes the elements of authentic leadership and business model flexibility into account to explain CSR heterogeneity.

Disruptive Innovation. A redesigned strategy for building and managing sustainable communities: the Walas approach

The extreme complexity of urban contexts, the dilemma of the unpredictability of rapid change, and the increasing loss of self-orientation are just some of the challenges mankind faces in the Anthropocene era. To cope with it, no isolated action or usual strategy can help. Disruption is required. Social inequalities, degradation of urban areas, and poverty are just some of the aspects of urban fragmentation that, together with the ongoing exploitation of environmental resources, have led to an emergency that we cannot ignore any longer. To reconnect the threads and to guide cities towards a sustainable future we need to abandon traditional approaches and change our reference point. Method. This paper focuses on disruptive innovation as necessary to redesign a strategy that will help cities survive the Anthropocene era by providing an example of good practice in urban regeneration and community redevelopment: the Walas approach. By introducing disruptive, gradual, flexible business models, through the combination of social and technological innovation, the paper demonstrates that it is concretely possible to reconnect cities to citizens, to build inclusive, vibrant and safe communities in these uncertain times. Results. The implementation and application of a disruptive urban regeneration approach to projects have enabled World of Walas to achieve satisfactory results in Europe where degraded urban areas have been turned into vibrant, inclusive and safe communities. Conclusions. Sustainable communities can be achieved only through collaboration, dialogue, and the imperative combination of the private and the public sectors. Starting with the redefinition of priorities, using a gradual, disruptive and holistic approach, the regeneration of degraded urban areas can become the turning-point for the sustainable development of cities.

TRADE POLICY RESPONSES TO THE CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES OF THE GLOBAL MARKET

The present paper discusses several new trends in the global trade such as digitalization of trade, regional trade agreements and the emergence of new global players. Based on theoretical research and the study of the available secondary statistical data it analyzes how trade policy can address these changes under the existing world trading system. Trade rules underlying the traditional trading system are still applicable under increasing digital trade and enhanced bilateral and regional trade integration. However, WTO Agreement has nothing to do with those barriers of trade that go beyond traditional trade measures and are very acute for the developing countries. They involve access to the Internet and other telecommunication infrastructure, weak formal institutions and legal protection, lack of awareness about the potential benefits and opportunities in digital trade and lack of IT literacy. In order to overcome these barriers developing countries should incorporate trade policy as a component of deep economic reforms. The pace of development of the multilateral trading rules is slower than required by increasingly flexible business models. Therefore, countries try to find solutions at the bilateral and plurilateral levels. For instance, the EU develops regulations under Digital Single Market as well as within its bilateral trade agreements with non-member states. Georgia is implementing digital economy regulations in accordance to its DCFTA with the EU. Access to information and communication technologies is essential to be engaged in digital trade. For developing countries investments in digital infrastructure is an important policy issue, while developed countries are more focused on balanced trade rules, which ensure the development of digital trade, on the one hand and security and data protection, on the other. Contemporary trade policy goes beyond regulation based on classical trade instruments. It encompasses regulation within regional trade and investment agreements, technical standards and other behind-the-border measures, regulation of services and intellectual property markets and support for sustainable development goals, etc. A large part of the contemporary regional trade agreements covers all these areas. The development of bilateral and regional cooperation by encouraging deep integration can be discussed as an effort to overcome inflexibilities of the multilateral system. Regional integration enables countries to develop selective approach towards their trade partners and maintain certain degree of autonomy by applying different trade rules towards different partners. Elimination of behind the border barriers and enhanced regulatory harmonization leads to reduced trade costs, but it also leads to race to the bottom in regulatory facilitation what might be detrimental to the national policy goals. The effects of deep economic integration cannot be assessed based on the traditional approach of trade creation and trade diversion, because integration as an institutional process affects not only trade flows but also economic and institutional development levels of the countries. Deep regional integration reduces institutional differences within regions and increases them across regions. Besides it, the increasing role of BRICs countries in international trade leads to greater diversity of actors in the world market. New global players ask for greater voice in the process of reforming trade rules. Therefore, global trade rules should reflect the diversity that comes from changes in the patterns as well as the main players of the world market.

From creative destruction to creative appropriation: A comprehensive framework

This paper introduces a conceptual modification of Schumpeter's concept of creative destruction. Identifying a Kuhnian anomaly in a case of creative destruction in the ‘new economy’, we analyze a case study of the Chinese e-hailing firm DiDi Chuxing to show that this firm used a strategy we term ‘creative appropriation’, whereby a new firm utilizes incumbent firms’ complementary assets but without cooperating with the incumbent, to disrupt a market. This exploitation of complementary assets is based on recombining prevailing technological infrastructure(s) as well as flexible business models that facilitate open innovation. Employing documentary analysis, participant-observation, face-to-face interviews with informants, and a quantitative survey, the study finds that DiDi deployed its e-hailing app to disrupt the taxi market in Xi'an, China (as it did elsewhere in China) as a means of creative destruction, appropriating human-resource-based complementary assets (social and personal reputations, tacit knowledge, and connections) of taxi companies in Xi'an, first to dominate e-hailing in the taxi industry and then to destroy that industry by shifting its focus to private cars.

Risk Management System in PT. Unilever Indonesia, Tbk

Unilever is a multinational company produced various products which are foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care. One most important BoD duty are responsible for identifying and evaluating the company’s exposure to risks, and ensuring that potential risks are effectively mitigated. Effective risk management is fundamental for great business management, and Unilever Indonesia’s success as an organization depends on company ability to identify and exploit the key risks and opportunities for the business. Internal assurance and compliance monitoring are in place to review the strategy risk setting. Internal independent re-assurance (internal audit and corporate audit) and external re-assurance play a key role in ensuring that operational risks and business execution risks are properly addressed and managed. This research aims to describe the Unilever business risk matrix in the recent risk environment and concerned were assigned to manage the risks within their respective streams. The result show, the highest risk that Unilever faced is high competition because competitors have more differentiated products and declining demand for the company product. The mitigation must be implemented to reduce the loss. The company should monitor external market trends and collect feedback from consumer, Implemented research and development function to translate the trends, Regularly update business forecast of business results and cash flows and rebalance investment priorities, and also Flexible business model allows the company to adapt all portfolio and respond to develop new offerings.

Beyond Brick and Mortar: The Experiences of U.S. Female Mobile Fashion Truck Entrepreneurs

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the mobile fashion truck phenomenon from a female entrepreneur's perspective. This study provides insight into the unique strategies of this business format, while highlighting the motivations and challenges. Data collection took place through in‐depth interviews with eight female fashion truck entrepreneurs. Five key themes were developed from the data. The themes revealed that female fashion truck entrepreneurs viewed their mobile businesses as a means to deliver unique products and experiences, as well as being a flexible business model. A conceptual model is proposed to further illustrate the key motivations and challenges of the entrepreneurs.

Dynamic courier routing for a food delivery service

Services like Grubhub and UberEats have revolutionized the way that diners can find and order from restaurants. The standard business model for such services, however, allows diners to order from only one restaurant at a time. Inspired by a food delivery service in the southeastern United States, this paper proposes the framework for a more flexible business model in which multiple restaurants may be included in a single customer’s order. We formally define this new problem, the virtual food court delivery problem (VFCDP), and provide a mixed integer linear programming formulation. For implementation in a dynamic setting, an auction-based heuristic has also been developed. This so-called “proactive” heuristic anticipates future system states, and seeks solutions which are effective at both serving customers in the present and preparing couriers to handle future demand. This is facilitated through the calculation of metrics describing equity and dispersion. Furthermore, this heuristic is capable of handling both split and non-split delivery policies. An extensive numerical study is conducted in a simulation environment to examine characteristics of this new business model. This study reveals that the proactive heuristic is effective at improving system performance (over an entirely myopic heuristic) according to several customer experience-based metrics (e.g. freshness, earliness, etc.). Furthermore, a non-split delivery policy is shown to deliver all of a customer’s items no later than the last item would have arrived in the split-delivery case, on average. It does this while also avoiding any waiting time for the customer between deliveries, and while reducing the number of miles traveled by a courier fleet throughout the day. Additional managerial policies, such as the type of delivery window offered to customers, are also discussed.

Entrepreneurial orientation for sustainable mobility through electric vehicles

PurposeThe research aims to clarify and give insights on the importance of entrepreneurial orientation for sustained mobility through the four business models which are currently operational in different regions of the world for supporting the commercialization drive of electric vehicles (EVs).Design/methodology/approachBy drawing on extant literature, the author develops systematic business frameworks undergirded by the triad of entrepreneurial orientation (innovation, risk-taking and proactiveness) depicting enablers of value creation, capturing and adoption barriers related to EVs. These multidimensional frameworks are then used to analyse the selected business models for their strengths and weaknesses.FindingsThe findings of the research underlined the importance of adopting entrepreneurial orientation, conceiving flexible business model, forging inter-industry partnerships and leveraging on shared resources as prime requirements for achieving success in EV segment.Research limitations/implicationsThis study underlines the importance of entrepreneurial orientation and has the recommendations for the entrepreneurs, the EV companies and the policymakers.Originality/valueThis study fulfils the identified need of developing entrepreneurial orientation and sound business models for EVs.

China’s Global Energy Finance: Poised to Lead

This short essay quantifies the level of Chinese overseas development finance in the global energy sector, denotes the financing model deployed by the Chinese in these transactions, and evaluates China’s potential for financing a transition toward a clean energy future. We find that China’s two development banks – the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China provide more development finance than the World Bank and its counterparts, and have a more flexible business model for financing cleaner energy. That said, the current mix of Chinese energy finance is in carbon intensive projects. China’s model holds out hope, and makes China poised to lead.

China’s global energy finance: Poised to lead

This short essay quantifies the level of Chinese overseas development finance in the global energy sector, denotes the financing model deployed by the Chinese in these transactions, and evaluates China’s potential for financing a transition toward a clean energy future. We find that China’s two development banks – the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China provide more development finance than the World Bank and its counterparts, and have a more flexible business model for financing cleaner energy. That said, the current mix of Chinese energy finance is in carbon intensive projects. China’s model holds out hope, and makes China poised to lead.

Webcam Child Prostitution: An Exploration of Current and Futuristic Methods of Detection

IntroductionThe Internet and related technological developments have made the communication between people faster and cheaper. Voice-over-IP (VoIP) is one of those more efficient ways which users have greatly benefited since the beginning of the 2000s. In VoIP technology, audio and video communications are divided into several tiny packets of digital information and transmitted through IP-based networks (Varshney, Snow, McGivern, & Howard, 2002). Unlike traditional phone services, particular features such as encrypted communications between parties, distributed and decentralized structure of some networks and the market dominance of foreign-based popular VoIP service providers make lawful interception to the illegitimate uses of this technology harder (Thanthry, Pendse, & Namuduri, 2005; Bellovin et al., 2006). For these reasons, like all groundbreaking inventions throughout history, VoIP applications are also embraced by malicious actors such as organized crime syndicates (Dunn, 2009) and online child sexual abusers (Hughes, 2002).By using the video streaming feature of VoIP applications, live child abuse images are produced and sometimes also sold for profit. Online grooming (Whittle, Hamilton- Giachritsis, Beech, & Collings, 2013), self-produced child pornography/sexting (Leary, 2009) and sexual extortion (Acar, 2016) are the prime and most common examples of which VoIP technologies have been used for non-commercial purposes. Non-commercial types of live streaming of child abuse don't have a deep and tight relationship with child prostitution. On the other hand, in the commercial version, either abusers sexually exploit victim(s) or the child exposes himself/herself in a lascivious manner in return for a payment from the offender/consumer (Crawford, 2014). In essence, webcam child prostitution (WCP) is not much different from its traditional form as the victim satisfies someone else's sexual needs in return for a fee through the internet. The diverse methods of interaction chosen by parties don't actually affect the incriminating core of the offense. Therefore, the author prefers the term webcam child prostitution instead of live streaming of child abuse (Europol, 2015) and webcam child sex abuse/tourism (Puffer, McDonald, Pross, & Hudson, 2014; Masri, 2015) since the term is more suitable and exact to define the act.Although Europol proclaims WCP is not an emerging crime but an established reality (Europol, 2015) and it has ties with child sex tourism (Europol, 2016), publicized cases supporting these remarks are rare. During Operation Endeavour, the only publicly known example of WCP investigations, 29 international arrests were made and 15 Filipino children were rescued (Cohen-Almagor, 2015). However, this is not even the tip of the iceberg, according to the non-governmental organization Terre des Hommes (TdH) Netherlands. To show a glimpse of the problem's true scale, TdH Netherlands created a 3D model of a 10-year- old Filipino girl and called her Sweetie. In a sting operation conducted by TdH Netherlands in public chat rooms and online dating sites, 1000 potential abusers from 71 different countries offered Sweetie money for sexual acts over 10 weeks (Crawford, 2013; Lemz, 2014). Hans Guijt, the head of special programs and campaigns of TdH Netherlands, elaborated on this experiment. Over 20000 individuals sought to get into contact with Sweetie during the course of the experiment. And, that was more than the four operators could handle. While two of them were handling the chats, the other two were trying to identify the individuals with the information rising from the chats (Hans Guijt, personal communication, 16 January, 2017).Furthermore, it's believed that the sessions of WCP are shaped with the sexual requests of the consumer. And thus, intensity and price of the sexual abuse might increase throughout the session. In addition to the horrific psychological consequences for the victim, this heinous act also makes an effective, profitable and flexible business model for abusers, particularly compared to the trade of still images of online child sexual abuse. …

Naandanjain: Every Drop of Water Counts

This case demonstrates the growing importance of water policy and water scarcity on key business decisions. It uses the merger of two drip irrigation companies to show how the business models of multinationals were shifting to accommodate current and expected water crises in many parts of the world. In 2012, Jain Irrigation Systems, a multinational founded in India, became sole owner of the Israel-based NaanDan Joint Venture, a privately held, well-respected irrigation technology firm. The creation of NaanDanJain evidenced the increasingly visible role of India as a global player whose multinationals acquired high-tech companies from more advanced economies. But more important for this case, when considering demographic and economic variables for each country, the merger illustrated the challenges of providing irrigation to small farmers. This case situates the formation/establishment of NaanDanJain within the divergent water policies and water practices of Israel and India. Excerpt UVA-GEM-0122 Rev. Sept. 21, 2018 NaanDanJain: Every Drop of Water Counts Sometimes, globalization manifested itself in unexpected ways that at first seemed odd, but upon reflection made perfect sense. For the people from Kibbutz Naan, a community near Rehovot, Israel, of some 1,000 residents, the new normal was a switch in diet when the Jain family of India visited on business. Because the Jains adhered to a strictly vegetarian diet, dinner consisted of hummus and falafel instead of the regular Israeli diet of poultry, red meat, fish, eggs, and root vegetables. The family owned Jain Irrigation Systems (known as Jain Irrigation or simply Jain), a multinational firm that was headquartered in Jalgaon, India. In 2012, Jain employed more than 7,000 people globally and had sales just short of $ 1 billion (see Exhibits1a and 1b). In 2007, Jain had acquired 50.001% of NaanDan, a privately held, well-regarded irrigation technology firm that had more than $ 75 million in sales; five years later, Jain became its sole owner. In the wake of the acquisition of NaanDan, Jain Irrigation renamed the company NaanDanJain (see Exhibit1c). There were multiple ways to look at the merger between Jain and NaanDan. One could perceive the merger as further evidence of how far Jain had come. Its flexible business model had adapted to every challenge posed since Bhavarlal H. Jain founded the company in 1963, and acquiring NaanDan was a logical next step. From the perspective of many Israelis and outside observers, the merger emphasized the increasingly visible role of India as a global player whose multinationals acquired high-tech companies from more advanced economies. But more than anything, the merger made sense when considering NaanDan's product line and expertise. From that angle, the merger of the two companies was about irrigation, and in particular drip irrigation, going global. This business decision represented a global response to the current and/or expected water crises in many parts of the world. Irrigation in Israel . . .

Multimedia digital rights management based on selective encryption for flexible business model

This paper proposes an advanced encryption of MP3 and MPEG-4 coder with a quality degradation-based security model. For the MP3 audio, the magnitude and phase information of modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) coefficients is encrypted. DCT coefficients and motion vectors (MVs) are used for the scrambling of the MPEG-4 video. This encryption scheme has a level of security, secures in perception, keeps format compliance, and obtains better time efficiency by reducing the encrypted volumes of multimedia contents. These properties make it practical to incorporate encryption and decryption process into compression and decompression process, and thus suitable for secure A/V transmission or sharing. Experimental results indicate that the proposed technique provides levels of security for a flexible business model and achieves a simple and coding-efficient architecture with no adverse impact on error resilience.

Modelling the Dynamics of Trust across a Cloud Brokerage Environment

The globalised nature of cloud computing presents us with new challenges towards the development of effective business relationships across a dynamic service ecosystem. While availing of additional service capabilities, organisations are tasked with managing unfamiliar relationships with unfamiliar cloud service providers to generate increased business value. This calls for more attention towards the concept of trust within a cloud service environment. Cloud computing presents new economic and flexible business and technological models which supports the co-creation nature of service quality and ultimately business value. This research examined various methods to assess service quality and service capability assessment. During the course of this work, the author has identified the need to revisit the concept of ‘trust' within a cloud computing context and prescribe a method to model its complexity. The objective of this paper is to argue that, while cloud computing allows organisations to avail of increased service capabilities; it challenges the concept of trust. To support this argument the author presents the Cloud Services Trust Model to explain the dynamics of trust. In doing so, it introduces a notion of a distributed relational structure in service value co-creation. The paper also draws on theoretical developments to highlight the fundamental changes in the nature of service provision and how they impact on the assessment of service value and service quality. The author supports the need for greater transparency in the move towards greater accountability in the cloud ecosystem. The paper applies social network analysis (SNA) to model the trust relationships of a cloud brokerage environment.

Competing and co-existing business models for EV: lessons from international case studies

This paper presents four innovative business models that are being developed in three countries to support the commercialisation of electric vehicles (EVs). Using an original business model framework and interviews with EV company founders and directors, we analyse the coexistence of competing business models (China) and partnership strategies along the EV value chain (USA and France). Findings emphasise the importance of designing flexible business models and leveraging resources and inter–industry partnerships in the emerging EV ecosystem. The results provide practical recommendations for industrial players and insights for policy–makers.

Japanese retailers in Southeast Asia: strong local partners, shopping malls, and aiming for comprehensive internationalization

Japanese retailers have a long and mixed history in Southeast Asia with a period of expansion in the 1980s and 1990s being followed by a long period of decline and stagnation. Recently, some Japanese retailers have renewed their interest in Southeast Asia. Based on an overview of the major retail trends in Southeast Asia and identification of those Japanese retailers that are currently expanding in the region, this article develops propositions about the underlying factors and processes. It argues that the interest in Southeast Asia, while being mostly justified by retailers through reference to the growing middle-class populations in host countries, is as much based on developments in Japan itself, such as the saturation and stagnation of markets and the emergence of exportable, flexible, and comprehensive business models. Japanese retailers are intensifying activities at a time when strong domestic companies with retail interests have established themselves in host countries and therefore partnerships with them seem to fulfill more than the need to comply with investment regulations or deal with complex environments. Shopping malls play a role as locations for specialty stores but are also transplanted from Japan. Companies are making efforts toward more comprehensive internationalization and this involves human resources in headquarters in Japan as well as working together with other Japanese companies, thus satisfying the need for local embeddedness but at the same time maintaining corporate identity and advantages.

Flexible Business Models and Firmss Financial Reporting Practices

In this study, we examine whether the flexibility in a firm’s business model (i.e., the way in which the firm manages and deploys its resources) is associated with its financial reporting practices. Recent survey evidence suggests that executives view firms’ business models as a key determinant of earnings quality. The premise underlying this study is that firms with relatively more flexible business models are more likely to achieve financial reporting objectives by taking advantage of their operational and financing flexibility rather than through accrual-based earnings management. We draw on prior research to identify attributes that are associated with flexible business models and develop a within industry, within year composite measure of the flexibility of a firm’s business model. After validating the measure, we use it to test our predictions. We find that firms with flexible business models are more likely to meet or beat analysts’ consensus forecasts, but are associated with lower discretionary accruals and a lower likelihood of financial restatements. In addition, we find that flexible business model firms are significantly more likely to use stock repurchases (but not discretionary accruals) to achieve important earning benchmarks. We contribute to the literature by highlighting that firms with flexible business models are able to exploit their operational and financing flexibility (in lieu of accrual manipulation) to meet financial reporting objectives.

The Public Cloud for e-Government

Cloud computing and its flexible business model of consuming IT resources such as computing power or data storage just on demand promises a lot of benefits and advantages. These advantages also the public sector and governments can benefit from. Hence, cloud computing is already on the agenda of governmental policy and decision makers. Additionally, various countries have already adapted their IT strategies to support cloud computing for their governmental and public services. However, within the public sector the private cloud model currently constitutes the dominant deployed approach. Although this model offers high control it does not take full advantage of the economic benefits of cloud computing. Therefore, based on an evaluation of different cloud models and a comparison of different national cloud computing strategies the authors argue and show that public clouds are worth more than a peek for e-Government because of their tremendous cost savings potential.

Clash of Titans: Groupon v. The Model Rules of Professional Conduct

Daily deals, like those offered by Groupon and LivingSocial, have become a popular and highly effective form of advertising. The success of daily deals is not without concern in the legal community. State bar associations are split as to whether the Model Rules of Professional Conduct — namely Rules 5.4, 7.2, and 1.15 — permit lawyers to advertise through daily deals. This Note argues that lawyers may ethically sell their services through daily deals as a reasonable cost of advertising authorized by Rule 7.2 and that the fee retained by the daily deal company is not an impermissible fee-sharing arrangement outlawed by Rule 5.4. Instead, such fees should be considered an alternative way of charging for advertising — one that will not interfere with the lawyer’s professional independence. Moreover, the flexible daily deal business model enables lawyers to comply with the client trust requirements of Rule 1.15.

(Invited) Technologies and Challenges of Fine Pitch Backside Via-Last TSV Process Integration for 3DIC Applications

TSV based 3D stacking IC technology has been aggressively studied recently because of strong benefits in terms of significantly form factor shrinkage, superior system performance (bandwidth & speed), great power reduction, and heterogeneous integration capability. According to different applications, there are different integration options for TSV processing. For high performance 3D system applications which required fine TSV pitch and massive IO connections, how to establish a proper TSV integration scheme became a key importance of enabling 3D IC commercialization. In additional to common foundry used via-middle (VM) process, two another via last approaches, either forming TSV form front-side or backside were also been considered as major TSV process schemes. Although front-side via last (FVL) TSV is widely adopted by OSATs, this scheme is inherently not suitable for fine pitch and high density TSV applications because of significant area penalty and wire routing constraint comparing to VM TSV process. Another backside via last (BVL) TSV process, however, showed many advantages over common VM TSV process while achieving same TSV scalability/density and routing flexibility. For examples: (1) Cu TSVs of BVL were formed after completely CMOS FEOL+BEOL processes, thus it is naturally much less or no Cu pumping out induced yield loss issues comparing to VM process; (2) BVL TSV etching can be stopped on front-side metal 1 layer instead of time etching in blind TSV of VM scheme; (3) No complicated and yield sensitive backside Cu reveal issue were involved; (4) TSV & RDL can be formed together via dual-damascene like processing to simplify process flow and reduce cost of ownership; (5) BVL process can be adopted by either foundry or OSAT manufacturers resulting in most flexible business model in 3DIC supply chain. Despite of the vantage of backside via-last scheme, many process challenges still need to be solved. In this paper, key issues of via middle integration were briefly reviewed. A capable of high aspect ratio and fine pitch TSV (CD … 5um) manufacture scheme was proposed via backside via last integration scheme. Key process technologies and challenges of this BVL scheme, such as temporary bonding, glue material selection, wafer thinning, backside TSV formation, CMP planarization as well as cost reduced TSV/RDL dual damascene flow are investigated.