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A holistic analysis of national e-commerce and logistics development

Author

Listed:
  • Tengfei Wang

    (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific)

  • Jong Woo Kang

    (Asian Development Bank)

  • Vincent F. Valentine

    (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development)

Abstract

The aim of this work is to support policymakers and civil society to better understand various international indicators related to e-commerce and logistics performance, such as the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)’s business-to-consumer index (B2C), the World Bank’s logistics performance index (LPI) and the World Bank’s trading across borders (TAB) indicators. A holistic approach is adopted herein to analyse these indicators, using a data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology. In examining countries worldwide with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region as an example, findings from this analysis support the widely held belief that Singapore is on the frontier of e-commerce and logistics. More interestingly, the results show that some countries, such as Mongolia and Georgia, which do not rank high according to B2C, LPI or TAB, are also on the frontier. The interpretation of such results is that, given the national resources available, these countries, in theory, produce the best possible outputs (i.e. national e-commerce and logistics performance) with those resources. However, this also indicates that, given the available resources, it would be difficult for these countries to further improve the performance of logistics and e-commerce without long-term economic and social development. For those countries that score far below the frontier, this is indeed a blessing in disguise. It means these countries have the potential to further enhance their performance without the need of additional resources. This paper proposes that a holistic DEA approach should be used regularly to track how the position of the frontiers move over time and to assess the performance of countries in relation to the evolving frontiers.

Suggested Citation

  • Tengfei Wang & Jong Woo Kang & Vincent F. Valentine, 2020. "A holistic analysis of national e-commerce and logistics development," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 22(3), pages 500-513, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:marecl:v:22:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1057_s41278-020-00151-w
    DOI: 10.1057/s41278-020-00151-w
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Emrouznejad, Ali & Yang, Guo-liang, 2018. "A survey and analysis of the first 40 years of scholarly literature in DEA: 1978–2016," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 4-8.
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    4. Rashidi, Kamran & Cullinane, Kevin, 2019. "Evaluating the sustainability of national logistics performance using Data Envelopment Analysis," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 35-46.
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    Cited by:

    1. Hao Lu & Jie Bao, 2022. "Spatial Differentiation Effect of Rural Logistics in Urban Agglomerations in China Based on the Fuzzy Neural Network," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-23, July.
    2. Bogetic,Zeljko & Naeher,Dominik & Narayanan,Raghavan, 2021. "Measuring Untapped Revenue Potential in Developing Countries : Cross-Country Frontier and Panel Data Analysis," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9776, The World Bank.
    3. Dominik Naeher & Raghavan Narayanan, 2023. "Attracting private capital for development: Are poorer countries less efficient?," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 1-26, February.
    4. Yugang He & Renhong Wu & Yong-Jae Choi, 2021. "International Logistics and Cross-Border E-Commerce Trade: Who Matters Whom?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, February.

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