A special issue of World Review of Intermodal Transportation Research
While innovation has been noted to be essential to sustained competitive advantage in many industry sectors, academic and practitioner research of innovation in transportation has been minimal. Yet transportation provides a unique context in which to examine the dynamics of innovation and its impacts to competitive strategy.
As industries age, innovations developed and implemented within organisations change in type and intensity. Product innovation and production process innovation, both highly examined in manufacturing sectors across industry life cycles, are not adequately researched in transportation industries. Additionally, there is an enormous gap in research with respect to less “visible” innovations, which include, but are not limited to, administrative and organisational innovations that focus on organisational structure, administrative processes and human resources; technical innovations that pertain to the technology used to produce products and render services; and marketing innovations that focus on the generation and implementation of new, novel elements in the marketing process, focusing on product, price, placement, and promotion as the variables of interest. These less “visible” types of innovations often provide sustained competitive advantage as they challenge competitors to discover and uncover an organisationally-embedded, rare and valuable innovation which is not easily imitated or substituted.
This special issue is intended to present current research in the development and implementation of a broad spectrum of innovation types, their applications in transportation and supporting/related industries, changes in innovation across industry life cycles, and the resulting implications for strategy and competitive advantage. We encourage papers from all aspects of transportation and intermodal transportation where innovation has occurred or should occur, which include but are not limited to:
- Air cargo and passenger transportation
- Alliances in the transportation industries
- Brokering services
- Cargo handling, equipment and facilities
- Container development and evolution
- Development of hubbing systems
- Electronic data interchange
- Future innovation trends in intermodal transportation
- Ground transportation
- Infrastructure development, maintenance, and upgrade
- Intelligent transportation systems
- Leasing companies
- Network design
- Ocean port development, facilities, and linkages
- Pipeline operations
- Railroad development and involvement in intermodal transportation
- Security and safety of the transportation system
- Supply chain innovation
- Sustainability/transformational innovation
- Transportation competition and cooperation
- Transportation networks
- Warehousing and inventory
Submission of full paper before: 30 June 2009
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