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The organization of services can affect the adoption of sustainable practices within the relationship between a buyer (e.g. a shipper) and a supplier (e.g. a logistics service provider–LSP). The purpose of this paper is to analyse, within this relationship, the mechanisms affecting collaboration between shippers and LSPs towards adopting green logistics practices to reduce the negative environmental effects of logistics processes. The authors take the perspective of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which represent – although less investigated than large enterprises – a relevant field of investigation given their impact on the environmental sustainability of logistics processes.

The authors conducted a multiple case-study investigation on a set of dyads involving shippers and LSPs. The authors explored the antecedents shaping the approach to sustainability in logistics and, adopting the absorptive capacity (AC) theory, the learning and knowledge transfer processes leading to the adoption of green practices.

Collaboration between shippers and LSPs for better sustainability in logistics seems not to work when relationships are limited to simple annual (or pluriannual) contracts, and when shippers do not show ambition to improve the level of sustainability of their logistics processes (regardless of whether they show an interest in general sustainability matters). On the other hand, successful cases show higher commitment in the dyadic relationship with respect to improving logistics sustainability, good levels of communication and a more structured process of knowledge sharing, enabled by IT integration, shared performance monitoring, and creation of inter-organizational teams.

While most of the existing research focuses on the perspective of shippers or LSPs, this work is original since it explores collaborative mechanisms within a buyer-supplier relationship simultaneously taking the perspective of both parties, according to the lens of the AC. It identifies directions for improving collaboration within the shipper-LSP relationship in the context of SMEs to foster the adoption of collaborative green logistics practices to impact sustainability positively.

The growing relevance of environmental sustainability calls for identification of factors that contribute to green innovation and build green corporate reputation. Drawing on the resource-based view theory, this study aims to explore the influence of green logistics knowledge, green customer knowledge, green supplier knowledge, green competitor knowledge, non-supply chain learning on green innovation and green corporate reputation.

This study adopts the quantitative research method where questionnaire is used to gather data from managers of the sampled 208 small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The structural equation modelling is used to analyse the survey data and test the proposed hypotheses.

The findings reveal that non-supply chain learning, green customer knowledge and green competitor knowledge have both direct and indirect impact on green innovation and green corporate reputation. However, green supplier knowledge and green logistics knowledge directly impact green innovation but indirectly impact green corporate reputation through green innovation.

Despite the growing literature exploring the relationship between learning, innovation and reputation, their literature in emerging economies remains underdeveloped. This study provides empirical evidence to confirm the role of non-supply chain learning and green supply chain knowledge in building green corporate reputation and developing green innovation of SMEs in an emerging economy.

This article represents an empirical examination of green logistics awareness of employees at third-party enterprises in China. The data used for this study was collected using a survey related to green logistics awareness. Participants were employees of Chinese enterprises, including five logistics companies. Although there was a general low level of green logistics awareness, results showed a diverse awareness of the topic contingent upon green logistics knowledge. More specifically, with the exception of those who demonstrated a high degree of green logistics knowledge, green logistics awareness level and other dimensions were low. In addition, educational background demonstrated an influence on green logistics awareness. The findings from this study have real-world implications for the development of state logistics environmental protection policy.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a structured literature review on knowledge management (KM) and KM strategy in environmental sustainability practices of logistics service providers. The paper highlights the nature and scope of existing research and identifies areas for future research.

The study consists of a systematic review of existing research regarding KM in sustainable logistics. In all, 38 refereed research papers formed the basis of analysis. This methodology allows for the minimization of researcher bias and the maximization of reliability and replicability.

The literature review made possible the identification of three basic elements through which building-up appropriate KM approaches and KM strategies in the area of environmental sustainability by third-party logistics service companies will be enhanced: customer relationship management, quality of human resources and the adoption of information and communication technology tools and systems.

This study may not have enabled a complete coverage of all articles in the field of KM in the context of environmental sustainability practices of logistics service companies. Yet, it seems reasonable to assume that the review process covered a large share of studies available. The main research implications deriving from the study concern research methods, analysis of factors hampering/supporting the implementation of KM in practices related to environmental sustainability, development of measures to demonstrate the impact of KM on sustainability practices and role of different stakeholders in the implementation of KM in environmental sustainability practices.

To the best of the authors ' knowledge, no systematic literature review on this topic has previously been published in academic journals.

This study aims to examine management attitude and awareness towards green logistics, explores the external conditions that drive and restrict its positive behaviour, investigates the level of its adoption amongst logistics service providers (LSPs) and determines the major barriers affecting its application in the industry.

This research investigates the key decision-making process on green logistics attitude and behaviour through in-depth interviews and thematic analysis.

This study explores both institutional and individual-level attitudes/awareness. Then, the driving and restraining forces and the challenges that influence the industry’s adoption of green initiatives are determined. Finally, this study constructs a framework following a behavioural driving route with interactions among green “attitude”, sustainable “subjective norms”, “behavioural control” and “external context” factors.

Findings can enlighten the practitioners who are struggling to adopt the green or low-carbon practice and provide valuable insights and constructive advice to LSPs and their stakeholders.

Findings can draw the government and policy-makers’ attention to provide necessary financial or non-financial support for the practitioners to improve their green operations.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first attempts to adopt the hybrid theoretical lens on the green behaviour of the logistics industry. New insights are added to existing environmental management literature with a wider understanding and deeper investigation of the decision-making on green logistics in the industry. The theoretical framework in this study can offer future applications to a relevant large-scale study.

Various suggested paths for greening logistics and supply chains often address the specific perspectives of single supply chain actors. Drawing on stakeholder theory, the purpose of this paper is to develop a deeper understanding of the alignment between logistics service providers (LSPs) and shippers in the context of adopting more environmentally sustainable logistics practices.

With a case study approach, a dual perspective is taken in which both LSPs and shippers were researched. The cases comprise eight LSPs and six shipper companies in Sweden, Italy and Ireland. Information was first analysed in relation to levels of environmental awareness, customer requirements and provider offerings and critical success factors (CSFs) and inhibitors. In a second step, the findings were analysed using stakeholder theory.

LSPs demonstrate higher ambition levels and more concrete offerings compared to shippers' requirements for green logistics services. Paradoxically, customers are an important CSF and also an inhibitor for both LSPs and shippers. Both LSPs and shippers perceive financial factors and senior management priorities as important CSFs. The application of stakeholder theory helps to illuminate the importance of the many secondary stakeholders vs that of one or a relatively small number of primary stakeholders.

The three-dimensional analysis of environmental alignment between LSPs and shippers reinforces existing knowledge and provides new insights. A novel use of stakeholder theory in a supply chain context underlines its usefulness in research of this kind.

Freight transportation practices accounted for a significant share of environmental degradation and climate change over the years. Therefore, environmentally responsible transport practices (ERTPs) become a serious concern of freight shippers and transport service providers. Past studies generally ignored the assessment of ERTPs of freight transport companies during a transport service contract. To bridge the above literature gap, this paper proposed a hierarchical framework for evaluating freight transport companies based on ERTPs.

In a data-driven decision-making environment, transport firm selection is affected by multiple expert inputs, lack of information availability, decision-making ambiguity and background of experts. The evaluation of such decisions requires a multi-criteria decision-making method under a group decision-making approach. This paper used a data-driven method based on the intuitionistic fuzzy-set-based analytic hierarchy process (IF-AHP) and VIseKriterijumska Kompromisno Rangiranje (IF-VIKOR) method. The applicability of the proposed framework is validated with the Indian freight transport industry.

The result analysis shows that environmental knowledge sharing among freight transport actors, quality of organizations human resource, collaborative green awareness training programs, promoting environmental awareness program for employees and compliance of government transport emission law and practice have been ranked top five ERTPs which significantly contribute to the environmental sustainability of freight transport industry. The proposed framework also ranked freight transport companies based on ERTPs.

This research is expected to provide a reference to develop ERTPs in the emerging economies freight transport industry and contribute to the development of a sustainable freight transport system.

This study assesses the environmental responsibility of the freight transportation industry. The emerging economies logistics planners can use proposed framework for assessing the performance of freight transportation companies based on ERTPs.

The literature on knowledge management in sustainable supply chain (KMSSC) has witnessed significant growth in the past two decades. However, a scientometric review that consolidates the primary trends and clusters within this topic has been notably absent. This paper aims to scrutinize recent advancements and identify the intellectual underpinnings of KMSSC research conducted between 2002 and 2022.

The present review employs a scientometric analysis approach via visualization maps of prolific contributions, co-citation, co-occurrence and thematic networks to examine a total of 114 articles and conference papers on KMSSC.

Emerging research frontiers and hotspots are revealed and a state-of-the-art framework of KMSSC research structure is developed.

The review provides significant implications that guide KMSSC research and better inform sustainability decisions in the supply chain context.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first review to thoroughly synthesize the intersected domain of KMSSC using scientometric analysis.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of eco‐oriented culture (EOC) in the relationship between stakeholder pressure (SP) and the adoption of environmental logistics practices (ELPs). It is proposed that the adoption of ELPs is influenced by SP perceived by a firm, and in turn this relationship is mediated by EOC.

Multiple theoretical perspectives are considered to explain why a firm adopts environmental strategies and how the firm overcomes environmental barriers. A structural equation modelling was utilized to empirically test the effect of SP on the adoption of ELPs, and the mediating role of EOC in its relationship, based on the survey data from Korean logistics and manufacturing companies.

Empirical analysis shows significant relationships between SP and ELPs, and the mediating role of EOC in the SP‐ELPs path. The results indicate that corporate EOC fully mediates the relationship between perceived SP and the adoption of ELPs.

SP is able to influence the adoption of ELPs only through its efforts to build a unique environmental culture. This implies that a firm with well‐developed EOC may more effectively correspond to an environmental paradigm shift and gain an edge over its competitors.

This study focused on the logistics area, where the environmental concerns have increased but little research interest has been exhibited. This research attempts to empirically test the mediating role of EOC that may explain the equivocal relationship between SP and ELPs while the previous studies have focused on the direct connections between ELPs and their antecedents.

This research examines the relationship between the green version of intellectual capital (IC) (measured through green versions of human, structural and relational capitals (GHC, GSC and GRC)), co-creational capital (CC), green innovation (GI), technological innovation (TI) (measured through artificial intelligence) and start-up competitive advantage (SCA).

An online questionnaire collected data from 275 participants. To test the hypotheses, the data were analyzed using SmartPLS.

The results confirmed the positive influence of GSC and CC on TI and GI, GRC with GI and that of GI and TI with SCA. The results also reveal that IC can influence innovation and describe how innovation can drive the competitive advantage (CA) of start-ups.

This self-report study examines the associations by collecting data at one point in time, which results in methodological limitations regarding the generalization of the results. The second limitation is that the findings are limited to start-ups.

This research work examined a model that combined three components of green IC, customer capital, two forms of innovation and CA. These associations have not been previously examined yet can provide useful insight into what drives green and TIs and how they further influence competitiveness. This study provides unique inferences that improve the value of the literature on IC and innovation, using start-ups as context.