Book Reviews

Causes of Supply Chain Disruptions: An Empirical Analysis in Cold Chains for Food and Pharmaceuticals

Brenner, Verena. 2015. Causes of Supply Chain Disruptions: An Empirical Analysis in Cold Chains for Food and Pharmaceuticals. Springer-Gabler. 323 pp. $89.99.

Supply chain disruptions are of utmost importance for today’s global supply chain processes. Whether the causes of disruptions are the natural disasters that have produced havoc in the semiconductor and other industries, contaminated water supplies that have created major problems for pharmaceutical companies, or interruptions in airline schedules that have resulted in mayhem for airline passengers, such disturbances are at the forefront of issues that the vast majority of organization must address.

The book represents Dr. Brenner’s PhD thesis, under the supervision of Dr. Hulsmann, at Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany. It comprises four chapters that follow the standard format of a PhD thesis. In Chapter 1, the introductory chapter, the author justifies the importance of the problem from a practical perspective; he thus substantiates its place in the literature.

Chapter 2 continues the discussion begun in Chapter 1 by explaining the shortcomings of the current literature regarding disruptions, and provides additional approaches for improving this situation. This chapter concludes with an interim conclusion, which I feel is premature, as are the next interim conclusions. In Chapter 3 the author presents various theoretical structures that support her thesis.

In Chapter 4, the author focuses on empirical analyses of disruptions in cold supply chains. This chapter is the crux of the thesis; however, the author spends too much time clarifying the limitations of the research, instead of explaining how it moves forward beyond the literature to date. The book is repetitive and relies on the literature when it should express its involvement. I was hoping to see a compelling argument regarding the contribution of this book to the state of the art. Unfortunately, this chapter is entangled between simple explanations of statistical analysis and the implications this analysis has for current research. However, it fails to provide important insights into this important issue and generalizes it to other supply chains.

Overall, the subject matter should be of interest to a wide readership. The book is well written and grounded in practice. As I state above, although I like several aspects of the work, I have major concerns about others. It should be of interest to PhD students and researchers who want to become involved in the field. In addition, it is very thorough in its description of concepts and of the work to date.

In conclusion, I find little archival value for this book. It does not stand on its methodological contribution nor does it prove itself on the computational side. Its focus is on the food and pharmaceuticals cold chains; however, it does not follow this discussion by applying the concepts it has developed to markets around the world.

Marius M. Solomon

Northeastern University, The D’Amore-McKim School of Business, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, [email protected]

Multichannel Commerce: A Consumer Perspective on the Integration of Physical and Electronic Channels

Trenz, Manuel. 2015. Multichannel Commerce: A Consumer Perspective on the Integration of Physical and Electronic Channels. Springer. 153 pp. $99.00.

Competition in retailing is becoming increasingly intense, especially for traditional brick and mortar stores, as a result of the growth of electronic commerce in recent years; for example, in 2014, ecommerce business hit a record high of $1.3 trillion, and it is expected to grow at an accelerating pace in the next few years. Therefore, to compete with pure online competitors, many traditional retailers are incorporating online channels into their sales structures. This book primarily focuses on this type of retailer, which it refers to as a multichannel retailer, and explores how the integration of online and offline channels affect customer consumption behavior.

Multichannel Commerce: A Consumer Perspective on the Integration of Physical and Electronic Channels uses an unusual perspective to explore the customer behavior in channel choice and makes a decent theoretical contribution. This book is based on the author’s doctoral thesis at the University of Mannheim; therefore, most of the research results are based on data from Germany; however, the research methodologies are applicable worldwide and the results offer insights for the entire retail industry. Moreover, this book provides a comprehensive literature review of online and offline channel studies, which makes it a valuable reference for readers.

Because this book is based on the author’s doctoral thesis, its structure and format are that of an academic paper. Not surprisingly, it starts with an introductory chapter (Chapter 1). In it, the author explains the motivation and major research questions of this study. At the end of this chapter, he introduces the book’s basic structure, thus giving the reader a clear outline of this book. In Chapter 2, he presents a rigorous review of existing literature, summarizing the current research contributions. He begins by explaining the differences between online and offline commerce, identifies choices between these two types of commerce, and concludes the review section by introducing multichannel integration. Chapter 2 is critical, especially for academic readers, because it gives readers a clear understanding of the book’s key focuses. Chapter 3 contains some of the book’s most important content, because it examines the impacts that different types of multichannel integration services have on consumer channel choice and willingness to pay (e.g., pickup in store, pickup immediacy). At the beginning of Chapter 3, the author provides the core theoretical foundations, such as perception risk, and carefully explains how this research is built on and relates to those theories. He then proposes a list of hypotheses, which highlight the main research questions. He presents the empirical study in detail, including production selection and manipulation, questionnaires, data collection, and final data analysis. Each subsection is well written and adheres to rigorous academic standards. Although the author uses many examples to illustrate his concepts, readers without training in empirical research methodology may have some difficulty in understanding the concepts, because the book is based on a doctoral thesis. However, the general summary at the end of this chapter provides practical guidance for business professionals. In Chapter 4, having established the valuation of multichannel integration services, the author continues to explore how contingency factors impact the valuation of the different types of channel integration. Readers will find this helpful, because the author fully explains regulatory focus theory, which he applies to his hypotheses and uses an example as an illustration. Subsequently, he presents an empirical study, including hypotheses, measurements, and data and result analyses, and discusses conjoint estimation and goodness-of-fit applications in this research. The structure is well organized and easy to follow, especially for academic researchers. Chapter 4 also includes a discussion section in which he summarizes the major contribution of this research work from both a theoretical and a practical perspective, and gives some possible future research directions.

In summary, the author has written a book that explores the effects of the integration of online and offline channel on consumer behavior. It is an excellent research paper that academic researchers will find useful; in addition, the many examples presented make it suitable for business practitioners.

Yi Liao

Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, China, [email protected]