Driving Digital Transformation

Many of the challenges that transportation and logistics companies are facing can be addressed through digitalization, and in particular by developing their data analytic capability. This is however a complex socio-technical process that poses unique challenges to transportation and logistics companies. Through a multiple case study approach, the present study examines the enablers and inhibitors of data analytic capability in transportation and logistics companies. We find that the development of data analytic capability by transportation and logistics companies has many enablers and inhibitors in common with other industries. These include linking digitalization efforts to the company strategy, introducing knowledge of digitalization to the company, and management lacking knowledge of digitalization that inhibits them from making appropriate decisions. However, our findings also show that transportation and logistics companies experience a lack of interoperability of systems more severely than other industries as their processes and corresponding data flows are entangled with those of other actors in the supply chain such as customers, suppliers, customs, other logistics and transportation companies, etc. The lack of standardization is thus a much more serious threat than acknowledged previously. While transportation and logistics companies still try to address this issue by harmonizing their systems, recent technological developments such as the emergence of integration platforms and Artificial Intelligence could be an effective shortcut.