INTRODUCTION
Many companies are struggling with the question of how e-business impacts the supply network. It can eliminate some intermediaries (such as the wholesalers or retailers), but it also fosters the emergence of new players like logisticians, whose role is to adapt traditional logistics chains to take into account the requirements of e-business. Managing the flow of information has become as vital as managing the flow of material (Demkes, 2000) and the Internet has made it possible to connect all of those working within a single supply network. There are new technologies available for optimizing the supply network and most concepts for improving supply network efficiency are based on sharing information throughout the supply network in order to improve transparency and agility.
The questions regarding the e-business and supply network management cover many overlapping themes. It is not always easy to see what is the interrelation of these different topics and therefore the overall picture of e-business logistics needs categorizing
into different research and development themes. Guidelines are needed so that the resources can be allocated to the areas in the field of logistics and supply network management, which mostly support development of profitable business practices.
We use the term “e-business logistics” to describe the phenomenon we are focusing in. It is difficult to define e-business logistics comprehensively because the potential impact of e-business on logistics and supply network management is not yet fully
understood. One possible definition is that e-business logistics simply means processes necessary to transfer the goods sold over the
Internet to the customers. On the other hand it is also possible to define e-business logistics as a wide-ranging topic related to supply
network integration with improved operational quality and cost efficiency, which is the viewpoint taken in this paper.
In this paper we first summarize the research methods and results presented in Auramo et al. (2002). We then present a more
detailed analysis of the research agenda from supply network point of view using the research program started by National Technology Agency of Finland as a case to illustrate the interrelationship between the identified research themes.