International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management

Signori, Paola ; Flint, Daniel John ; Golicic, Susan

2015 International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management

doi: 10.1108/IJPDLM-07-2014-0160

Purpose – The purpose this paper is to profile individual-level perspectives on sustainability and supply chain partnering, introduces the concept of sustainable supply chain orientation (SSCO), and suggests pathways between executive profiles toward SSCO. Design/methodology/approach – The research relies on inductive, theory-building grounded theory and phenomenological data collection and interpretations in the wine industry. In-depth interviews were conducted over five years with 112 senior managers from 88 organizations in the global wine industry representing nine wine regions in four countries. Findings – Ten profiles were developed depicting executives’ perspectives on embracing sustainability, the extent to which motivations for various forms of sustainability and partnering compete, and being self-or supply chain partner focussed. A SSCO depicts a leader who embraces sustainability, sees alignment in motivations and is supply chain partner focussed. Research limitations/implications – The paper contributes to the sustainable supply chain management and general business orientation discourses by introducing the concept of SSCO and profiling executives’ perspectives that may help to define pathways toward SSCO. It may be limited by its inductive method and the industry context. Limitations suggest future research in discovering additional profiles and pathways as well as validating them. Practical implications – Findings reveal the importance of understanding what sustainability means to business executives of firms in hyper-competitive markets with global supply chains. Managers will recognize that there are many possible routes toward SSCO, each one revealing potentially unique differentiation opportunities while also providing clues to competitors’ strategies. Originality/value – This work introduces the concept of SSCO and contributes a classification scheme consisting of detailed business executive profile descriptions and specific pathways toward SSCO followed by those executives.

Mangiaracina, Riccardo ; Marchet, Gino ; Perotti, Sara ; Tumino, Angela

2015 International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management

doi: 10.1108/IJPDLM-06-2014-0133

Purpose – Given the importance of logistics operations in business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce and growing interest in the related environmental effects, the purpose of this paper is to offer an up-to-date literature review on the topic of B2C e-commerce environmental sustainability, specifically from a logistics perspective. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis focussed on a set of 56 papers published from 2001 to 2014 in 38 peer-reviewed international journals. The papers were analyzed and categorized according to the main features of the paper, the research method(s) adopted and the themes tackled. Findings – There is a growing interest in sustainability issues. In the last 14 years, the focus has progressively shifted from the mere identification of the wide-ranging environmental effects of e-commerce to the need for a quantitative evaluation of their impact, although much remains to be done in this regard. Some industries, such as books and grocery, have largely been addressed, however, promising sectors in the e-commerce field, such as clothing and consumer electronics, have only been considered to a certain degree. Moreover, despite the emerging role of multichannel strategies, the environmental implications of the related logistics activities have not yet been studied in detail. Originality/value – B2C e-commerce has grown in popularity, and its environmental implications are currently of key interest. This paper contributes to the understanding of the existing body of knowledge on this topic, presenting an up-to-date classification of articles and highlighting themes for further research activities. From a managerial perspective, this paper helps supply chain managers develop a clear understanding of both the logistics areas with the most impact on environmental sustainability and the KPIs used to quantify the environmental implications of e-commerce logistics operations comprehensively and effectively.

Selviaridis, Kostas ; Norrman, Andreas

2015 International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management

doi: 10.1108/IJPDLM-11-2014-0267

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore key challenges of adopting, designing and managing performance-based contracts (PBC) for advanced logistics services, as seen by providers. The shift toward performance-based solutions has proved challenging since providers often struggle to link performance to their payment. Despite such managerial challenges, empirical research in this area has been limited. Design/methodology/approach – A multi-case design was adopted. Three cases of logistics service providers were selected based on purposive sampling. Data were collected through 38 semi-structured interviews and review of 43 documents such as contracts and customer target letters. Findings – Key PBC adoption challenges include customer and provider intention to align their goals and incentives as well as their views on risk and reward sharing. Contract design challenges center around performance metric definition and weighting, designing performance monitoring systems that consider service co-production effects and help improve customer relationship and designing incentives with appropriate intensity levels. Contract management challenges include fostering provider pro-activity, provider changes in terms of processes and resource investments, perceived fairness of designed incentives and contract re-design to allow for win-win relationship outcomes. Research limitations/implications – The study empirically contributes to extant logistics service provider literature by identifying specific challenges that extend also beyond PBC adoption and design and cover contract management (and potential contract re-design). It also unpacks the notion of performance attributability by analyzing its role also in terms of contract and performance management as well as its potential effects on customer relationship management. Practical implications – The study presents implications for logistics provider managers regarding how the observed PBC challenges can be overcome. Originality/value – The study unearths several challenges of PBC for advanced logistics services, particularly in connection to contract management and re-design.

Chen, Mu-Chen ; Chang, Kuo-Chien ; Hsu, Chia-Lin ; Xiao, Jia-Hau

2015 International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management

doi: 10.1108/IJPDLM-10-2013-0251

Purpose – To obtain a competitive advantage in the logistics market, international express companies should design services to stimulate customers’ usage intention by understanding customers’ affective perceptions (or in Japanese, Kansei) of the service offerings. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationships among the service elements of international express, customer Kansei perceptions, and intentions to use the service, to provide new ideas for the design of international express services (IESs). Design/methodology/approach – By using Kansei engineering approach, customers’ Kansei perceptions related to elements of IES are first determined, and the logistic regression technique is then used to analyze three constructed models based on the relationships among the service elements of international express, customers’ Kansei perceptions, and usage intention. Findings – Accordingly, five critical service elements that correspond to four vital Kansei words related to usage intention were obtained based on cross-comparisons of the results of three models. The findings have important implications for international express managers, in that the priorities in designing services should be those service elements that favorably elicit certain Kansei perceptions among customers and effectively lead to customers’ usage intention in the pre-purchase phase. Moreover, some important missing Kansei perceptions further derived from customers’ real service experiences in the post-purchase stage should be incorporated into future design considerations. Originality/value – This study incorporated customers’ Kansei perceptions into the procedure of IES design. By understanding the service elements and feelings that customers deem important, international express companies can improve the content of existing services and strengthen the design of new services to increase customers’ behavioral intentions.