Title: Technological innovation in the logistics of ethanol and a new systemic model of innovation in logistics

Authors: Paulo Tromboni de Souza Nascimento; José Petraglia

Addresses: Business Administration Department, University of São Paulo, Prof. Luciano Gualberto Avenue, 908, CEP 05508-010, São Paulo, Brazil ' Administration Department, University Santa Cecília of Santos, Oswaldo Cruz Street, 277, CEP 11045-907, Brazil

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to model the contribution of technological change in the innovation in logistics services. The approach chosen was four case studies in the supply of ethanol. The result shows that incremental technological innovations have contributed significantly to logistics innovation, not only in information technology, which the literature well reports, but also in storage, transhipment and transport, on which almost silent. Furthermore, the technology is often adopted from outside the organisation and tailored to its needs, not restricted to be an organisational factor. The cases also suggest that, even being incremental, the adopted technological innovation, innovation in logistics has a systemic character, overcoming the dichotomy incremental versus radical. This paper concludes incorporating these findings in a new model of innovation in logistic.

Keywords: technological innovation; logistics innovation; systemic models; logistics services; ethanol supply chains; supply chain management; SCM; incremental innovation; information technology; ethanol storage; ethanol transhipment; ethanol transport.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLSM.2016.076469

International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 2016 Vol.24 No.2, pp.137 - 154

Received: 08 Oct 2014
Accepted: 19 Feb 2015
Published online: 10 May 2016 *

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