title: Development of a Cross-border Business-to-Business-to-Consumer (B2B2C) System to Enhance Enterprise Performance: A Case Study of Legend Harvest Group
Creators: name: Hsieh, Alan
Publisher: name: University of Liverpool Repository
Year: 2021

description: This research focused on the efforts of Legend Harvest Group (LHG), a California startup, to realise its cross-border business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) e-commerce business opportunities. The issues identified during the research demonstrated that an operational B2B2C system is more complicated than a manually operated business-to-business (B2B) trade. The complexities of cross-border e-commerce platforms include insufficient data transparency, logistical obstacles, and Customs hurdles. LHG encountered difficulties in understanding and dealing with these obstacles. My research focused on analysing the technological, operational and organisational requirements and finding the critical elements and leverage points of adopting a new B2B2C system. I developed a platform–system–technology–human (PSTH) conceptual framework based on my literature review that served as the theoretical blueprint of this action research. I adopted a participatory action research (PAR) method and a purposeful sampling strategy to conduct an action research study. The sampling population comprised LHG’s executives, as well as board members, officers, employees, and consultants associated with the company. I applied a qualitative approach as the most suitable choice in action research study, using interviews, semi-structured discussions, and observations to collect data. This research was based on three action cycles. Each action cycle consisted of four phases: reflect, plan, act and observe. The first action cycle (AC1) focused on scanning the environment to identify the barriers preventing LHG from adopting a B2B2C system. The second action cycle (AC2) addressed the technological, operational and organisational requirements, and collaborated with a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider to implement a trial run and collect actual data. The third action cycle (AC3) involved an in-depth thematic analysis to evaluate the trial-run results and proposed an integrators network for LHG’s future B2B2C system development. Research accomplishments include initial identification of sixty-one emergent codes as barriers to LHG’s supply chain automation quest, categorisation of these codes into fifteen actionable themes, and, finally, selection of five actionable themes as critical elements to follow in adopting a B2B2C system, namely, process automation (A), SaaS adoption (S), supply chain integration (I), collaboration (C) and trust (T). From post-trial-run analysis, I recognised these five themes as the key integrators and proposed a B2B2C supply chain model to cope with the cross-border e-commerce platforms. The interdependent nature of these five integrators led to the conceptualisation of an “ASICT” network that can be used to tackle the platforms’ demands. Based on the research findings, I learned that a sustainable B2B2C system will depend not only on technology implementation such as SaaS adoption, supply chain integration and process automation, but also on human interaction such as collaboration and trust. This research concluded that these five “ASICT” integrators are critical elements, and that trust and collaboration are the key leverage points in the company’s efforts to develop a cross-border B2B2C system. The benefits projected by adopting the B2B2C system included not only reducing LHG’s transactional costs but also enhancing its enterprise performance by automating and integrating the supply chain, allowing the management to map operational efficiency with financial outcome and to transform the e-commerce supply chain into a value chain.