Thorsten Klaas-Wissing

Purpose: This article explores the environmental impact of l ogistics service provider (LSP) activities in the light of customer priorities and the fragmen tation of the road haulage industry in Europe. It also explores the extent to which LSPs can actually monitor the environmental impact of logistics activities in the supply chain. Design/methodology/approach: The research is based on a narrative literature rev iew, an interview study, a case survey and three in-depth case studies. A framework on sustain ability challenges in supply chains, derived from the literature, is used to structure a nd analyse the findings. Findings: Despite the ambitious environmental schemes communicated by several LSPs, they show little interest in, and exert little control over, the actual emissions generated from their transport operations. It is clear from our results that any real concern from customers for environmental solutions which negatively influence the cost and time requirements of logistics services are not yet a reality. Research limitations/implications (if applicable): This paper implies that LSP sustainability cannot be investigated in isolation if a company does not manage its proprietary resources (like owning trucks and employing drivers), but rather engage subcontractors. Practical implications (if applicable): Environmental policies among different LSPs appear to be similar as policies, but differ in practice. This variation of practices emphasises the importance of follow-up control by environmentally aware buyers of logistics services. Original/value:This paper represents a novel approach as to how LS P environmental policies should be viewed. It highlights the concrete need for action to achieve the environmental targets of 2020 and 2050 for carbon emissions from road transportation.

Purpose - Job markets in the transport and logistics industry are characterized by a scarcity of well-educated junior talent. Employer attractiveness is becoming more important in order to win the most talented junior staff. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how corporate social performance (CSP) profiles of logistics companies influence their attractiveness for job seekers. Design/methodology/approach - In a computerized laboratory experiment, the authors provided 95 students in their final year with job offer data that include general and CSP information about the company, and the job seeker's potential salary. The authors manipulated how the CSP information was presented and monitored the information accessed during job seekers' decision-making processes. The authors investigated how information presentation affected choices. Findings - The vast majority of talent acquires CSP information in the pre-decision phase of the judgment, compares this information across companies, and trades off this information with the conditions of employment. The authors find that the ease of comparability of corporate social responsibility (CSR) information, expressed by meaningful indicators of CSP, increased preference for high CSP. Research limitations/implications - The study enriches existing studies of voluntary disclosure, which argue that voluntary disclosing sustainability-related information can be a tool of impression management. Practical implications - Companies with a compelling CSP should push for a broadly accepted methodology to benchmark CSP within industry-specific sectors, such as logistics services. Social implications - Potential employees demand that companies should consider their social impact on individuals and society as a whole. To remain attractive for mployees companies in International Journal of Physical transport and logistics industry have to cope with a broader scope of expectations.

Research in logistics and supply chain management typically considers transport activities between shippers (sender), carriers (transport operators) and customers (recipient). However, a closer look into real-world road freight transport systems reveals more complex constellations involving multiple actors with different functions, leading to a fragmentation of transport planning and control activities and accordingly inefficient execution of road freight transport. The purpose of this paper is to pinpoint and explore the gap between supply chain transport theory and empirical reality in road freight transport control. In order to empirically indicate the complexity of control of road freight transport in supply chains, descriptive statistics of fleet two in-depth case studies were conducted. Our finding is that several nested levels of planning and control have to be managed and our results underline the perception that previous approaches of transport planning and control are suitable for simple governance structures but do not cover complex multiple-actor constellations.

In the less-than-truckload (LTL) market, alliances of smaller logistics service providers (LSP) successfully compete with large, integrated logistics corporations. However, such alliances are often seen as an inferior governance mode in terms of establishing and operating cost-efficient production structures. Because little is known about the organization of such multilateral LTL alliances, this paper conceptualizes and explores their cooperative organization and offers tentative explanations for their specific organizational design. Two in-depth cases have made it possible to analyze the specific organizational arrangements of two successful but contrasting German LTL alliances. The findings shed light on LTL alliance design alternatives and their effectiveness conditions and can serve as a guideline for alliance evaluation and design in the LTL business.

The paper contributes to research on sustainability in dyadic buyer-supplier relationships of logistics services. It presents deeper knowledge on why and how suppliers choose to behave sustainably. The research analyzes how shippers stimulate their LSPs and how LSPs respond by conducting sustainability activities. Agency theory and the stimulus-organism-response model are applied as the theoretical foundations for an explorative case study analysis of three large and five small and medium-sized European logistics service providers (LSPs) active in road transport services. Significant differences are found between the sustainability efforts of SMEs and large LSPs and a tentative taxonomy of the sustainability response types of LSPs is derived. The taxonomy contributes to theory-guided research in sustainable supply chain management and procurement. Thereby, mismatches of stimuli and responses are identified and related agency problems in dyadic relationships in terms of sustainability are discussed. From a managerial point of view, the findings may serve as a starting point for purchasers of logistics services to develop adequate sustainability selection criteria and incentives.

Carbon accounting is only the basis of a comprehensive carbon management. As implied by the term "accounting", carbon accounting shows many similarities to the basic logics of financial as well as cost accounting. This article highlights the key areas of carbon accounting and presents the main challenges Logistics Service Providers are faced with.

In the less than full truck load (LTL) freight market, integrated transport companies compete head-on with multilateral horizontal alliance networks of smaller LTL service providers: the LTL population is characterised by a dichotomy of cooperative and corporate governance modes. In this paper, we identify the strategic management challenges of LTL networks and analyse the suitability of the two alternative governance modes to respond to these challenges. The analysis reveals a framework which allows the systematic exploration of LTL networks from an institutional perspective. It shows the contingent effects of governance on the strategic decision fields of LTL networks. Integrated transportation companies are more efficient regarding decision-making and network configuration at the expense of potential disadvantages concerning capital resources, narrow-mindedness, bureaucratic tendencies and detachment from the customer. Transportation alliances benefit from innovative strategic initiatives and close customer relations, but suffer from potential incompatibilities of alliance partners and inefficiencies regarding strategic decision-making and network configuration.

Three metatheoretical positions, known as individualism, holism, and systemism, are salient in management research programs. The world views of individualism and holism in particular are a matter of controversy between social scientists, leading to serious shortcomings in the prevailing research programs. As we argue in this paper, neither view is adequate. A cogent alternative to both is systemism, which integrates the valuable insights of individualism and holism without their drawbacks. The paper illustrates the specific implications of each of these world views for knowledge management research