Potential theoretical lenses
| Theoretical framework | Core concept and focus | Vital factors/Dimensions | Sample application to transforming logistics and fulfillment | Sample application to enhancing customer experience |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Technology-organizational-environment (Tornatzky and Fleischer, 1990) | Focuses on how a firm's context shapes its capacity to adopt, implement and assimilate technological innovations | Technological: Compatibility, complexity, relative advantage, technical infrastructure | Technological: Warehouse automation for enhanced throughput and reduced inventory safety stock | Technological: Autonomous drone delivery for enhanced consumer convenience |
| Organizational: Firm size, resource endowment, Firm structure, human capital capability | Organizational: Strategic deployment of AI processes integrated with firm workflows | Organizational: Physical store locations as a determinant of cross-channel BORIS processes | ||
| Environmental: Industry structure, competitive intensity, regulatory landscape, supply chain readiness | Environmental: Industry adoption of electronic price tags for more proactive price management | Environmental: Gig worker employment classification and impact on meal delivery costs to consumers | ||
| Institutional theory (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983; Hartley et al., 2022) | Focuses on how organizational behaviors and structures are shaped by external social pressures to achieve legitimacy and survival | Coercive: Pressures from formal laws, government mandates, or powerful supply chain nodes | Coercive: RFID and blockchain as a potential response to regulations requiring enhanced supply chain visibility | Coercive: Data governance regulations designed to protect consumer privacy |
| Mimetic: Copying the successful structures or technologies of industry leaders during periods of high ambiguity | Mimetic: Industry movement toward the adoption of electronic price tags for dynamic demand management | Mimetic: Adoption of meal delivery platforms to offer new services to consumers | ||
| Normative: Pressures arising from professionalization, shared industry standards and academic/expert networks | Normative: Adopting cross-border e-commerce supply chain structure and processes pioneered by competitors | Normative: Rising consumer expectations of frictionless omnichannel returns | ||
| Theory of consumer transaction cost (North, 1990; Teo and Yu, 2005; Williamson, 1989) | Focuses on minimizing the hidden costs (non-monetary frictions) incurred by consumers during the search, purchase and consumption phases |
| Indirect Application via Logistics: Efficient fulfillment pipelines directly eliminate consumer anxieties regarding item availability | Search/Information: Using generative AI to finetune recommendations and reduce consumer cognitive overload |
| Optimized upstream supply chain visibility translates into enhanced accuracy for retail websites | Bargaining: Deploying biometric payments or localized mobile wallets to remove point-of-sale friction | |||
| Advanced fleet routing minimizes delivery windows, fundamentally suppressing consumer anxiety costs regarding arrival times | Enforcement: Providing self-service return portals and instantaneous refunds to lower the perceived risk of an online transaction |
| Theoretical framework | Core concept and focus | Vital factors/Dimensions | Sample application to transforming logistics and fulfillment | Sample application to enhancing customer experience |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Technology-organizational-environment ( | Focuses on how a firm's context shapes its capacity to adopt, implement and assimilate technological innovations | Technological: Compatibility, complexity, relative advantage, technical infrastructure | Technological: Warehouse automation for enhanced throughput and reduced inventory safety stock | Technological: Autonomous drone delivery for enhanced consumer convenience |
| Organizational: Firm size, resource endowment, Firm structure, human capital capability | Organizational: Strategic deployment of AI processes integrated with firm workflows | Organizational: Physical store locations as a determinant of cross-channel BORIS processes | ||
| Environmental: Industry structure, competitive intensity, regulatory landscape, supply chain readiness | Environmental: Industry adoption of electronic price tags for more proactive price management | Environmental: Gig worker employment classification and impact on meal delivery costs to consumers | ||
| Institutional theory ( | Focuses on how organizational behaviors and structures are shaped by external social pressures to achieve legitimacy and survival | Coercive: Pressures from formal laws, government mandates, or powerful supply chain nodes | Coercive: RFID and blockchain as a potential response to regulations requiring enhanced supply chain visibility | Coercive: Data governance regulations designed to protect consumer privacy |
| Mimetic: Copying the successful structures or technologies of industry leaders during periods of high ambiguity | Mimetic: Industry movement toward the adoption of electronic price tags for dynamic demand management | Mimetic: Adoption of meal delivery platforms to offer new services to consumers | ||
| Normative: Pressures arising from professionalization, shared industry standards and academic/expert networks | Normative: Adopting cross-border e-commerce supply chain structure and processes pioneered by competitors | Normative: Rising consumer expectations of frictionless omnichannel returns | ||
| Theory of consumer transaction cost ( | Focuses on minimizing the hidden costs (non-monetary frictions) incurred by consumers during the search, purchase and consumption phases | Search Costs: Time and mental effort spent discovering, researching and selecting products Information Costs: Frictions related to understanding product details, price variations and availability Bargaining/Decision Costs: Effort expended to execute the transaction, finalize details and confirm security Enforcement/Post–Purchase Costs: Costs associated with tracking, delivery delays, executing returns, or rectifying errors | Indirect Application via Logistics: Efficient fulfillment pipelines directly eliminate consumer anxieties regarding item availability | Search/Information: Using generative AI to finetune recommendations and reduce consumer cognitive overload |
| Optimized upstream supply chain visibility translates into enhanced accuracy for retail websites | Bargaining: Deploying biometric payments or localized mobile wallets to remove point-of-sale friction | |||
| Advanced fleet routing minimizes delivery windows, fundamentally suppressing consumer anxiety costs regarding arrival times | Enforcement: Providing self-service return portals and instantaneous refunds to lower the perceived risk of an online transaction |
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