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The construction industry is reluctant to utilize construction logistics centres (CLC). To understand why, the purpose of the study is to increase the understanding of drivers and challenges of CLC utilization.

Adopting an activity-based cost methodology, nine construction projects' CLC utilization in a Swedish urban development project is analyzed for a time period of three years (2013–2016).

There is a difference between drivers and challenges for implementing and utilizing CLCs, which are often implemented to reduce third-party disturbances. The drivers to utilize a CLC, however, stem from achieving efficient logistics. The authors identify two different utilization strategies; the CLC is used either for just-in-time (JIT) deliveries or as a consolidation point.

The study shows that construction logistics is to some extent repeating some mistakes of its big brother, city logistics. The study hypothesizes that there are differences between CLC implementation and utilization drivers and challenges that are often overlooked, which can explain the lack of CLC utilization.

The study shows that it is crucial for construction projects to develop and formulate a logistics strategy for how to utilize the setup, i.e. deciding whether to use the setup as a consolidation point leading to fewer deliveries and more materials on-site, or as JIT, leading to more deliveries but fewer materials on-site.

CLCs can reduce environmental impact and third-party disturbances. However, to make this come true, acceptance among the users is needed. The study provides understanding of drivers and barriers for CLC implementation and utilization that can increase acceptance among users (i.e. construction projects).

The current study is one of the first studies to analyze CLC utilization.

An examination is made of developments in port dynamics since 1965. Initially, this task is addressed by studying changes in past port patterns using a simple descriptive model to accommodate shifts induced by containerization. Over time these changes have led to the reversal of the concentration and centralization of port activities. Then consideration is given to the behavior of stakeholders active in the contemporary port scene by elaborating a bipolar global-local analytical framework through an invocation of the hybrid concepts of glocalization and loglobalization. This analysis leads to an examination of emerging economies to gauge future trends in port dynamics following the dramatic emergence of China. Finally, there is a discussion of the need to go beyond inter-port competition to comprehend global production-distribution networks by exploring synergies between the supply chain and the total transport network to bring out parallels in the hub-and-spoke structure not only underpinning maritime activities but also air transport and telecommunications.

The purpose of this paper is to develop propositions explaining the influence of individual goals and social preferences on human decision making in transport planning. The aim is to understand which individual goals and social preferences planners pursue and how these influence planners’ decisions.

Propositions are developed based on investigation of decision making of transport planners in a Dutch logistics service provider using multiple data collection methods.

The study shows how decision making of transport planners is motivated by individual goals as well as social preferences for reciprocity and group identity.

Further research including transaction data analysis is needed to triangulate findings and to strengthen conclusions. Propositions are developed to be tested in future research.

Results suggest that efforts to guide planners in their decision making should go beyond traditional (monetary) incentives and consider their individual goals and social preferences. Moreover, this study provides insight into why transport planners deviate from desired behaviour.

While individual decision making plays an essential role in operational planning, the factors influencing how individuals make operational planning decisions are not fully understood.

Outsourcing of logistics has great importance in disaster relief. Aid agencies spend several billion US dollars every year on logistics services. However, the concept of outsourcing has not been established adequately in literature on humanitarian logistics, leading to a fragmented view of the practice. This paper provides a holistic perspective of the concept by constructing a conceptual framework to analyze both practice and research of outsourcing in humanitarian operations. Based on this analysis, we explore future trends and identify research gaps.

The paper is based on a structured review of academic literature, a two-round Delphi study with 31 experts from aid agencies and a complementary full-day focus group with twelve experts from aid agencies and logistics service providers.

The paper systemizes the current practice of outsourcing in humanitarian logistics according to a conceptual framework of five dimensions: subject, object, partner, design and context. In addition, it reveals ten probable developments of the practice over the next years. Finally, it describes eight important research gaps and presents a research agenda for the field.

The literature review considered peer-reviewed academic papers. Practitioner papers could provide additional insights into the practice. Moreover, the Delphi study focused on the perspective of aid agencies. Capturing the views of logistics service providers in more detail would be a valuable addition.

The paper establishes the academic basis for the important practice of outsourcing in humanitarian logistics. It highlights essential research gaps and, thereby, opens up the field for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine and to categorize the tendencies of blockchain-based applications in the shipping industry and supply chain as well as the interrelations between them, including possible correlation of found categories with theoretical background and existing concepts. This study also explores whether blockchain can be adopted into existing maritime shipping and port document workflow management.

The current study builds a conceptual framework through a systematic project review carried along with scientific and grey literature, published in journals and conference proceedings during the past decade and giving information or proposals on an issue.

The results showed that reviewed projects can be compiled into three main conceptual areas: document workflow management, financial processes and device connectivity. However, having clear interlinkages, none of the reviewed projects consider all three areas at once. Concepts associated with maritime document workflow received broad support among the reviewed projects. In addition, reviewed projects unintentionally follow the similar goals that were laid down within port management scientific projects before the introduction of blockchain technology.

This study contributes to research by revealing a consistent framework for understanding the blockchain applications within maritime port environment, a less-studied part of blockchain implementation in the supply chain field. Moreover, this work is the first to find out conceptual intersections and correlations between existing projects, mapping current tendencies and potentially increasing knowledge about the field.

In the 1990s, following the challenges imposed by globalisation, the liner shipping industry experienced profound changes, leading major carriers to create ad-hoc logistics business-units. Nevertheless the vertical integration of shipping lines along the transport chain faced important entry barriers in various regions.This paper aims at analysing the impact of such barriers on carriers’ pathways of expansion in the logistics business. It mainly focuses on the East-Asian market, as a relevant empirical case in which important institutional and socio-political obstacles are still in force .Main results disclose sui-generis paths of expansion achieved by major carriers, in contrast with linear constructs of time and space proposed by classical TNC theories. In such respect, port operations reveal to be the most critical stage of the chain. The ‘sidestep’ of the port phase, leading to investments in other on-shore activities (warehousing, inland terminals, etc.) as well as the implementation of aggressive financial campaigns (acquisitions and takeovers), reveal the unfaltering will of top shipping lines: the quick achievement of a successful vertical and horizontal expansion despite environmental obstacles.

The huge demand for fresh goods has stimulated lots of research on the perishable food supply chain. The characteristics of perishable food and the cross-regional transportation have brought many challenges to the operation models of perishable food supply chain. The purpose of this paper is to address these challenges based on the real-time data acquired by the Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

IoT and the modeling of the Supply Hub in Industrial Parks were adopted in the perishable food supply chain.

A conceptual model was established for the IoT-enabled perishable food supply chain with two-echelon supply hubs. The performance of supply chain has improved when implementing the proposed model, as is demonstrated by a case study.

By our model, the supply hubs which act as the dominators of the supply chain can respond to the real-time information captured from the operation processes of an IoT-enabled supply chain, thus to provide public warehousing and logistic services.

The green logistics literature remains undecided on how collaboration between shippers (i.e. logistics buyers) and logistics service providers (LSPs) may facilitate green logistics practices (GLPs). This paper identifies two types of collaboration mechanisms, relation specific and knowledge sharing, to systematically examine their influence on facilitating the different types of GLPs – as seen by shippers versus LSPs.

Survey responses of 169 shippers and 162 LSPs in Sweden were collected and analysed using exploratory- and confirmatory factor analysis, followed by multiple regression analysis.

The findings reveal that neither of the actors consistently favour a certain type of collaboration mechanisms for facilitating all types of GLPs. Although it was found that both actors share the same view on the role of collaboration mechanisms for some GLPs, their views took contrasting forms for others.

This study contributes to the green logistics literature by incorporating a trilateral distinction to present collaboration recommendations for GLPs, based on (1) the collaboration mechanism at play, (2) the actor's perspective and (3) the GLP in question.

Insights are offered to managers at shipper/LSP firms to apply the right (“fit for purpose”) collaboration mechanisms in their relationships with their logistics partners with respect to the desired GLPs.

This is one of the first large-scale studies to systematically reveal in what way collaboration can facilitate the different types of GLPs.

This paper aimed to examine the relationship between green logistics management (GLM) practices and export intensity of Thai SMEs in food and drinks manufacturing. The research involved carrying out in-depth interviews with ten experts to shed light on factors of GLM practices. The authors used a questionnaire to survey the data amongst 89 SME exporters through purposive sampling with valid 52 responses. The managerial issues related to export intensity, GLM practices, with regards to whether firms followed ISO 14001 and whether they had an employee(s) responsible for environmental management. The findings suggest that greater GLM practices being applied lead to higher export intensity in SME. The results indicate that most SMEs apply GLM practices in all dimensions to gain the benefits from the export market. It also emerged that those following ISO 14001 and/or having an employee(s) were associated with having higher export intensity than those who did not engage in these practices.

This study aims to explore how sustainable business models (SBM) can be developed within agri-innovation systems (AIS) and emphasize an integration of the two with a systemic understanding for reducing food loss and value loss in postharvest agri-food supply chain.

This study conducted longitudinal qualitative research in a developing country with food loss challenges in the postharvest supply chain. This study collected data through multiple rounds of fieldwork, interviews and focus groups over four years. Thematic analysis and “sensemaking” were used for inductive data analysis to generate rich contextual knowledge by drawing upon the lived realities of the agri-food supply chain actors.

First, this study finds that the value losses are varied in the supply chain, encompassing production value, intrinsic value, extrinsic value, market value, institutional value and future food value. This happens through two cumulative effects including multiplier losses, where losses in one model cascade into others, amplifying their impact and stacking losses, where the absence of data stacks or infrastructure pools hampers the realisation of food value. Thereafter, this study proposes four strategies for moving from the loss-incurring current business model to a networked SBM for mitigating losses. This emphasises the need to redefine ownership as stewardship, enable formal and informal beneficiary identification, strengthen value addition and build capacities for empowering communities to benefit from networked SBM with AIS initiatives. Finally, this study puts forth ten propositions for future research in aligning AIS with networked SBM.

This study contributes to understanding the interplay between AIS and SBM; emphasising the integration of the two to effectively address food loss challenges in the early stages of agri-food supply chains. The identified strategies and research propositions provide implications for researchers and practitioners seeking to accelerate sustainable practices for reducing food loss and waste in agri-food supply chains.