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An IoT-based E-business model of intelligent vegetable greenhouses and its key operations management issues

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Abstract

The widespread popularization of Internet has brought about various Internet-based business models as well as well-known Internet giants such as Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Alibaba. Similarly, the application of internet of things (IoT) is fermenting IoT-based business models in various fields. In our work, we present an IoT-based e-business model of intelligent vegetable greenhouses with details on the basic process and key nodes of the e-business model. Information, capital and logistics flows are recognized in the industry chain consisting of ingredient suppliers, IoT-equipped greenhouses, IoT-based e-business platforms, payment and delivery service providers, and end consumers. The value chain is also analyzed according to Michael Porter’s value chain model, which is helpful for greenhouses to focus on main activities in the business model. Moreover, we recognize key operation issues including big-data-driven pricing, planting structure and time optimization, water and fertilizer integrated control, plant light supplement, and order-driven picking and packing. The characteristics brought about by IoT techniques to these operation issues are analyzed, and corresponding mathematical models are formulated, which may attract more efforts in the future.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported in part by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 71703122 and 71531002, China Ministry of Education Social Sciences and Humanities Research Youth Fund Project under Grant 16YJC630102, the Natural Science Basic Research Project in Shaanxi Province under Grant 2016JQ7005, Science and Technology Plan Projects of Yangling Demonstration Zone under Grant 2016RKX-04, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant 2018RWSK02, and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Internal Project under Grant G-UADM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Economics and Management, Northwest A&F University, No. 3, Taicheng Road, Yangling, 712100, China

    Junhu Ruan & Xuexi Huo

  2. Faculty of Management and Economics, Dalian University of Technology, No. 2, Linggong Road, Dalian, 116024, China

    Xiangpei Hu & Xuping Wang

  3. General Education Center, Tokai University, 9-1-1 Toroku, Kumamoto, 862-8652, Japan

    Yan Shi

  4. Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hongkong

    Felix T. S. Chan

  5. University of California, Davis, USA

    Gunasekaran Manogaran

  6. Department of Business Administration, Technological Educational Institute of Crete, Agios Nikolaos, 72100, Crete, Greece

    George Mastorakis

  7. Department of Computer Science, University of Nicosia, 46 Makedonitissas Avenue, P.O. Box 24005, 1700, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Constandinos X. Mavromoustakis

  8. School of Management Engineering and Business, Hebei University of Engineering, No. 199, Handan, 056038, Hebei, China

    Xiaofeng Zhao

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  1. Junhu Ruan
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  2. Xiangpei Hu
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Correspondence to Xiaofeng Zhao.

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Ruan, J., Hu, X., Huo, X. et al. An IoT-based E-business model of intelligent vegetable greenhouses and its key operations management issues. Neural Comput & Applic 32, 15341–15356 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00521-019-04123-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00521-019-04123-x

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