Impacts of IoT on Supply chain management : Case of E-commerce Firms

Sammanfattning: In a complex and challenging global economy for supply chains to improve their performance, different types of technologies are deployed. The Internet of things (IoT) as one of these technologies enables devices to be connected via a network, i.e. internet. This connectivity provides a variety of possibilities, capabilities, and values to the chain. The scope of this study is to analyze the impacts of IoT on the SCM of e-commerce. By deploying a qualitative approach, the study aims to identify the capabilities enabled by IoT and find a connection between the capabilities and challenges that e-commerces faces in their supply chain management. The research is based on reviewing existing literature, followed by empirical investigation, conducting interviews, and secondary data driven from 3PL to cover focal actors in the case of e-commerce SCM.  IoT technology and the knowledge around it as a resource to SCM of these firms is studied in a resource-based view to understand what role IoT plays in gaining competitive advantage for such firms.  The empirical of this thesis is gathered by interviews with supply chain managers of medium-sized e-commerce firms and a warehouse associate. In addition, the DHL fulfillment center is used as the secondary data stream.