• understand key challenges of fulfillment operations in global online supply chains
• know key elements of fulfillment models of key players in the global online business
• understand structures, key functions and processes in global and local modes of distribution
• can analyze roles of key players within such service supply chains and can identify limitations and key business challenges
• can compose and compare generic fulfillment models for online market places
• apply concepts and theories to answer specific questions about potentials of innovative fulfillment concepts applied

The physical fulfillment is next to branding and assortment or the technical realization of platforms and web presence another crucial element of online market places and related service propositions. However, these specific challenges of online fulfillment and supply chain operations for online marketplaces are frequently underestimated and have already caused numerous, sometimes spectacular, failures in the short history of ecommerce.

Embedded within the broader context of supply chain management and logistics services, the course tries to narrow in particular this gap. The course focuses on specific challenges regarding physical fulfillment and deals with relevant structures, functions and processes as well as strategies and business models of central actors in the relevant fulfillment systems.

The course is based on a combination of theoretical approaches with industry facts to illustrate developments and key management challenges in a more applied context and will be structured into three major blocks.

The first block deals with operational challenges of global fulfilment in a more comprehensive view of the global supply chain. This contains also theoretical frames and pointed references to relevant “legal frames” of operations.

In a second block building blocks of fulfilment models for market places are presented (“big picture”) and detailed into relevant functional aspects of global fulfilment. Next to inventory and warehouse management this refers in particular to actors, networks and processes regarding global modes of logistics services, such as maritime and air freight but also to more local modes and the last mile delivery. In this context some innovative technologies such as (drones, UAV) may be part of the analysis.

In the final third block the view returns to more comprehensive supply chain management and refers to specific fulfillment challenges in specific environments such as e.g. City logistics or a rural supply chain.

Tentative List of Literature:

John Manners-Bell: Global Logistics Strategies - Delivering the Goods, Kogan 2014.

Baker, Peter  (2007), An exploratory framework of the role of inventory and warehousing in international supply chains, The International Journal of Logistics Management, Vol. 18, No. 1, 64-80.

Clausen, U. et al.  (2016), Hands-on testing of last mile concepts, Transportation Research Procedia, Vol. 14, 1533-1542.

Dablanc, Laetitia  (2007), Goods transport in large European cities: Difficult to organize, difficult to modernize, Transportation Research Part A, Vol. 41, 180-285.

Gadhia, H.; Kotzab, H.; Prockl, G. (2011), Levels of internationalization in the container shipping industry: an assessment of the port networks of the large container shipping companies, Journal of Transport Geography, Vol. 19 , 1431-1442.

Ghezzi, A. et al.  (2012), Shaping the E-Commerce Logistics Strategy: a Decision Framework, International Journal of Engineering Business Management, Vol. 4, 1-13.

Morganti, E. et al.  (2014), Final deliveries for online shopping: The deployment of pickup point networks in urban and suburban areas, Research in Transportation Business & Management, Vol. 11, 23-31.

Park, N. et al.  (2015), Korean Air Cargo: Strategic Challenges in an Evolving Environment, Asian Case Research Journal, Vol. 19, No. 1, 127-154.

Prockl, Günter  (2015), Missing Boxes in Central Europe, Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen, https:/​/​www.thecasecentre.org/​main/​products/​view?id=128999.

Prockl, Günter et al.  (2012), 3PL factories or lernstatts? Value-creation models for 3PL service providers, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 42, No. 6, 544-561.

Prockl, Günter et al. (2020), Rural supply chain management: A multidimensional framework for future research in Europe, in: International Journal of Business and Systems Research, 2020.

Quak, H. J.;  de Koster, Rene  (2009), Delivering Goods in Urban Areas: How to Deal with Urban Policy Restrictions and the Environment, Transportation Science, Vol. 43, No. 2, 211-227.

Schramm, H.; Prockl, G.; Kolar, P.  (2017), About Claims and Realities of Digitization in Current Maritime Transportation Chains, IAME 2017 CONFERENCE | KYOTO, JAPAN; Paper ID 228; June 27-30, Kyoto, Japan.

Sparkman, David  (2017), Logistics in the Time of E-Commerce: Warehouse operators and parcel delivery companies are the big winners in an Internet-driven economy., Material Handling & Logistics, Vol. 72, No. 6, 14-18.

Xing, Y. et al.  (2011), The interface between retailers and logistics service providers in the online market, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 46, No. 3, 334-357.

Yu, Y. et al.  (2017), E-Commerce logistics in supply chain management - Implementations and future perspective in furniture industry, Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 117, No. 10, 2263-2286.