Untitled - Ministerstwo Rozwoju Regionalnego

tainable competitive advantage in the new global economy 1 . Companies that establish
new business models often derive great benefits from the idea of using
new sources of income by way of applying technologies and satisfying new
forms of market demand.
Changes occurring in logistics are most of all related to macroeconomic
changes influenced by globalisation, integration processes, development of e-economy,
shorter product life cycles and increasing customer requirements. The
purpose of this chapter is to present these changes and examples of technological
and organisational innovation exerting significant impact on the directions of
development in logistics. It was noticed already a long time ago that more attention
in the logistic industry should be paid to innovations concerning the services
provided and many scientific studies and empirical work have been devoted
to this issue. Innovations in logistics may be implemented by means of the
so-called new resources, i.e. technology, knowledge and cooperation networks,
which are of substantial importance if companies are to operate effectively and
use the possibilities of achieving the position of innovation leader in the market
2 .
5.2. The essence of innovation and its types in logistics
Innovation of enterprises manifests itself in implementing new technological solutions
or solutions related to the organization of business operations. This
means that innovation in logistic services may refer both to services as a product
and to the process of their provision, enterprise organization and management,
or relations with the environment. The activities undertaken are focused on implementing
changes which lead to making the company more advanced and
more competitive.
Demand for new technological concept generated by research and development
is usually lower in the service sector than in manufacturing and in many
cases it is the industrial sector that is the source of technological innovations in
logistics. The first stage in the process of implementing innovations in a logistics
enterprise is often to adapt a new technology (e.g. ICT), the application of which
brings benefits in the form of more effective processes within the enterprise,
which in turn contributes to a better quality and better methods of providing
1 J. Bessant, H. Rush, Innovation Agents and technology transfer. (in:) Services and the Knowledgebased
Economy. Edited by M. Boden, Ian Miles. Routledge, London 2000, p. 155.
2 R. Chapman, C. Soosay, J. Kandampully, Innovation in logistic services and the new business model:
A conceptual framework. “International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management”,
Vol. 33 No. 7.
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