Course Objective

ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH SKILLS – STUDENTS CAN CONDUCT A BASIC
INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH PROJECT FROM START TO FINISH
ACADEMIC SKILLS
After successfully completing this course, the student
• can recognize, analyze and demonstrate an understanding of fundamental
structures of e-commerce supply chains of e-commerce supply chains

BRIDGING THEORY AND PRACTICE
KNOWLEDGE: Demonstrates theoretical and empirical knowledge concerning
the relevant areas in international business administration
After successfully completing this course, the student:
• can explain, contrast, and compare advanced theories, models and
concepts of e-commerce supply chains, and more (1) Logistics and
consumer behaviour, (2) fulfilment facilities (3) inventory management
in multi-channel fulfilment, (4) sustainable fulfilment, (5)
benchmarking of fulfilment activities.

APPLICATION: Can propose a solution to an international real-life
business problem by applying relevant theories and methodologies.
After successfully completing this course, the student:
• can develop practical solutions to a case by applying theory from
e-commerce supply chains
• can formulate management conclusions for improvements in e-commerce
supply chains.
QUANTITATIVE SKILLS
• is able to explain methods to analyze the performance of e-commerce
supply chains

SOCIAL SKILLS – STUDENTS ARE ABLE TO EFFECTIVELY MANAGE DIFFERENT
PROFESSIONAL ROLES IN A CROSS-CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT

After successfully completing this course, the student:
• is able to present (orally) about stylized case problems and solutions
formulated

Course Content

E-commerce retail has shown a consistent double-digit growth over the
last years. It is generally recognized that the delivery of parcels to
consumers is pivotal The Netherlands, while being recognized as a world
leader in logistics according to the Logistics Performance Index, is
best in class on several aspects of ecommerce supply chains including
short deliveryt lead-times and late order cut-off times. The EU has
formulated a bold target to achieve 20% of all EU online retail via
cross border retail by 2020. This provides enormous challenges,
particularly in the supply chain.

In this course we address key themes in managing the supply chain of
online transactions. We start this course with the consumer. We start
with discussing consumer preferences related to logistics options in the
ecommerce supply chain. We then review facility location and design
literature and consecutively discuss inventory management and inventory
pooling. We will pay attention to sustainability in managing ecommerce
supply chains and to a method to benchmark fulfillment centers.You will
analyze stylized cases and study a real-life situation (site visit) and
experience guest lectures and a company visit to an ecommerce warehouse.

Teaching Methods

Lectures
Tutorials

Method of Assessment

Written exam - Individual assessment
Assignments - Group assessment

Literature

Readings will be announced via Canvas

Target Audience

If you are an exchange student who wants to follow this course please
contact the course coordinator prior to the course to check whether you
have sufficient background to follow the course.

Recommended background knowledge

Bachelor BK SCM 1 or similar