Featured Post from University of Florida

What it will take to overcome supply chain disruptions

May 9, 2023

2 min

Asoo Vakharia

The supply chain disruptions sparked by the pandemic highlight the need for behavioral shifts by both consumers and companies.


Asoo Vakharia, McClatchy Professor and director of the Supply Chain Center at UF’s Warrington College of Business, says supply chain disruptions are — and will continue to be — a way of life. But the degree of the turmoil experienced recently demonstrates the need for some change.


“Demand dropped so quickly and at such a high volume that it created a problem for us,” Vakharia said in an episode of the From Florida podcast.


Approximately 20% of imports to the United States come from Asia with the biggest share off-loaded in Los Angeles, followed by Long Beach, California. Those ports, along with other large centers, can accommodate the Ultra Large Vessels often used for trans-Pacific shipping. But they’ve been severely impacted by inflow/outflow imbalances caused by a range of factors including truck driver shortages and poor infrastructure.


In response, companies such as Amazon, have purchased smaller vessels that can access a larger number of smaller ports, including those that may require passage through the Panama Canal. The move will enable the commerce giant to side-step some of the bottlenecks slowing down larger ports, but it will also add to expense.


This is where Professor Vakharia says companies, and consumers, will need to make choices. He cautions companies to play the long game.


“Consumers have long memories and they will reward people who have a little bit of recognition of our conditions,” he said. And he says buyers should always be on the lookout for deals.


“There is lots of opportunity out there,” Vakharia said. “Maybe you won’t get the brand you want, but you will get a good brand. Let’s moderate our wants a little bit. Let’s think logically.”


Professor Vakharia also sees opportunity for Florida ports, with the caveat that the complexity of the issue will require significant planning — and investment. “We need to have an infrastructure, which is rail or trucks, which are going to visit these ports and take the goods away from them because otherwise we’re going to do the same thing as Long Beach.” The added expense of smaller ships will also need to be managed.



To hear more about the supply chain issues currently at play, and possible solutions for the future, listen to the episode on From Florida at this link.


Read the recent article that Professor Vakharia has been quoted in: 



Listen to other episodes in the "From Florida" series from the link below.


From Florida - A weekly Education podcast




Connect with:
Asoo Vakharia

Asoo Vakharia

Professor

Asoo Vakharia's research and areas of expertise include sustainability, channel selection, green product design and supply chains.

Information Systems and Operations ManagementSupply Chain ManagementEnvironmental OperationsGreen Product DesignSustainability

You might also like...

Check out some other posts from University of Florida

2 min

Predicting the post-pandemic desires for the Latin music industry

Coachella, identified as a mega-festival universe, decided on a diverse 2023 roster with artists like Becky G, Kali Uchis, and Rosalía. Bad Bunny, last year’s most-streamed global artist, made history as the festival’s first Spanish-language headliner. It also marked the first year since Coachella’s founding in 1999 that none of the headliners were white. José Valentino Ruiz-Resto, an assistant professor in the School of Music at the University of Florida, co-authored a paper for the Journal of Arts Entrepreneurship Education, which focused on how the music industry would evolutionarily change after the pandemic and ultimately predicted the 2023 Coachella trend. “The rise of Latin artists/headliners at festivals like Coachella is really a reflection of what has been happening in the music industry for the past two decades,” said José Valentino Ruiz-Resto who is also the program coordinator of Music Business & Entrepreneurship at UF. Ruiz-Resto’s research showed that the post-Covid era music industry would encourage more people to stay home and listen to music digitally, but the traditional Latin music experience is an outlier to this. The world-renowned multi-instrumentalist explains, "In order for concerts and festivals to maintain success, they needed to branch out to other markets to bring in those people who were still very much passionate about experiencing music in a live context.” Although this shift was initiated by the pandemic, it has been patiently anticipated by Ruiz-Resto for over 23 years, starting with the founding of the Latin Grammys in 2000. “Because the amount of production within the Latin recording academy is almost equivocal to that of all of the other genres in the American market combined. Latin music is the No. 1 meta genre in the music industry in terms of sales and fan support,” Ruiz-Resto, now a four-time Latin Grammy Award winner, said. Ruiz-Resto's data predicted the need for a stronger focus on the Latin music enthusiasts who still actively go to concerts like Coachella, “In order for Coachella to ultimately succeed in the post-Covid era and attract people, they needed to bring in artists like Bad Bunny.” This historic Coachella moment followed an announcement from the Recording Industry Association of America, stating that Latin music revenues in the United States were at an all-time high, exceeding over $1 billion in 2022. All of this was no surprise to Ruiz-Resto, who observes, researches and directly participates in the Latin music industry. “Now bigger shows are catching up to what has been the largest-selling music market for years. It’s a testament to how positively Latin American cultures are inspiring listeners across the U.S.” By Halle Burton

2 min

Smartphones push consumers to prefer a customizable purchasing experience

In a world where purchasing is only a click away, studies have shown that smartphones complicate the most preferred items. Aner Sela, a professor in UF’s Warrington College of Business conducted a new study that discovered consumers who are captivated by their phones gravitate towards specialized, custom products. Compared to large computers or borrowing someone’s phone, an individual’s phone sparks privatized feelings that allow stronger self-expression and strengthens our unconscious preference for a customized consumer journey. Working alongside Camilla Song, an assistant professor at City University of Hong Kong, Sela published their findings in the Journal of Marketing Research in early August. “When you use your phone, your authentic self is being expressed to a greater extent. That affects the options you seek and the attitudes you express,” said Sela, one of the authors of the study. The researchers suspected that smartphones encourage people to reflect on their inner identity, calling on the psychological state of private self-focus that affects all kinds of behaviors. “People with high levels of private self-focus tend to be more independent in the attitudes that they express. They conform less,” the UF professor said. “When they make choices, they tend to choose based on privately or deeply held beliefs, preferences or tastes, and they’re less influenced by social contexts.” Sela and Song chose to test if smartphones have the capability to promote enough private self-focus that it changes behavioral patterns, so they performed five experiments with undergraduates and online respondents. The study found that smartphone users were more likely to choose unique, tailored products rather than large ones than if the user hopped on a large computer. These results vanished if the user was given another phone from the same brand, suggesting that companies should alter their consumer suggestions based on the device they are using. The professor and her former doctoral student found the self-expression mindset likely to cause behavioral changes can be activated by the use of a smartphone. “With a borrowed phone, it doesn’t feel like you’re in your own little bubble. What we find is the use of smartphones and its activation of private self-focus is really unique to a personal device,” Sela said. By Halle Burton 

2 min

The World Cup proved to be big for sports and Qatar's business future

The 2022 FIFA World Cup was one of the world’s most-watched sporting events, but it also provided an opportunity for exponential growth for business development in the Middle East. Qatar was selected as the first country from the Middle East to host the worldwide tournament over 12 years ago, allowing plenty of time to prepare for the competition and create everlasting business relationships. Kyriaki Kaplanidou, a UF professor and researcher, published a study in 2016 for the Journal of Business Research, working alongside her fellow colleagues. The study followed the industrial progress made in Qatar after its 2010 selection and demonstrated how their networking efforts improved the Persian Gulf region business infrastructure. “The country has invested a great deal of time and money to expand its physical and human resources. They’ve had to understand how business is done in other countries, learn innovative construction techniques and develop their human capital in areas of knowledge, skill and awareness of other cultures and business practices,” Kaplanidou said. Kaplanidou and her team interviewed 24 Qatar sports organizations stakeholders, both indirectly and directly involved with the 2022 World Cup. Her research found that almost all the interviewees highlighted Qatar’s characteristics that either impede or improve their current development status. The most highlighted criteria pertained to labor cases pertaining to hazardous working conditions and displayed racial discrimination, as the United Nations put Qatar on blast for their treatment of infrastructure workers. The government decided to implement changes and with the introduction of new, stricter labor laws, Qatar is now considered one of the most worker-friendly places in the Gulf Region. Despite all the controversy surrounding the FIFA World Cup host country, fans were still excited to cheer on their team of choice, and the tournament provided Middle East countries with something to be proud of. “It will be interesting to see if the country can reposition itself in the business world and establish its presence in other industries now that it has gained new experience and knowledge through the process of preparing for this mega event,” Kaplanidou said. By Halle Burton

View all posts
Powered by