Shipping Policy Research Articles

Understanding the Evolution of China's Green Shipping Policies: Evidence by Social Network Analysis

Understanding the Evolution of China's Green Shipping Policies: Evidence by Social Network Analysis

Analysis of Factors Influencing Trust and its Impact on Repurchase Intention in C2C E-Commerce in Indonesia

The use of the internet has transformed individual shopping behaviors, shifting from traditional shopping patterns or visiting physical stores to shopping through online platforms or e-commerce. This behavioral change has undeniably had a significant impact on the retail industry and consumers at large. With the increasing number of e-commerce users, especially in the C2C (consumer to consumer) sector, market competition is becoming more intense. This study focuses on analyzing certain factors such as website appearance, ease of use, free shipping policy, return policy, POD mode of payment, and security that can influence customer trust and its impact on repurchase intention. Data collection was conducted through the distribution of online questionnaires in the Jabodetabek area to customers who had made online purchases in the last three months, using a purposive sampling method with a total of 228 respondents. The research method analysis used the PLS-SEM method. The results of this study indicate that website appearance, free shipping policy, return policy, and security have a positive and significant effect on trust. Meanwhile, ease of use and POD mode of payment have a positive but not significant effect on trust. Furthermore, trust has a positive and significant impact on repurchase intention. This study plays a role for C2C e-commerce management in increasing consumer trust, especially among the millennial generation, and its impact on repurchase intention.

Supply chain model having stochastic lead time demand with variable production rate and demand dependent on price and advertisement

In this present study, a single-manufacturer and single-retailer supply chain management model are formulated for a single product. This study specifically looks at a supply chain with variable production rate, stochastic lead time demand, and price- and advertisement-dependent demand. By incorporating these complex aspects into a model, which enables to examine their combined effects on supply chain performance, this study adds to the body of knowledge. The study reveals unique insights into the complex interplay between pricing tactics, advertising efforts, production dynamics, and the variability brought on by stochastic lead times through meticulous study and modelling. Finally, the total system profit is calculated and optimized with all the decision variables. A classical approach is performed to obtain the optimized solution of the joint profit function along with the decision variables. Two models are discussed in the study: (1) the model with normally distributed lead time demand and (2) the model with distribution-free lead time demand. The joint profit of the supply chain is found to be lesser by 1% for the normally distributed lead time demand than the distribution free pattern. The comparison of the shipment policies and the safety factors for the different distribution patterns of the lead time demand are shown. Though the huge increment in the safety factor for unknown leadtime demand distribution may help in reducing the uncertainity factor and disruptions in the supply chain, but also it may unnecessarily tie up more capital which can be invested in other sectors of the supply chain.

The shipping industry under the EU Green Deal: An Input-Output impact analysis

In 2021, the European Commission introduced the ‘Fit for 55’ package, a set of policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 55% by the year 2030. This initiative, aligned with the European Green Deal, seeks to make Europe a climate-neutral continent by 2050. A pivotal aspect of ‘Fit for 55’ is the proposed extension of the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) to the shipping industry. According to the European Commission, water transport accounts for 2.5% of global GHG emissions, while the shipping industry accounts for 13% of the EU’s GHG emissions from transportation.This stringent new shipping policy makes it imperative to determine how the world’s economy will respond, considering three distinct implementation proposals with different rates of policy introduction. Evaluating the short-term impacts of the policy is crucial to ensuring that the sustainability initiative is not only ambitious but also pragmatic and adaptable to the realities. To assess the implications, this paper uses the Leontief price model, the environmental input–output (EIO) model, and the OECD Inter-Country Input-Output (ICIO) Table for 2018, which contains information for 45 sectors. The focus is on EU countries and its Top 10 Trading Countries.Our findings show that a short-term trade-off exists between economic and environmental goals and that environmental gains incur economic losses for key stakeholders. They also show that the impact of this policy is felt more by producers in the EU and consumers in non-EU countries than by other agents in the respective countries. Lastly, a recommendation from our study is that the policy should be phased in progressively to provide economic agents with the necessary adjustment time and thus minimize economic losses.

Unequal shipment policy in a sustainable production inventory system considering defective items and multi-level price breaks

In this time and age, sustainability is a global phenomenon. This article represents a vendor–buyer integrated inventory system considering defective products. A multi-level quantity flexibility contract with unequal shipment policy is used here to achieve better productivity. Carbon emission for inventory holding and transportation is also considered to make the model sustainable. The vendor provides a multi-level quantity flexibility scheme to encourage the buyer to order additional quantities and deliver it in several unequal sized shipments. There are some imperfect products in each lot due to the unreliable production process, and those products are rejected after the inspection at the buyer's end. An algorithm is proposed to optimise the overall expense of the proposed system. We examine several shipment policies and determine the optimal shipment policy to minimise the system expenditure. Through detailed numerical analysis, we have validated our findings and the soundness of our model. The aim of this study is to bridge the gap between the existing literature and provide insights to industrial practitioners and academic researchers alike. We obtain the optimal order quantity, shipment policy and shipment frequency that minimise overall expenses considering carbon emission costs.

Have Your Cake and Eat It? Price Discount Programs under the Membership Free Shipping Policy in Online Retailing

Online retailers offer free shipping services, such as threshold free shipping (TFS) and membership free shipping (MFS), to promote sales and provide a better shopping experience to consumers in online retailing. Although MFS attracts more member-consumers, it encourages consumers to place more small orders than TFS, which significantly increases the operational costs of the online retailer. To address this issue, we propose two price discount policies under the MFS service, namely the limited-time discount and the threshold discount. Then, we build analytical models under these two policies to explore the impacts of offering price discounts on the retailer’s profit and consumers’ welfare. We find that no matter which discount policy is adopted, consumers are more likely to consolidate several small orders from different time periods into a big one to obtain the discount. The economies of scale generated by consumers consolidating their orders under these discount policies can help reduce online retailers’ operational costs. Therefore, regardless of any discount policy offered by the online retailer under the MFS service, consumers will place more big orders and more member-consumers are attracted, i.e., the online retailer can have its cake and eat it too. Our research findings provide decision-making insights for practitioners who offer free shipping services and price discounts to consumers in online retailing.

THE READINESS OF IMPLEMENTING A ZERO-EMISSION SHIPPING POLICY IN MALAYSIA

The shipping industry's growth in Malaysia has led to a significant increase in ship emissions.impacting air and marine quality and posing risks to human health, climate, and ecosystems.To address these environmental challenges, this research paper examines the implementation ofa zero-emission shipping policy in Malaysia. The objectives of this study are to identify theimpact of such a policy on the country's shipping industry and to formulate a comprehensiveframework for the successful implementation of the zero-emission policy. Qualitativemethodology was employed, and interviews were conducted with the Marine DepartmentMalaysia (MDM) to gather insights and data. Content analysis was applied to analyze theinterview results. This research contributes to addressing the shipping industry's sustainabilitychallenges in Malaysia by providing insights into the implementation of a zero-emission policy.

Designing shipping policies with top‐up options to qualify for free delivery

Motivated by the booming online grocery market and the extensive use of contingent free‐shipping (CFS) policies in the e‐grocery industry, we investigate the optimal CFS and pricing decisions for online grocers. Under a CFS policy, consumers enjoy free shipping for orders exceeding a certain threshold value; otherwise, they are charged a flat fee for orders below this threshold. We adopt a utility‐based model to capture consumers' behavior of purchasing additional items to qualify for free shipping under a CFS policy and analyze its impact on policy structure and consumer surplus. We characterize the e‐grocer's optimal pricing and CFS policy and find that consumer heterogeneity and demand distribution lead to different forms of the optimal shipping policy. When consumer heterogeneity is large enough, the optimal policy induces some consumers to top up and may allow some others to ship for free. In this case, the e‐grocer can charge a high‐profit margin. Otherwise, a top‐up option is unnecessary, and a flat‐rate shipping fee policy is optimal. Moreover, while the optimal policy never induces all consumers to top up when they are rational, it is possible to do so when consumers associate some psychological disutility with the shipping fee. Surprisingly, the total consumer surplus under the optimal policy may increase in the latter case. We further model a Stackelberg game between an e‐grocer and an offline channel and find that the difference between the e‐grocer's internal shipping cost and consumers' inconvenience cost of shopping offline is a main driver for market segmentation. Lastly, we show that a subscription‐based free‐shipping program, in addition to the jointly optimized CFS and pricing policy, cannot improve profits when consumers' order size and frequency are independent. Our findings help online grocers make operational and marketing decisions under the impact of consumers' top‐up behavior.

Word-of-Mouth on Action: Analysis of Optimal Shipment Policy When Customers are Resentful

Word-of-Mouth (WoM) communication via online reviews plays a vital role in customers’ purchasing decisions. As such, retailers must consider the impact of WoM to manage customer perceptions and future demand. This paper considers an online shopping system with premium and regular customers. Building on the behavioral and operations management literature, we model customer preferences based on the perceived service quality indicated by WoM and integrate this into the retailer’s operational problem to determine a shipment policy regarding the timing of consolidated shipments and the treatment of regular demand. First, we study the e-tailer’s problem when they have no knowledge of WoM and only react to the changes in demand. We analyze the long-term behavior of customer demand and show that potential market size and customer sensitivity are the key parameters determining this behavior. Then, we build a model to integrate the knowledge of WoM into operational decision-making and partially characterize the optimal solution. We show that (i) underpromise-and-overdeliver can be a hurtful strategy since it creates a false sense of fast delivery for the regular service, (ii) relaxations in operational constraints may hurt profitability due to the associated difficulties of managing perceptions, and (iii) seeking a stationary policy can lead to suboptimal solutions; therefore, cyclic policies should also be considered when appropriate.

Analysis of international shipping emissions reduction policy and China’s participation

In addressing climate change, the shipping industry, which is regarded as one sector that cannot be ignored in controlling greenhouse gas emissions, has become a key area of concern for the international community to achieve emissions reduction targets. The International Maritime Organization—the body that regulates international shipping—as well as the European Union and other international entities have adopted a series of emissions reduction policies, beginning a new era of shipping emissions reduction. In view of the urgency and complexity of this issue, the future policy direction of shipping emissions reduction and whether or not existing policies can achieve the emissions reduction targets have become the focus of attention in the global shipping industry. In addition, China’s dual identity as a shipping magnate and a developing country plays a crucial role in the development of shipping emissions reduction trends, and reducing shipping emissions is necessary for China to achieve the “double carbon” commitment. In view of the above, this study endeavours to compare the current major shipping emission reduction policies from the perspective of international law and the perspective of macro policies, and analyze the future direction of international shipping emissions reduction policy. At the same time, the study identify China as one of the key countries to influence future policy making and proposes the position and path for China's participation in international shipping emissions reduction, which provided valuable contributions for China to participate in accelerating energy transformation, exploring participation in the carbon emission market, and promoting international unified shipping policy.

The path to the construction of a domestic and international dual cycle of China’s shipping industry

Being the adjustment of the development strategy of the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the “PRC”), the new domestic and international dual-cycle development pattern forms the policy framework and target of the PRC’s future shipping industry. By exam the policy innovations taken in the Pilot Free Trade Zones/Free Trade Port and high-level Free Trade Agreements signed by PRC, this paper provides a conceptual research on the path to the construction of a domestic and international dual cycle of the PRC’s shipping industry. It is argued that the internal shipping policy innovations and international agreements has laid the foundation of the path, but resistance such as weak modern shipping service industry, unattractive international shipping system, and myriad of uncertain factors and challenges need to be addressed. It is deemed necessary to optimize the deployment of shipping industry in the logistic system and strengthen the innovation of new development model with combination of digital technologies.

Optimal pricing and ordering strategies for dual-channel retailing with different shipping policies

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>In this paper, considering dual-channel retailing (online channel and offline channel), we study the pricing and ordering problem under different shipping policies. In this research, we mainly consider three shipping policies: without shipping price (OSP), with shipping price (WSP) and conditional free shipping (CFP). Based on the principle of maximum utility, we firstly obtain the probability of demand for the online and offline channels and further model the pricing and ordering problem under the three shipping policies. Further, avoiding the curse of dimensionality, the deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG) method is employed to solve the problem to obtain the optimal pricing and ordering policy. Finally, we conduct some numerical experiments to compare the optimal pricing and ordering quantity under the three different shipping policies and reveal some managerial insights. The results show that the conditional free shipping policy is better than the other two policies, and stimulates the increase of demand to gain more profit.</p>

Economic viability of major river ports in Nigeria in the movement of goods and passengers to the hinterland

The Maritime industry has over the years, operated below capacity due largely to the neglect of the fundamental pillars, such as the wheel and spoke conceptual structure of development upon which grassroots economic business and local hinterland transactional exchanges rests on. Lack of a viable Shipping policy framework in place has also complicated the desire to develop the inland waterways operations and management, which is the key and rocky -anchor of the growth and development of an emerging inland waterways and River Ports operations. Ironically, there is a missing link in the economic trade liberalization and commercial transactional linkages and logistical spread connection between major port cities and the hinterland river-ports operations, due largely to the non- development of inland waterways operations in Nigeria. This study used mixed research design method comprised of both survey data and data from secondary sources to investigate the economic viability of selected River ports in Nigeria. It was recommended that, there is need for the government to further fortify these river -ports with clear -cut policies needed up-to-date infrastructural facility to assist to its development and growth. This is because, it will assist to kick-start the efficient inland waterways operation and facilitates economic viability of river -ports operational efficiency of the whole system, as well as strengthen the cabotage operations. It was also recommended that, efforts should be intensified to remove obstacles to safe navigation such as wrecks, derelicts, water hyacinths and other impediments on the waterways of each of the River-Ports at the end.

The climate impact of high seas shipping.

Strict carbon emission regulations are set with respect to countries' territorial seas or shipping activities in exclusive economic zones to meet their climate change commitment under the Paris Agreement. However, no shipping policies on carbon mitigation are proposed for the world's high seas regions, which results in carbon intensive shipping activities. In this paper, we propose a Geographic-based Emission Estimation Model (GEEM) to estimate shipping GHG emission patterns on high seas regions. The results indicate that annual emissions of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e) in shipping on the high seas reached 211.60 million metric tonnes in 2019, accounting for about one-third of all shipping emissions globally and exceeding annual GHG emissions of countries such as Spain. The average emission from shipping activities on the high seas is growing at approximately 7.26% per year, which far surpasses the growth rate of global shipping emission at 2.23%. We propose implementation of policies on each high seas region with respect to the main emission driver identified from our results. Our policy evaluation results show that carbon mitigation policies could reduce emissons by 25.46 and 54.36 million tonnes CO2-e in the primary intervention stage and overall intervention stage, respectively, with 12.09% and 25.81% reduction rates in comparison to the 2019 annual GHG emissions in high seas shipping.

The Influence of Inaportnet Skills and Employee Performance on the Smoothness of Ship Services at PT Benua Indah Gemaca Banten Branch

In general, it can be said that regular shipping is a reflection of a shipping policy that can harmonize the relationship between operators and users of sea transportation services, both in terms of service products and handling of goods. The concept that leads to choosing any product that can provide satisfaction is value, where the value itself is a consumer's estimate of the product's capacity to satisfy various goals. But unfortunately, the export-import transportation activities are currently still dominated by companies. This can be seen from the increase in shipping companies, both national and foreign, the consequence of which is the emergence of competition among shipping companies. For the smooth operation of loading and unloading of imports or exports, it is necessary for the carrier/ship owner as well as the customer/user of the goods delivery service. To realize this smoothness, in carrying out the activities of the shipping company, it can appoint agents at the port where the ships will visit to carry out activities. Procedurally, the shipping company appoints a general agent in a certain maritime capital in the country that will be visited by the ship in order to carry out loading and unloading activities. Unloading and loading activities. So that general agency companies that have been appointed as representatives can improve services to attract customers. The port agent's task is to serve the ship and submit documents for when the ship has docked and left in the port area of ​​PT. Pelindo II Banten Branch, Inaportnet is a system that combines, among others, a traffic and sea transportation information system, an online ship system, a seafarer certificate application, a port information system, and a port business entity system, PT. Benua Indah Gemaca is a ship agency that uses the Inaportnet service system. Mastering technology and communication is very important in document services with KSOP and other related agencies. The problem that arises with the implementation of the Inaportnet system is that some employees do not master Inaportnet technology, this will hamper ship document services and cause the company to pay more than it should to pay for human resources from outside who understand Inaportnet technology.

System dynamics modeling of the earthquake-induced interruption of a business

ABSTRACT This study proposes a system dynamics simulation model that characterizes the dynamics post-earthquake performance of a business considering its dependency on lifelines (i.e., utilities and road networks) and the state of the market. The model characterizes the relationships between the business’s profitability and the resources it needs to operate (e.g., staff, raw materials, and equipment). It also considers the supply and demand dynamics that govern the prices of goods or services the business produces. It can be used to holistically investigate a business’s post-earthquake performance and recovery. It helps administrators acquire an insight into how to reduce the vulnerability of their businesses against probable future earthquakes. The model application is showcased by applying it to simulate the post-earthquake performance and recovery of a manufacturing business. The results indicate that, unlike retrofits, post-earthquake measures like increasing prices or changing shipping policies do not adequately mitigate earthquake-induced business losses.

Stochastic behavior of exchange rate on an international supply chain under random energy price

Monetary policy and logistics management are two important factors for international supply chain management. Selling imported items is a little bit more difficult rather than the domestic supply chain. This paper studies this context by developing a suitable policy for trade-credit financing. The supply chain management uses the just-in-time policy to increase efficiency. An inspection process runs for all inventory to eliminate the risk of random defective rates regarding the quality of items. The vendor uses a multiple shipment policy to deliver inventory to the buyer’s end. The stochastic dollar exchange rate has importance in the international supply chain as supply chain players are situated in different countries. The vendor allows a fixed credit period for paying the wholesale price to the buyer. In the meantime, the buyer increases the sale and boosts the revenue. Environmental effects of carbon emission and randomness of energy prices are discussed within this study. Global optimality of the non-linear objective function is shown both theoretically and numerically by developing an algorithm. Sensitivity analysis has been provided based on the numerical experiment to find the changes in global minimum cost.

Fuzzy Optimal Inventory and Shipment Policy on Non- Coordinated Supply Chain Under Quadratic Price Dependent Demand

Abstract: Inventory management in the supply chain has been discovered to be the key to long-term success. Inventory is important in the supply chain because it balances supply characteristics and consumer demand. In this non-coordinated supply chain model, the merchant determines the appropriate order quantity based on the various expenses involved. Under quadratic price dependent demand, an extension of the lagrangian method is used to optimize fuzzy EOQ, total variable cost of the relevant retailer, and the supply chain. To support the model, a numerical case is solved.

Online Retailer’s Contingent Free-Shipping Decisions under Large-Scale Promotions Considering Delayed Delivery

Large-scale promotions lead to a huge number of orders, and the quantity of deliveries grows sharply, which puts considerable strain on cities’ logistics and imposes high related shipping costs. To alleviate these consequences, in this paper we provide a new contingent free shipping policy with delayed delivery (DD-CFS) for an online retailer during large-scale promotions and study its CFS threshold decisions, considering consumers’ different sensitivities to delivery time delays.We start by analyzing a consumer’s purchasing decision based on consumer utility theory. Next, we establish a mathematical model to help the online retailer find the optimal CFS threshold to maximize its expected profit. Finally, we analyze the benefit of delayed delivery to the online retailer and conduct a sensitivity analysis to examine the impacts of important parameters on the online retailer’s CFS threshold decisions, profit, and the value of the delayed delivery. We find that the DD-CFS policy can lead to more profits during the large-scale promotions period compared with the traditional CFS policy. As the delayed delivery time and the consumer’s negative attitude towards delayed delivery time increase, the online retailer should reduce the low CFS threshold value. On the other hand, as the shipping fee and the consumer’s negative attitude towards the shipping fee increase, the online retailer should raise the high and low CFS threshold values.

Economic shipping policies for assuring safety integrity level of E/E/PE safety-related software

Electrical/electronic/programmable electronic (E/E/PE) safety-related systems are widely applied in several industrial fields due to noticeable technical growth of information processing technologies. In the design and development for the E/E/PE safety-related software, safety assessment is required by following IEC 61508, which is the international basic standard for the E/E/PE safety-related systems. And, quantitative safety assessment technologies is useful for enhancing and validating their safety for the hardware as well as for the software of the E/E/PE safety-related systems. Especially for the E/E/PE safety-related software, the manager pays a lot of attention for quantitative software safety assessment technologies, which have not provided by IEC 61508, and for realizing economic software development with their safety objective. This article discusses mathematical approaches for conducting quantitative safety assessment for the E/E/PE safety-related software and mathematical software release problem for supporting decision making on when to release the E/E/PE safety-related software economically with assuring a certain safety objective.