外文资料翻译 《面向农村专业合作社的区域物流信息系统研究》.doc

Traceability as part of competitive strategy in the fruit supply chainAbstractPurpose The paper aims to focus on traceability as part of information management in the fruit supply chains of Emilia-Romagna, Italy. A review of the rules in use for traceability distinguishes between baseline traceability and traceability plus (T þ ), which encompasses many further embedded value attributes.Design/methodology/approach The paper takes the form of a qualitative study involving in-depth interviews with key informants in the Italian fresh produce chain.Findings Findings are discussed in terms of different themes including identication of three distinct types of supply chains and the impact upon them and categorisation of traceability systems across the different chains. Identied are the impact of information systems management; purchasing management; product management transaction costs; and co-ordination issues.Research limitations/implications The studys ndings are based on Italian fresh produce traceability context only.Practical implications Elements of competitive strategy are considered in the analysis of fruit supply chains of Emilia-Romagna, to demonstrate that not only strategic, but also operative choices determine the way a single rm or supply network manages traceability and information issues. Applications of such elements to buyer and seller selection as well as to competing retailers of the fruit supply chain, verify the hypothesis.Originality/value The paper adds to the body of knowledge surrounding prior studies on the development of traceability systems and develops further the analysis of legal and value-adding dimensions of traceability.Keywords Information control, Fruits, Supply chain managementPaper type Research paperIntroductionA plurality of legal systems refer to traceability issues: statutory law, voluntary standards and contractual agreements and rm strategies. The basic interpretation of traceability derives from the statutory denition, while a number of enhanced versions of traceability are adopted on a voluntary basis, which in this paper we call here traceability “plus” (T þ ) are put in place and communicated to consumers. We introduce this concept in the light of not only the regulatory standards, but also further traceability requirements, product quality and matters of information ow in the context of prior and appropriate studies in these areas. The focus is then shifted to the overall information ow across the supply chain. The empirical study concerns the fruit supply chain in Emilia-Romagna and is aimed at identifying different supply chain relationship management practices, including information collection and release. Issues related either to organisational performances or to competitive advantage strategies also come into play and are discussed with key informants.The paper is organised as follows: rst, a problem statement related to legal pluralism conditions on traceability and the general assumption that traceability is able to create value if it goes beyond statutory norms are exposed; then, the objectives, methodology and theoretical framework applied are described and the interpretation of traceability as an information management tool is discussed. Finally, the results of the analysis and some nal comments are presented.Legal pluralism for traceability: a problem statementThe adoption of traceability systems in rms of the fruit supply chain may refer to the statutory and voluntary law in force, or to a more comprehensive idea of traceability; going beyond the legal requirements. Concerning the legal position in the European Union, the European Community regulation 178/20002 denes traceability as:The ability to trace and follow a food, feed, food-producing animal or substance intended to be, or expected to be incorporated into a food or feed, through all stages of production, processing and distribution.However, a more general denition is established by ISO 9000:2000 standard whichstates that traceability is: The ability to trace the history, application or location of that which is under consideration. This is a very broad interpretation but does further contain a product related sub-clause, which specically considers: “the origin of material and parts, the processing history and the distribution and location of the products after delivery. Many different authors dene traceability (and also place it in the context of legal regulation), for example, Hobbs (2004), who creates a taxonomy of traceability systems, Pouliot and Sumner (2008) establish denition in terms of the identity of the actors in the chain. Likewise Hobbs et al. (2005) consider “identity preservation” but are also concerned with quality and food assurance issues and how these impinge on consumers. Further emphasis of consumer issues of traceability is to be found in Kehagia et al. (2007). In consideration of the particular requirements of the food industry, tracefood.org (n.d.) believes that traceability must be applied in the food industry “by means of recorded identications”, in which a mechanism is provided to gain access to recorded data Similarly Golan et al. (2004) dene traceability as “recordkeeping systems designed to track the ow of product or product attributes through production process or supply chain”. Schiefer (2008) considers tracking and tracing capabilities, in which it is possible to identify the initial source, the actual location, or the nal destination of any product from any stage within the supply network.The above legal requirements are clear, concerning the implementation of the regulation in practice, however, Folinas et al. (2006) believe that the (EU) regulation does not have a “specic methodology to be followed by all food business operators”. It is, therefore, the intention of this paper to identify traceability further, beyond legal and baseline denitions and expectations, in order to dene and use the concept from the perspective of supply network actors. We call this “traceability plus”, which concerns a non-standardised concept embedded with many other product/brand attributes included in the processes of selective collection and release of information.Each rm has to put in place traceability dened by statutory law, at European, national and regional level (e.g. EC Reg. 178/2002). In addition, there are many T þ implementation models, differently dened through voluntary norms (e.g. ISO 9001:2000, ISO 22000:2005, UNI 10939:2001, UNI 11020:2002, BRC, IFS), and voluntary company standards. Moreover, a rm can enrich traceability with elements beyond contractual agreements or voluntary certication. As minimum requirement of safety control systems required by law, traceability should not be communicated as a rms added-value. On the other hand, a traceability system is able to create added-value as far as it goes beyond statutory norms.ObjectivesWith respect to fruit supply chains in the Emilia-Romagna Region, we hypothesise that the adoption and management of T þ system is part either of operational or strategic information management, thus being included in the organisational performance or in the competitive strategy of a rm or supply network. We choose to analyse the fruit and vegetables supply chain because it is complex, entailing several types of producing, trading and retailing actors; it may not require investments in technology as in this region there has been established compliance and appropriate spending to conform to the minimum expectations (often in anticipation of new legal requirements) that are particularly relevant. However, the management of relationships is a more crucial issue, since it implies the important issue of exchange of information between partners of diverse sizes and power attributes and this is explored for example in literature on traceability and power (in a UK meat industry network context) in Lindgreen and Hingley (2003). The large scale retailers in Italy have a fresh produce market share of only about 40 per cent (lower than in most Western European countries), but this category is of crucial importance in most of the large-scale retailers strategies; for this reason, we are able to nd supply chain organisations that are typical in the recently developed market environment. Furthermore, traceability of fresh produce appears to be an important need on the consumer side (Kehagia et al., 2007; van Rijswijk and Frewer, 2008). MethodologySemi-structured in-depth interviews were carried out with 17 key informants. Among them, executives from four producers, six traders (three co-operatives, three wholesalers), three major retailers, three small retailers and a catering company. Those responsible for traceability standards of a certication agency and the manager of a systems technology rm were also represented. All the interviews were conducted at decision making level. The main research theme was: “supply chain relationship management practices” through traceability and interview questions were standardised around six sub-themes (Dibb et al., 1997). The sub themes were:(1) Information about the rm.(2) Product management (processing and logistic).(3) Information management.(4) Purchasing needs versus company capabilities.(5) Co-ordination issues.(6) Compliance with other management systems and voluntary certications.All the evidence resulting from the interviews and observations were presented (Yin, 1994) and discussed with reference to literature. Moreover, it was investigated how different strategies of three competing large retailers inuence operating decisions about information and traceability management according to the Porters framework for competitive analysis.Theoretical backgroundIt is important to consider traceability in the context of linked streams of literature. Similar issues and theoretical background are to be found in related areas. For example, van Dorp (2002) makes the link between tracking and tracing as a supply chain management tool. Supply chain relationship (SCR) management practices, as developed in Hingley (2001, 2005), and Lindgreen (2003), closely associate the need for and implementation of traceability systems as part of on going relationship based exchange. Further, there is a bridge between literature on traceability to work concerning competitive analysis (Stern and Reve, 1980; Porter, 1980) as well as transaction cost theory (Williamson, 1975; Barzel, 1982).Literature on supply chain relationships identies the strategic nature of coordination between trading partners; in particular, we looked at what were the levels of information sharing and the quality of information shared. The level of information sharing refers to the extent to which critical and proprietary information is communicated to ones supply chain partner (Monczka et al., 1998); the signicance of information sharing impact on SCRs depends on the quality of information shared: what, when, how and with whom it is shared (Holmberg, 2000).Various theories offer insights on specic aspects or perspectives of SCRs, such as industrial organisation and associated transaction cost analysis. Here we refer either to industrial relations, through the Porters framework for buyers and sellers analysis, considering the purchasing needs versus company capabilities, or to transaction cost analysis; in particular to the so called ex-post transaction costs including coordinationand control issues (Cheung, 1987).Discussion of ndings:The results of interviews and observations were elaborated according to the sub-themes matrix. As a result of the matrix as a whole, three fruit supply chains have been determined with respect to the operators involved, the actors driving transactions, the management of information and the rms underlying strategy. The supply chain we called “producer driven” sees at its end small retailers selecting their suppliers on the basis of the price set at the wholesale fruit market. The supply chain we called large retailer driven” entails large retailers setting the supply chain standards. The “ho.re.ca driven” supply chain includes as driving actors, hotel, restaurants and catering companies. The research ndings identify a possible categorisation of information produced and shared across the supply chain.Traceability as information management The interviews ndings show that the choices regarding which information to include in the traceability system, and which resources and tools to invest for such a system management, are based on several elements. Internal factors (related to the rm mission, to structural, technological and balance constraints), the type of operators involved and their linkages to each other, as well as macro-environmental characteristics (legislation, competitive environment), inuence the selection and processing of information. The resulting information follows specic requirements and objectives; Economic constraints:Investments are essential to manage highly diversied requirements and non standardised techniques for information transfer.Technological limits. Technological limits are strictly dependent on economic constraints; technology (as well as collecting information about available and suitable technologies) is costly to the rm.Most of the information managed has to comply with legislation constraints.Asking for and transferring information is strictly connected to the rm strategies and mission. Traceability will consequently bear different connotations, appropriate to the kind of message a rm desires to communicate to its target.Staff motivation and training. Staff motivation and training is considered as strategic since traceability is often regarded as a further burden of costs and work to producers.Co-ordination issuesThrough the different stages of the fruit supply chain, control costs are born by different operators to solve uncertainties. The co-operative or warehouse technical staff control the produce quality, either in the eld or at the warehouse. Retailers receive goods and carry out several controls to verify the correspondence within contractual agreements. Different retailers controlling the same produce category in different ways, create relative sources of inefciency in the system as a whole. Costs include physical samples, laboratories for analysis, transportation, the return of unsold produce and labour costs. Such costs are due to two main factors:(1) distrust of information transferred and of controlling operations;(2) lack of co-ordination between retailers.Vertical co-ordination offers several incentives, many of which relate to transaction cost reduction. In the fruit supply chain, co-ordination forms are subject to limits imposed by asset characteristics. Particularly, uncertainties about the availability of