Is environmental sustainability a strategic priority for logistics service providers?

Evangelista, Pietro; Colicchia, Claudia; Creazza, Alessandro

Abstract

Despite an increasing number of third-party logistics service providers (3PLs) regard environmental sustainability as a key area of management, there is still great uncertainty on how 3PLs implement environmental strategies and on how they translate green efforts into practice. Through a multiple case study analysis, this paper explores the environmental strategies of a sample of medium-sized 3PLs operating in Italy and the UK, in terms of environmental organisational culture, initiatives, and influencing factors. Our analysis shows that, notwithstanding environmental sustainability is generally recognised as a strategic priority, a certain degree of diversity in the deployment of environmental strategies still exists. This paper is original since the extant literature on green strategies of 3PLs provides findings predominantly from a single country perspective and mainly investigates large/multinational organizations. It also provides indications to help managers of medium-sized 3PLs in positioning their business. This is particularly meaningful in the 3PL industry, where medium-sized organizations significantly contribute to the generated turnover and market value.

Citation

Evangelista, P., Colicchia, C., & Creazza, A. (2017). Is environmental sustainability a strategic priority for logistics service providers?. Journal of environmental management, 198(1), 353-362. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.04.096

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 29, 2017
• Online Publication Date: May 8, 2017
• Publication Date: Aug 1, 2017
• Deposit Date: Jun 5, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: May 1, 2018
• Journal: Journal of environmental management
• Print ISSN: 0301-4797
• Electronic ISSN: 1095-8630
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 198
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 353-362
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.04.096
• Keywords: Environmental Strategy, Environmental Sustainability Practices, Influencing Factors, Logistics Service Providers, Case Study Analysis
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/452017
• Publisher URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479717304541
• Additional Information: This is the accepted manuscript of an article published in Journal of environmental management, 2017. The version of record is available at the DOI link in this record.