Benjamin Müßigmann;Heiko von der Gracht;Evi Hartmann
{"title":"Foresight Scenarios: The Future Impact of Technology in Freight Forwarding, an International Delphi Study","authors":"Benjamin Müßigmann;Heiko von der Gracht;Evi Hartmann","doi":"10.1109/TEM.2023.3264112","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2023.3264112","url":null,"abstract":"The freight forwarding (FF) industry plays a key role in running global supply chains, with a sales revenue of $180.66 billion in 2021. Digitization in supply chain management, a thriving topic in the past few years, has been accelerated by the challenges of COVID-19 and presents both challenges and opportunities for the FF industry which requires freight forwarders to adapt. Since technological foresight studies for the FF space are scarce, the specific expected impacts of digitization in FF remain unrevealed today. The aim of this study is to examine upcoming changes in the FF industry expected by FF professionals and academics over the next 30 years against the background of current technological developments and to identify related resilience measures for FF organizations. Overall, 84 international experts shared their estimates in a Delphi survey. The results are clustered into four clusters that provide an outlook for the future of FF. The results show that FF organizations should adapt to developing customer expectations, a change in the FF profile due to new requirements and a change of vision for the development of human resources. Still, experts see a high relevance for FF services in the future despite all technological developments.","PeriodicalId":55009,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management","volume":"72 ","pages":"308-325"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144264229","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Green Finance Policies for Mitigating Energy Accessibility Inadequacies in China: Empirical Insights From a Supply Chain Management Perspective","authors":"Jiazhan Gao;Guihong Hua;Baofeng Huo","doi":"10.1109/TEM.2025.3576351","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2025.3576351","url":null,"abstract":"Green‐finance policies are increasingly recognized as catalysts for low-carbon growth and improved living standards. Adopting a supply-chain perspective, this study applies a difference-in-differences framework to evaluate China’s Green Finance Reform and Innovation Pilot Zones (GFRP) and their effectiveness in mitigating energy accessibility inadequacies (EAI). Using provincial data for 2000–2022 and a newly developed multidimensional EAI index, we find that GFRP reduce EAI by 6.7 % in pilot provinces relative to nonpilot regions; the effect is robust to multiple placebo and sensitivity checks. Mediation analysis reveals two transmission channels—expanded energy networks and greater regional economic diversification—through which GFRP improve accessibility. Spatial Durbin estimates further show positive spillovers to neighboring provinces, indicating that GFRP foster broader energy equilibrium and sustainable development. These results underscore GFRP’s strategic value for integrating environmental and economic objectives and advancing the transition to a low-carbon economy. The study provides actionable insights for policymakers seeking to design and scale green-finance instruments that deliver equitable energy access and long-term sustainability.","PeriodicalId":55009,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management","volume":"72 ","pages":"2381-2391"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144331772","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Relationship Between AI-Adoption Intensity and Firm Innovation Performance: The Role of AI Affordances","authors":"Xiaoyue Lin;Tiandong Wang;Fan Sheng","doi":"10.1109/TEM.2025.3572042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2025.3572042","url":null,"abstract":"Although the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in driving innovation is widely acknowledged, the relationship between AI-adoption intensity and firm innovation performance remains underexplored. To address this gap, this study investigates the impact of AI-adoption intensity on firm innovation performance through the lens of technology affordance theory (TAT), emphasizing the role of AI affordances. Additionally, it examines the moderating role of data quality in shaping the relationship between AI-adoption intensity and AI affordances. A conceptual model was developed and tested through structural equation modeling using data collected from 396 Chinese firms. The findings demonstrate that AI-adoption intensity significantly enhances firm innovation performance. AI affordances—conceptualized along three dimensions: mobility affordance, interactivity affordance, and autonomy affordance—mediate the effect of AI-adoption intensity on firm innovation performance. These affordances collectively support AI’s dual roles as a supportive tool and an innovation agent. Furthermore, data quality positively moderates the relationship between AI-adoption intensity and AI affordances, underscoring the importance of data quality in realizing AI’s potential benefits. This article advances our understanding of leveraging AI to bolster innovation outcomes and extends the theoretical foundations of the TAT within the context of AI innovation. These insights provide valuable guidance for firms seeking to enhance their innovation outcomes through AI adoption.","PeriodicalId":55009,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management","volume":"72 ","pages":"2267-2278"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144308460","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Knowledge-Intensive Business Service Firms’ Knowledge Externalities and Appropriability in Innovation Performance","authors":"Min-Nan Chen;Yu-Hsuan Wang","doi":"10.1109/TEM.2025.3576148","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2025.3576148","url":null,"abstract":"We revisit the literature on the “paradox of knowledge externalities,” which encompasses two conflicting views regarding a firm’s innovation collaboration and spillover prevention. Drawing on original survey data from 300 Taiwanese knowledge-intensive business service (KIBS) firms, we explore the extent to which KIBS firms’ behavioral elements in innovation collaboration (i.e., interactive knowledge search and noninteractive knowledge search) and unwanted spillovers prevention (i.e., formal and informal appropriability) affect their innovation performance. Specifically, we predict that KIBS firm’s interactive knowledge search exhibits a U-shaped relationship with innovation performance, whereas KIBS’s noninteractive knowledge search exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship with innovation performance. These curvilinear relationships are contingent on whether the KIBS firm employs formal and informal appropriability that consider distinct aspects of innovation protection and value appropriation during its knowledge search. By reconciling the conflicting views in the existing literature, we provide a nuanced framework for understanding the extent to which KIBS firms strategically manage knowledge externalities to secure private benefits. Finally, we conclude with theoretical and managerial implications that underscore the critical role of managing knowledge externalities to maximize privately-owned innovation performance in KIBS firms.","PeriodicalId":55009,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management","volume":"72 ","pages":"2363-2380"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144331661","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Entry of Platforms Into the App Market: How to Choose Optimal Licensing Modes Under Power Imbalances","authors":"Xiangxiang Wu;Shuling Qin;Yong Zha;Kehong Chen","doi":"10.1109/TEM.2025.3576995","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2025.3576995","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, we examine the selection of the optimal licensing mode and the decision to enter an app market for a platform owner confronting app price competition from an app developer in various power structure imbalances. Specifically, the platform grants the app developer permission to offer apps for sale to users within its platform ecosystem via two licensing modes, i.e., an app sharing mode and a licensing fee mode. In addition, the platform may directly provide its own apps to users and compete with the app developer. By developing a game theory model, we analyze the strategic choices and pricing decisions of the two parties in various game structures. We find that when the app developer holds greater market power, only app sharing can be a win–win mode under a moderate level of sales costs. The platform always chooses to enter the market under the licensing fee mode, but it will strategically opt for whether to enter under the app sharing mode, contingent upon the magnitude of sales costs. Interestingly, a win–win outcome triggered by entry exists only under the licensing fee mode when the sales cost difference is large. In contrast, under the app sharing mode, entry always results in one member being disadvantaged, without achieving a win–win outcome. Under the licensing fee mode, it is intuitive that both parties benefit the most only when they act as leaders in the game and suffer the most when their competitors act as leaders. Counterintuitively, under the app sharing mode, both parties cannot only benefit the most when they act as leaders but also benefit the most when their competitors act as leaders.","PeriodicalId":55009,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management","volume":"72 ","pages":"2330-2340"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144331692","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Health Consulting Services Recommendation Considering Patients’ Decision-Making Behaviors: A CNN and Multiarmed Bandit Approach","authors":"Yongbo Ni;Donghui Yang","doi":"10.1109/TEM.2025.3576279","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2025.3576279","url":null,"abstract":"For online healthcare community platforms, recommending suitable health consulting services (HCSs) to patients is a complex engineering decision-making problem. Many HCSs recommendation methods have been proposed; however, they encounter the serious cold start problem and overlook the patients’ decision preferences. To address these issues, this article proposes a hybrid recommendation method that considers both the patients’ disease features and decision-making behaviors through a convolutional neural network and multiarmed bandit approach (CNN-MAB). The proposed CNN-MAB method includes three modules: 1) a CNN-based feature learning module to extract latent features of patients and HCSs, 2) a similarity analysis module to generate initial recommendations by comparing new and historical patients and HCSs, and 3) a contextual MAB-based decision-making behavior learning module to refine the recommendations based on patient preferences. Experiments conducted on an online diabetes community demonstrate that the proposed CNN-MAB method outperformed several benchmark methods by 22.8%, 17.1%, and 16.4% in terms of recall, MRR, and coverage, respectively. We found that new patients’ perceptions of the historical patients’ disease features proved to be more influential in HCS selection than decision preferences. In addition, the dynamic MAB method demonstrates superior effectiveness in analyzing decision behaviors compared with conventional questionnaire-based or review-based approaches.","PeriodicalId":55009,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management","volume":"72 ","pages":"2341-2355"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144331691","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Global Knowledge Evolution of Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage Technology: A Network Analysis of Patent Mining","authors":"Jingyi Yao;Weiwei Liu;Kexin Bi","doi":"10.1109/TEM.2025.3575304","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2025.3575304","url":null,"abstract":"Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) are crucial for mitigating CO<sub>2</sub> emissions. Exploring the evolution of CCUS technology can help accelerate the development of CCUS technology. This study aims to reveal the connections and interactions between technology topics, clarify the evolutionary path of CCUS technology, and understand the deep mechanism of technology evolution. To achieve these goals, this article adopts an integrated approach to analyze the evolution process of CCUS technology by combining patent mining and knowledge evolution theory. First, the BERT-LDA- model is used for fine-grained extraction of technology topics from CCUS patents; second, an evolution network depicting the topics’ evolution path is constructed based on their temporal correlations; finally, knowledge evolution theory is used to explain the characteristics of topic evolution and analyze potential technological opportunities. The results indicate that CCUS technology has gone through five major development periods with gradually enriched and deepened topics; newborn, inheritance, and temporary emergence are common topic evolution relationships in the evolution network; the evolution of these topics shows stability, heritability, and variability. These findings not only help enterprises to grasp the development trend and potential opportunities of CCUS technology but also provide policymakers with a basis for decision making.","PeriodicalId":55009,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management","volume":"72 ","pages":"2234-2252"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144281291","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Stage-Gate Incentive Design in Product Development With Resource Competition Among Parallel Projects","authors":"Xiaoxiao Li;Binghan Kou;Jie Gao","doi":"10.1109/TEM.2025.3565416","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2025.3565416","url":null,"abstract":"Firms often follow the stage-gate process to manage multiple projects in product development and delegate stages of idea discovery and product development to project managers. This framework challenges the firm in designing efficient investment schemes and compensation contracts for the managers due to information asymmetry and resource conflicts among the projects. To address these challenges, we develop a principal-agent model by considering two projects in the presence of asymmetric idea quality information and unobservable development effort. Our results reveal that to incentivize the managers to report truthful idea quality and exert proper development effort, the firm should terminate low-quality ideas even though these ideas can bring positive returns with proper investment. Moreover, as the idea quality decreases, the firm should provide a fixed-salary contract rather than an outcome-based one. The asymmetric idea quality information can create underinvestment inefficiency, and unobservable efforts can exacerbate this inefficiency. We further provide conditions under which encouraging resource competition among parallel projects helps alleviate the underinvestment issue. Overall, our results provide guidelines for designing investment schemes and compensation contracts for parallel research and development (R&D) projects in the presence of moral hazard and adverse selection and shed light on managing the resource competition to improve investment efficiency.","PeriodicalId":55009,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management","volume":"72 ","pages":"2003-2017"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144185925","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Motivating Supplier Performance: Financial Constraints, Information Delay, and Smart Contracts","authors":"Qiangqiang Wang","doi":"10.1109/TEM.2025.3565282","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2025.3565282","url":null,"abstract":"Few studies have investigated the delivery performance of suppliers in guarantor-intermediated trade finance with information delay in a multistage environment. This article examines a model of dynamic guarantee finance (DGF) where guarantee institutions can adjust guarantee rates as an order progresses through different stages in the trade process, and compare it with the uniform guarantee financing model (the guarantee rate remains constant over the process, UGF). In addition, we analyze the impact of information delay on the supplier's optimal delivery performance. The aim of this article is to provide a foundational understanding of the potential benefits associated with transitioning from uniform-rate pricing to dynamic-rate pricing in guarantor-intermediated trade finance. The results indicate that DGF can incentivize suppliers to enhance their delivery performance, with the incentive value increasing as the trade process becomes lengthier. However, information delay has a negative effect on the incentive value of DGF. Smart contracts can complement DGF by accelerating the process of information verification. These findings provide guidance for the effective implementation of contract innovations (such as DGF) in guarantor-intermediated trade finance and highlight how the dynamic trade process and information delay impact the supplier's delivery performance.","PeriodicalId":55009,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management","volume":"72 ","pages":"1862-1876"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144131663","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Quintin P. McGrath;Alan R. Hevner;Gert-Jan de Vreede
{"title":"Designing an Enhanced Enterprise Risk Management System to Mitigate Ethical Risks of Artificial Intelligence Applications","authors":"Quintin P. McGrath;Alan R. Hevner;Gert-Jan de Vreede","doi":"10.1109/TEM.2025.3565221","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2025.3565221","url":null,"abstract":"The introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities in business applications provides substantial benefits but requires organizations to manage critical AI ethical risks. We survey a range of large organizations on their use of enterprise risk management (ERM) systems to predict and mitigate the ethical risks of AI. Four serious gaps in current ERM systems are identified: AI ethical principles do not translate effectively to ethical practices; real-time monitoring of AI ethical risks is needed; ERM systems emphasize economic, not ethical risks; and when ethical risks are identified, no ready solutions are available for remedy. To address these gaps, we propose a proactive approach to managing ethical risks by extending the capabilities of current ERM systems. An enhanced ERM system framework is designed and evaluated by subject matter expert focus groups. We conclude with observations and future research directions on the need for more aggressive proethical management oversight as organizations move to ubiquitous use of AI-driven business applications.","PeriodicalId":55009,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management","volume":"72 ","pages":"1813-1830"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144090777","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}