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This paper contributes to the broad aim of this special issue, reflecting on the relevance of the writing of Alan Fox to the contemporary industrial relations field. It offers an original reflection from a feminist perspective on Fox’s classic insights around frames of reference.

We concentrate on Beyond Contract, Work, Power and Trust Relations (1974a) and Man Mismanagement (1974b, 1985) as the texts setting out Fox’s influential frames of reference theory, before moving on to subsequent literature in the field making use of Fox’s frames. In undertaking this review from a feminist perspective, we specifically look at the extent to which work considers standpoint, gender relations and political engagement. We draw further on wider feminist scholarship within industrial relations, critical race theory and intersectionality perspectives.

Despite the concept of inequality forming the core of Fox’s analyses, there is a lack of attention to gender or to other diversity strands in his work and, notwithstanding the weight of feminist scholarship within the industrial relations field since, this neglect has been carried forward into subsequent use of Fox’s work. We argue there is space for the frames to be interpreted and used in ways that leave space for attention to feminist concerns and call on academics to approach their use of Fox from a more critically-informed perspective.

The paper’s argument has implications for the field of industrial relations in terms of conceptual understanding and methodological approaches. With space, it would have been useful to apply our revised understanding of Fox’s key concepts to empirical cases.

Greater clarity in what constitutes “unitary” and “pluralist” perspectives and categories will help employment relations actors.

We present a novel feminist re-framing of Fox’s work, providing new understandings of the strengths, weaknesses and applicability of the frames of reference within contemporary industrial relations research and practice. We advocate for methodological and scholarly approaches which advance theoretical and empirical justice in the field, moving beyond gender to draw on critical race theory and intersectionality frameworks.

This study aims to explore a specific case of the alleged mismatch between higher education and employability by investigating long-term work life outcomes for graduates from a small university college in Sweden, and the associations between these outcomes and the graduates’ social background, academic achievements and study approach in terms of labour market orientation and agency in studying.

The study is based on longitudinal data from initially 2,072 students from bachelor’s degree programmes in 2007–2012. They were surveyed continuously throughout the programmes and then in 2020. Classification and regression tree (CRT) analyses were conducted to identify which subgroups within the population based on the independent variables (e.g. students’ background and study orientation) that were associated with the dependent variables (work life outcomes).

Neither graduates’ social background nor their academic achievement and study approach was associated with employment rate or income. Some dimensions of high labour market orientation and agency in studying were positively associated with holding a senior position at work. Several aspects of high levels of agency and labour market orientation were positively associated with subjective work life outcomes, such as for example perceived mastery of work.

This study contributes to further understanding of alleged mismatches between higher education and employability by using longitudinal data from a university college in a country with low graduate unemployment rates and low earnings dispersions.

The logistics industry has undergone a tremendous transformation. This transformation is necessary to cope with the fundamental changes in customer expectations and the need for digitalization imposed by the pandemic, changes in the socioeconomic world, and innovative technology solutions. This paper aims to present digital transformation as an integrated framework for transforming the operating model and applying advanced solutions to the ecosystem of a quintile logistics (5PL) company. 5PL operators are typically an ecosystem. Loosely coupled or self-organized entities that collaborate in a symbiotic relationship represent this ecosystem. They aim to jointly develop capabilities, create innovative services or solutions, share knowledge, facilitate transactions, and leverage network synergies in a logistics environment to provide optimized or novel customer- or partner-centric solutions (Lamberjohann and Otto, 2020).

Currently, there is no single definition of an integrated logistics operations model in 5PL practice, so the qualitative method used in this paper allows for investigation from an exploratory perspective. The paper follows a qualitative research methodology, collecting and analyzing data/facts through interviews and visits to subject matter experts, industry practitioners, and academic researchers, combined with an extensive review of academic publications, industry reports, and written and media content from established organizations in the marketplace. This paper follows a qualitative research methodology, as it is an inquiry rather than a statistical study. The qualitative method allows the study of the concepts of phenomena and definitions, their characteristics, and the defining features that serve as the basis (Berg, 2007). It emphasizes generalized interpretation and deeper understanding of concepts, which would be more difficult in quantitative, statistically based research. Fact-finding was conducted in two ways: in-depth interviews with experts from academia, information and communication technology organizations, and key players in the logistics industry; and academic publications, industry reports, and written and media content from established national and international organizations in the market.

The operations model introduced considers six aspects: persons, processes, platforms, partners, protection and preservation. A virtual team approach can support the personal side of the 5PL ecosystem’s digital transformation. Managing a 5PL ecosystem should be based on collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment methods (Parsa et al., 2020). A digital platform can support trust among the stakeholders in the ecosystem. A blockchain solution can powerfully support the 5PL ecosystem from partner relationships’ points of view. The implementation of a cybersecurity reference model is important for protection (Bandari, 2023). Reverse logistics and an integrated approach support the preservation of the ecosystem.

While the author has experience applying the different components of the operations model presented, it would be interesting to find a 5PL that would use all the components presented in an integrated way. The operations model presented applies to any similar ecosystem with minor adaptations.

This paper addresses operations models and digital transformation challenges for optimizing 5PL operators. It provides several opportunities and considerations for 5PL operators interested in improving their management and operations to cope with the growing challenges of today’s world.

The competitiveness and long-term performance of 5PL operators depend on selecting and carefully implementing their operations models. This paper emphasizes the importance of using advanced operations models.

The operations model derives from the author’s personal experiences in research and the innovative application of these models to logistics operators (DHL, UPS, Poste Italiane and others). This paper brings together academic and industry perspectives and operations models in an integrated business digital transformation. This paper defines an original optimal operations model for a 5PL operator and can add sustainable value to organizations and society. In doing so, it outlines different solution requirements, the critical success factors and the challenges for solutions and brings logistical performance objectives when implementing a digital business transformation.