Reinforcing supply chain security through organizational and cultural tools within the intermodal rail and road industry

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-02-2014-0023
• Pages: 816-836
• Published date: 14 November 2016
• Date: 14 November 2016
• Author: Roberto Cigolini,Margherita Pero,Andrea Sianesi
• Subject Matter: Management science & operations,Logistics

Reinforcing supply chain security

through organizational and

cultural tools within the

intermodal rail and road industry

Roberto Cigolini, Margherita Pero and Andrea Sianesi

Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering,

Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to outline the role of organizational and cultural tools to

increase supply chain security within the intermodal rail and road industry. Three main research

questions are set, regarding: what organizational and cultural tools are used by companies within the

intermodal rail and road industry; how these tools impact on security performance; and what

environmental factors trigger the use of each tool.

Design/methodology/approach –In total, 13 companies within the intermodal rail and road

industry have been studied in detail through in-depth case studies.

Findings –Results suggest that organizational and cultural tools impact positively on supply chain

security, by reducing collusion and both operative and planning mistakes. In particular, such tools

mitigate the effect of lack of cooperation and communication between partners and of inadequate

partners.

Practical implications –Results point out that the ability of organizational and cultural tools to

increase supply chain security has not been fully exploited yet. Tools to mitigate the negative effects on

security of inadequacy of partners are not popular or they are not considered as powerful enough,

despite it has been highlighted as the most relevant causal factor of lack of security.

Originality/value –This paper introduces a thorough overview of the effects of cultural and

organizational tools on supply chain security and a detailed study of these tools in the area of

intermodal rail-and-road transport.

Keywords Security, Supply chain management, Business continuity, Cultural tools, Rail and road

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

Supply chain (SC) security is the application of policies, procedures and tech nologies to

protect SCs from theft, damages or terrorism (Closs and McGarrell, 2004; Bakshi and

Gans, 2010). SC security encompasses different areas of interests ranging from the

security of SC assets (Closs and McGarrell, 2004) to the security of physical,

information related and money flows (Veenstra, 2005). Moreover, after 9/11, the focus of

researchers and practitioners has shifted from securing the company to ensuring the

security of the end-to-end SC (Williams et al., 2008; Donner and Kruk, 2009).

Indeed, accidents involving damage, theft and terrorism have made SC security

increasingly more important in the frame of trade globalization. Governments, citizens

and companies have different attitudes toward SC security. Governments are concerned

about terrorists placing weapons of mass destruction within the country borders,e.g. by

means of containers moving along the SCs. Citizens and companies –even with various

viewpoints–are concerned about the costs of securityand the risks of disruptions in case

of terroristic attacks (Lee and Whang, 2005; Meixell and Norbis, 2008). To make SC

The International Journal of

Logistics Management

Vol. 27 No. 3, 2016

pp. 816-836

©Emerald Group Publishing Limited

0957-4093

DOI 10.1108/IJLM-02-2014-0023

Received 6 February 2014

Revised 26 November 2014

12 February 2015

14 April 2015

Accepted 15 September 2015

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-4093.htm

816

IJLM

27,3

security more effective, companies and governments should cooperate both to protect

assets security and to prevent the illegal flows of products (Grainger, 2007).

By focusing on the flows of goods, 90 percent of trading is done on a global scale and

most of it via containers (Kim et al., 2008): the global container traffic in 2010 was about

115 million of twenty-foot equivalent unit containers, soared by more than 10 percent

with respect to 2009. To increase SC security globally, there is no other way

than protecting container transport from tampering, theft and other practices

leading to place illegal weapons or terrorists in the containers (Sarathy, 2006).

This is a challenging goal, given the huge number of players involved in the intermodal

SCs, particularly when transshipments take place (Cigolini and Rossi, 2010; Cigolini

et al., 2013a, b).

In a typical intermodal SC, there are seven main players. First, the industrial client,

who triggers the intermodal transport. Second, the multimodal transport operator

(MTO), who arranges the end-to-end intermodal transport. Third, the road carrier, who

deals with road transport. Fourth, the intermodal terminal operator, who takes care of

reshipping the intermodal loading unit. Fifth, the rail operator, who sorts out the rail

transport. Sixth, the railways network manager, who is responsible for managing the

rail traffic and for maintenance. Finally, the commercial operator of the rail transport,

who plans the rail transport in detail, it is a key player, in that it represents the contact

point of MTO, rail operator and rail manager.

According to a vast majority of researchers and practitioners, improvements in SC

security are obtained leveraging on two types of sources (Pero and Sudy, 2014). First,

technology-driven solutions, i.e. sensors, seals and RFiD tags (Lee et al., 2005), used, e.g.

to keep the doors closed (Rizzo et al., 2011). Second, organizational and cultural tools, i.e.

practices implemented to increase SC security by acting on workers and on business

partners, through cultural changes (Lee and Whang, 2005; Autry and Bobbitt, 2008 ).

Organizational and cultural tools highlight the relevance of the human factor –

through values, motivations, attitudes and behaviors –in determining the overall SC

security level (Lacey, 2010). This distinctive feature attracted the attention of many

researchers over the last decade (e.g. Closs and McGarrell, 2004; Autry and Bobbitt,

2008; Urciuoli, 2010). However, a thorough overview of the impacts of cultural and

organizational tools on SC security still lacks, particularly within some specific

industry. Therefore, this paper aims to study the application of organizational and

cultural tools within the intermodal rail and road transport industry, by analyzing

some case studies of companies operating in Central Europe, particularly Northern

Italy and Switzerland.

The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 is devoted to the

literature taxonomy on organizational and cultural tools. Then, Section 3 introdu ces the

research questions and the logical model, while Section 4 outlines the methodology.

Finally, Section 4 discusses the main results and Section 5 draws the conclusions along

with some management-related implications and future research paths.

2. Background

Culture is the structure of values shared along the company that helps understand the

ways organizations work (Desphande and Webster, 1989) and sets the rules for internal

behavior (Schein, 2010). Many researchers have studied organizational culture,

particularly from the perspective of SC management (Williams et al., 2009). SC security

is strongly dependent on the company culture, in that security comes from common

and shared values.

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Reinforcing

supply chain

security