Editorial: why read the articles in this issue?
Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Volume 45, Issue 6.
This issue’s lead paper “Toward Sustainable Supply Chain Orientation (SSCO): mapping managerial perspectives” authored by Signori, Flint and Golicic introduces the concept of Sustainable Supply Chain Orientation (SSCO). Using inductive, theory-building grounded theory and phenomenological data collection, the authors examine wine industry business executives’ interpretations of sustainability. The research draws upon in-depth interviews conducted over a five-year period with 112 senior managers from 88 organizations in four countries to introduce a classification scheme consisting of detailed business executive profile descriptions and the different pathways towards SSCO followed by those executives. The paper contributes to the sustainable supply chain management (SCM) and business orientation literatures by revealing the importance of understanding what sustainability means to business managers and by highlighting multiple possible routes towards SSCO and associated opportunities for differentiation. Flint et al.’s study is also a useful methodological exemplar that can help inform the execution of qualitative research by strategic logistics and SCM researchers.
In the next paper, “A review of the environmental implications of B2c e-commerce: a logistics perspective”, Mangiaracina,Marchet, Perotti and Tumino address a relevant and timely topic. The environmental implications of B2c e-commerce will be of increasing interest to business organizations and society in general as retail giants like Amazon and Walmart continue to provide consumers with compelling rationales for shopping online. Concurrently, legislation to ensure that associated logistical operations do not adversely impact the environment must be developed. Perotti and colleagues present a current classification of the extant body of knowledge on B2c environmental sustainability from a logistics perspective that also highlights themes for future research. Their research will help managers to better understand which logistics operational areas have the most impact on environmental sustainability and how these effects can be assessed and quantified.
The third paper, “Performance-based contracting for advanced logistics services: challenges in its adoption, design and management”,authored by Selviardis and Norrman draws on logistics service provider case studies to examine the critical issue of pay-for-performance. Performance-based contracting for advanced logistics services is a complex issue and the challenge is to design contracts that stimulate effective service provider performance without negatively impacting relationships with customers. Through detailed semi-structured interviews and reviews of contractual documents, Selviaridis and Norrman identify challenges associated with performance-based contracting for advanced logistics services and offer prescriptions about how pay-for-performance contracts can be effectively redesigned to better align incentives. As with Flint et al.’s lead paper, the methodological rigour of Selviardis and Norrman’s study can serve to inform future case study research.
The final paper in this issue, “Applying Kansei engineering-based logistics service design approach to developing international express services”, authored by Chen, Chang, Hsu and Xiao applies a novel approach for designing international express services to stimulate customer usage. Chang and colleagues carefully explain the Japanese Kansei engineering approach and show how it can be usefully appropriated in the international express service arena. More specifically, the authors describe how Kansei engineering technique can be effectively applied to identify the service elements that customers most value so these characteristics can be incorporated into existing service offerings to stimulate usage. As a standard bearer for logistics service research, IJPDLM is pleased to include Chang et al.’s thorough explication and application of a relatively novel approach in customer service research.
I thank the authors and reviewers who collectively put forth so much effort to bring these four interesting manuscripts to fruition for IJPDLM readers.
Alex Ellinger
