Table 1 Summary of literature findings... | Emerald Publishing

Table 1

Summary of literature findings on types of logistics uncertainty and related risk management approaches

Type of uncertainty	Definition	Examples of possible negative effects stemming from the uncertainty source	Suggested risk management tools/actions	References
Delivery uncertainty	Uncertainty in transportation times and costs and in their control due to long geographical distances, unexpected events, delays, mistakes, tracking problems and lack of integration among different transport systems	High transportation costs, stops or inefficiencies at intermodal hubs, capacity problems	Cooperation with local or international logistics service providers; personal networking and use of tracking technologies	Kawa (2017), Kim et al. (2017), Li et al. (2020), Rahman et al. (2019), Ren et al. (2020) and Wang et al. (2020)
Customer service expectation uncertainty	Uncertainty related to the level of service perceived by the final customer, which colud be compromised by poor return management policies, inadequate customer support, lenghty order cycle time and low customization	High returns management costs or times, complaints or negative reviews	Cooperation with local or international logistics service providers; cooperation with e-commerce service providers or CBEC platforms and reengineering of internal processes to improve collaboration between marketing and operations department	Giuffrida et al. (2018), Giuffrida et al. (2019), Qiao et al. (2017), Ying and Dayong (2005), Fang (2017), Qi et al. (2020), Ren et al. (2020) and Wang et al. (2020)
Compliance uncertainty	Uncertainty about the compliance to local procedures and standards caused by misalignments, changing tariffs or lack of knowledge about quality requirements or necessary procedures	Incurring fines or restrictions, blocks or delays at customs clearance hubs	Reliance on external experts and legal consultants, hire of in-house compliance team, investment in process automation (e.g. for automated reporting, item classification and rate calculations)	Ballering (2017), Giuffrida et al. (2018), Giuffrida et al. (2019), Jia (2020), Li et al. (2020), Xu (2019) and Zhang et al. (2017)
External uncertainty	Uncertainty linked to the external environment, which can hardly be controlled by the company and caused by change in regulations, political or global macroeconomic factors, fraud or counterfeiting	Unfavorable currency exchange rates, restrictive regulations and higher costs	Use of insurance or hedging solutions, investment in cybersecurity measures and cooperation with legal advisors and experts	Giuffrida et al. (2019), Li et al. (2020), Wang et al. (2020), World Customs Organization (2018) and Xu (2019)
Inventory management uncertainty	Uncertainty in inventory planning caused by lack of, imprecise or not updated, information about the status of overseas warehouses, fluctuations in warehousing costs and labor costs in foreign markets and variation in the SKUs	High warehousing costs, high inventory management pressure in case SKUs change (e.g. some new are introduced for a test in the new market or others are removed because of negative profit margins)	Coopearation with logistics service providers, use of order management software, increased level of cooperation with procurement, demand management, sales and marketing departments	Gessner and Snodgrass (2015), Giuffrida et al. (2019), Huang et al. (2017), Kawa (2017), Shi et al. (2020), Jia (2020), Ren et al. (2020) and Wang et al. (2020)
Product or parcel damage	Uncertainty on the physical status of products, risks of causing damages to the product or altering its quality (e.g. for temperature sensitive goods) before it is delivered to the customer	Increased costs, waste generation, possible negative effects on customer experience or complaints (if the damage is not detected before final delivery)	Invest in monitoring and temperature preservation technology, insurance solutions and incentives for cautions behaviors of logistics operators	Giuffrida et al. (2019), Huang et al. (2017) and World Customs Organization (2018)
Demand uncertainty	Uncertainty in demand forecasting and management due to changing consumer preferences across countries or regions, local seasonality effects, uncertain effect of promotional campaigns and lack of historical data	Possible loss of market share and stock outs	Higher integration and cooperation among suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and customer, understand local preferences and demand gaps not served locally through consumer research or A/B testing	Giuffrida et al. (2019), Shi et al. (2020), Qi et al. (2020), Wang and Chen (2019) and Wang et al. (2020)

Type of uncertainty	Definition	Examples of possible negative effects stemming from the uncertainty source	Suggested risk management tools/actions	References
Delivery uncertainty	Uncertainty in transportation times and costs and in their control due to long geographical distances, unexpected events, delays, mistakes, tracking problems and lack of integration among different transport systems	High transportation costs, stops or inefficiencies at intermodal hubs, capacity problems	Cooperation with local or international logistics service providers; personal networking and use of tracking technologies	Kawa (2017), Kim et al. (2017), Li et al. (2020), Rahman et al. (2019), Ren et al. (2020) and Wang et al. (2020)
Customer service expectation uncertainty	Uncertainty related to the level of service perceived by the final customer, which colud be compromised by poor return management policies, inadequate customer support, lenghty order cycle time and low customization	High returns management costs or times, complaints or negative reviews	Cooperation with local or international logistics service providers; cooperation with e-commerce service providers or CBEC platforms and reengineering of internal processes to improve collaboration between marketing and operations department	Giuffrida et al. (2018), Giuffrida et al. (2019), Qiao et al. (2017), Ying and Dayong (2005), Fang (2017), Qi et al. (2020), Ren et al. (2020) and Wang et al. (2020)
Compliance uncertainty	Uncertainty about the compliance to local procedures and standards caused by misalignments, changing tariffs or lack of knowledge about quality requirements or necessary procedures	Incurring fines or restrictions, blocks or delays at customs clearance hubs	Reliance on external experts and legal consultants, hire of in-house compliance team, investment in process automation (e.g. for automated reporting, item classification and rate calculations)	Ballering (2017), Giuffrida et al. (2018), Giuffrida et al. (2019), Jia (2020), Li et al. (2020), Xu (2019) and Zhang et al. (2017)
External uncertainty	Uncertainty linked to the external environment, which can hardly be controlled by the company and caused by change in regulations, political or global macroeconomic factors, fraud or counterfeiting	Unfavorable currency exchange rates, restrictive regulations and higher costs	Use of insurance or hedging solutions, investment in cybersecurity measures and cooperation with legal advisors and experts	Giuffrida et al. (2019), Li et al. (2020), Wang et al. (2020), World Customs Organization (2018) and Xu (2019)
Inventory management uncertainty	Uncertainty in inventory planning caused by lack of, imprecise or not updated, information about the status of overseas warehouses, fluctuations in warehousing costs and labor costs in foreign markets and variation in the SKUs	High warehousing costs, high inventory management pressure in case SKUs change (e.g. some new are introduced for a test in the new market or others are removed because of negative profit margins)	Coopearation with logistics service providers, use of order management software, increased level of cooperation with procurement, demand management, sales and marketing departments	Gessner and Snodgrass (2015), Giuffrida et al. (2019), Huang et al. (2017), Kawa (2017), Shi et al. (2020), Jia (2020), Ren et al. (2020) and Wang et al. (2020)
Product or parcel damage	Uncertainty on the physical status of products, risks of causing damages to the product or altering its quality (e.g. for temperature sensitive goods) before it is delivered to the customer	Increased costs, waste generation, possible negative effects on customer experience or complaints (if the damage is not detected before final delivery)	Invest in monitoring and temperature preservation technology, insurance solutions and incentives for cautions behaviors of logistics operators	Giuffrida et al. (2019), Huang et al. (2017) and World Customs Organization (2018)
Demand uncertainty	Uncertainty in demand forecasting and management due to changing consumer preferences across countries or regions, local seasonality effects, uncertain effect of promotional campaigns and lack of historical data	Possible loss of market share and stock outs	Higher integration and cooperation among suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and customer, understand local preferences and demand gaps not served locally through consumer research or A/B testing	Giuffrida et al. (2019), Shi et al. (2020), Qi et al. (2020), Wang and Chen (2019) and Wang et al. (2020)