Supply Chain-Based Business Model Innovation: The Case of a Cross-Border E-Commerce Company

Ying Wang, Fu Jia, Tobias Schoenherr and Yu Gong
Additional contact information
Ying Wang: School of Economics and Management, Minjiang University, Fuzhou 350108, China
Fu Jia: School of Economics and Management, Minjiang University, Fuzhou 350108, China
Tobias Schoenherr: Broad College of Business, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
Yu Gong: Southampton Business School, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 12, 1-23

Abstract: Cross-border e-commerce has gained increasing popularity globally and thrives under the backdrop of the ‘One Belt One Road’ policy of China, which resonates with UN’s sustainable development goals targeting countries in the South. In this study, we investigate Zongteng, which is one of the first cross-border e-commerce companies in China, to assess how supply chain innovation activities can become core to a firm’s business model innovation. Data were collected from Zongteng senior managers, internal company documents, and open online resources. We found that the firm needed changes in its business model, which brought new participants into the business ecosystem and changed their respective positions. We further identified three types of supply chain localisations in cross-border e-commerce for export markets (sales, warehousing, and R&D localisation), which the company’s establishment of overseas warehouses enabled. The three localisation strategies serve as the driving force and the main business model innovation in cross-border e-commerce. This study contributes to the supply chain innovation literature by proposing that overseas warehouses, bonded warehouses, and supply chain finance are capabilities that form part of the business model innovation in cross-border e-commerce.

Keywords: supply chain innovation; business model innovation; cross-border e-commerce; business ecosystem (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/12/4362/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/12/4362/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:12:p:4362-:d:184936

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().