The impact of innovative telecommunication technologies on the logistics sector

Project Report from the year 2007 in the subject Business economics - General, grade: 1,9, European Business School - International University Schlo Reichartshausen Oestrich-Winkel, language: English, abstract: 1 Introduction 1.1 Nature of the Problem and Objective The role of international trade has been redefined by the emergence and high pace of globalization. The effects are among other things that routes of transportation become longer, product life cycles shorten, and the requisite for the availability of goods and services increases (Christopher, 2005, pp. 207). Keeping this in mind, the logistics industry is one of the fastest growing industries world-wide and benefitted in particular of this shift towards a globalized world. Even though logistics as such has prevailed over a long time, it has been only recently that the industry has received an enormous boost due to the global adherence and new technical developments. It was mainly because of the standardized container that this accretion, and globalization itself, could happen. But also the New Economy accelerated this growth to a significant extent by introducing computers and telecommunication media, and thereby established a dynamic, high competitive and world-spanning market. At the same time, companies demand more and more premium solutions from logistic service providers1 in order to cope with the competitive environment. The importance of the innovative and crucial factor of telecommunication technology (TT) in this specific sector can therefore not be denied. More importantly, it is of significant matter to have an understanding, as well as knowing how to implement and take advantage of these technologies, in order to gain or maintain a competitive edge over rivaling companies. (Christopher, 2005, p. 9). The objective of this paper is therefore to describe the impact which modern and innovative TTs can have on the logistics sector. In order to pursue this goal, it is i