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Since China implemented the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013, approximately 190 academic papers in the field of global supply chains, international logistics and transportation field in association with the BRI have been published in more than 70 SSCI/SCI/SCIE indexed journals in the period of 2013–2020 (Lee et al., 2020). The research trends in the above field are broadly categorized into four groups: (1) multimodal transportation in association with the Maritime Silk Road, (2) railway transportation in association with sustainability, supply chain management and cross-border issues, (3) the contribution of infrastructure to international trade and regional economy and (4) structural change in energy supply chain development in association with carbon emission. This special issue of the International Journal of Logistics Management (IJLM) on “Impacts of the Belt and Road Initiative on Global Supply Chains and International Logistics” aims to expand the literature on the impacts of the BRI on global supply chains and international logistics in tandem with multimodal transportation. This special issue collected choice papers from two sources: one from this journal submission site and the other from the 4th Belt and Road Initiative Conference in association with the 9th Asian Logistics Round Table Conference held in Bangkok, Thailand, on 1–3 August 2019. The event was co-organized by Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, Ocean College at Zhejiang University in China, and Jungseok Research Institute of International Logistics and Trade at Inha University in Korea.

This special issue has four choice papers to meet its theme. In the first paper entitled “Assessing the market niche of Eurasian rail freight in the belt and road era”, Zhang and Schramm (2020) assess total logistics costs amongst freight transport modes, i.e. rail, sea, air and sea/air transport, along the Belt and Road. In doing so, a trade-off model of transit time and transport costs in tandem with scenario analysis based on cargo type have been applied from a shipper's viewpoint, which generates four scenarios with a combination of cargo value and time sensitivity. One of the findings is that in case of shipping time-sensitive goods with cargo values ranging from $US1.23/kg to $US10.78/kg, rail transport mode is cheaper than all the other transport modes, and its total transportation time is much faster than sea transport mode. Rail transport is an alternative mode for time sensitive goods, which are average cargo value unnecessarily worth to be transported by air. It contributes to promoting global supply chains between Asia and Europe and bringing agility to them. However, in interpreting the preference of rail transport compared to the other modes, we need to bear in mind the subsidy given by local governments for Chinese Railway Express (CRE) under the BRI, which has motivated railway platforms in major cities to attract block train cargoes (Yang et al., 2020). Therefore, we need to keep an eye on the Chinese government policy on the subsidy for CRE. Zhang and Schramn also provides readers with valuable information on the CRE, such as major market player, bottlenecks, and freight and transit time data sources.

In the second paper entitled “The determinants of cargo and eco-efficiencies of global container shipping companies”, Kuo-Cheng Kuo, Wen-Min Liu, Qian Long Kweh, and Minh Hieu Le (2020) evaluate cargo and eco-efficiency of global container shipping companies (CSCs) as well as explore the determinants of the CSCs' efficiencies. It contributes to initiating the relationship between the business and environmental issues in shipping industry in terms of efficiency measurement through the data envelop analysis (DEA) from top 10 global CSCs. Since a container ship at present is getting bigger and bigger with an enormous capacity in twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in order to gain economy of scales to reduce both costs and time as well as to earn more revenue per trip. This means that mega carrier's engine is very big too. Consequently, it results in generating more CO₂ emissions to the environment, although the gas emissions per TEU per trip may be lower than before. Kuo et al., thus, attempts to measure the efficiency of cargo in terms of TEU lifting and the eco-efficiency in terms of CO₂ emissions in tons. The DEA results reveal that the cargo efficiency of the CSCs is higher than their eco-efficiency by about 2.6%. More than that, it also shows that the number of ships, return on assets and asset turnover ratio are significantly related to both cargo and eco-efficiencies, whereas the total fleet capacity positively affects cargo efficiency. This paper concluded that the decision-makers in these CSCs should first work on improving environmental strategies, and then, continue to increase their revenue. In general, CSCs that do not achieve the cargo and eco-efficiencies or CSCs that are efficient in one dimension should process on the weaknesses and redevelop their strategies for enhancing both efficiencies. The findings in this paper are very much benefits and significant for both global environment and shipping business sustainability. This contribution could lead to the way in which business and environment can be together in harmony in the future.

Supply chain risk management and operational performance has been a focal topic over the past decades (Baryannis et al., 2019). China's BRI has promoted a new context for supply chains (SCs) along the Belt and Road to update themselves. To make SCs along the Belt and the Road grow and perform in an efficient and healthy manner, it is essential to identify and evaluate various risks inherent in the SCs. In this regard, the third paper in this special issue entitled “Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) supply chain risks: propositions and model development” by Ram and Zhang (2020) analyzes SCs risks in the context of the BRI (BRI SC risks) by means of a two-pronged approach. The first approach is a structured framework to explore research trends in risk factors with 178 articles and then contributes to drawing BRI SC risks composing of operational, economic, financial, social and security factors. The second approach is to propose BRI SC model with seven propositions based on Process (P) risk factors, Informational (I) risk factors and Environmental (E) (so-called PIE) risk factors. This paper has achieved a platform of theory building for BRI SC risks model but the model needs to empirical tests to expand the risk management literature. Ram and Zhang reveal that BRI SC faces the PIE deficiencies and, therefore, BRI SCs are negatively affected by lack of risk and liability management, unbalanced risk-sharing partnerships, lack of transparency, inadequate project evaluation, incompatible corporate governance structures and cyber security. The findings and the BRI SC risks model proposed in the third paper by Ram and Zhang contributes not only to highlighting risks inherent in economic and transport corridors in the BRI but also to maritime logistics along the New Maritime Silk Road (Lee et al., 2018). Therefore, the paper offers a decision-making tool for managers and policymakers to assess risk factors in their SCs in the context of the BRI and helps them mitigate the BRI SC risks.

The fourth paper in this special issue is “Trust-based cooperation in Silk Road Economic Belt Countries: strategical ordering in the assembly supply chain” by Pu et al. (2020). Having recognized that the BRI contributed to extending the distance of SCs in countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt Road (SREB) and that trust affects the supplier's perceptions of risk and operational decisions in the assembly supply chain (ASC), Pu et al. deal with trust-based co-operation between the (foreign) suppliers and the (Chinese) manufacturer under the buy-back contract, applying a two-stage Stackelberg game. Therefore, this paper attempts to explore the role of trust in the ASC between the two players in the SREB countries and to answer the reaction of the manufacturer what if the supplier is untrustworthy in the ASC under the BRI. While reading this paper, we need to understand the soft order, which can be cancelled by a manufacturer without any cost and legal binding. This highlights the significance of trust issue between the two players in the soft order in the ASC. This paper develops a trust-based ASC model with two suppliers and one Chinese manufacturer and then extends it to n-suppliers with a Chinese manufacturer. The extended trust-based ASC model is more realistic to understand the impact of trust between n-suppliers and a manufacturer because the imbalance between supply and demand caused by mistrust will be increased as the number of foreign suppliers along the SREB increases. Consequently, the above model draws three observations. Out of them, it is worth to note that as the number of foreign suppliers increases, it causes the Chinese manufacturer to face wide spectrum problem in managing and building trust with them. We may find research insights beyond the trust issue between the two players which are generated by the mismatch between forecast demand and supplier in the process from soft order to final order in the ASC. For example, the impacts of pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and decoupling of production lines on the global supply chain and international logistics under the BRI would be emerging research issues (Kwon, 2020).

The four papers in this special issue have contributed to expanding the existing BRI literature in global supply chains and international logistics in association with sea and rail transport, supply chain risk and gas emission. We, guest editors, would like to express our thanks to all the anonymous reviewers who rigorously reviewed all the manuscripts submitted to the IJLM to improve the quality of the papers. We would also appreciate the Editor-in-Chief of the IJLM for her profound support. Last but not least, Professor Ge Ying-En feels grateful for the support from the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (Grant No.: 17040501800). Without all the above, this special issue could not have been published.