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Logistics service providers (LSPs) have unique resources and capabilities that position them to deliver supply chain finance (SCF) solutions. The study aims to discuss and illustrate the necessary resources and process of value creation and capture of LSPs, potentially offering SCF solutions.

Relying on a theoretical framework, combining a resource-based view (RBV) with the literature on SCF, the authors apply an abductive case study methodology, including 11 interviews with representatives from four LSPs.

The main findings are as follow: (1) although an LSP has sufficient resources for value-added SCF solutions, it may not capture enough value to motivate realising them; (2) an LSP considering offering SCF should account for the interaction between its resources and cargo transit times, risk and regulatory restrictions and (3) future studies should distinguish between financing the logistics services and the moved products.

The authors contribute to the growing field of SCF research by analysing motives and barriers for LSPs to offer SCF service to their customers. Because none of our case companies decided to move beyond experimentation further research is needed on the resources and capabilities needed for LSPs to successfully venture into SCF.

The study provides LSPs with clear indications of the difficulties involved when contemplating a move into SCF solutions and discusses the potential value of offering such services.

Despite evidence of LSPs engaging in SCF in various industries, academic contributions do not go beyond operational conditions or quantification of benefits. The authors add evidence on how LSPs are currently evaluating the prominence of adding SCF to their value offerings, including a new perspective on resources, value generation and capture mechanisms.

This paper explores the conditions in which logistics service providers (LSPs) can compete or collaborate with banks in offering inventory financing as a supply chain finance (SCF) service.

A multiple case study research methodology was adopted. The case study involved six LSPs across Europe. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews.

The results highlighted that an attractive credit demand for LSPs consists in suppliers with high amounts of inventory or borrowing needs that go beyond their borrowing capacity from the perspective of a bank. LSPs can respond to this demand when they have three specific capabilities as follows: risk assessment, risk monitoring and organizational capabilities. The offer of inventory financing can be controlled by the LSPs or by the banks. When the LSPs control the offer, they offer different conditions compared to the banks in terms of credit rationing, transaction costs, payment flexibility, tax rate advantage and financial risk management. When the banks control the offer, the LSPs influence the nature of the SCF services only in terms of credit rationing and transaction costs. The LSPs seem to easily develop risk assessment and risk mitigation capabilities, while the organisational capabilities appear to be the most challenging to build, and when absent they create a barrier to the provision of inventory financing.

The value of the paper is twofold. First, the paper provides a comprehensive taxonomy of the factors conditioning the role of the LSPs in the provision of inventory financing as a SCF service. Second, the paper clarifies the link between the factors and the different roles played by the LSPs.

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.

The purpose of this study is to measure the gaps between the engagements of shippers (i.e. logistics buyers) and logistics service providers (LSPs) in different green logistics practices (GLPs) throughout the key phases of the logistics purchasing process: request for proposal, negotiations, contracting and execution.

A large-scale survey of shippers and LSPs in Sweden was conducted. Respondents were 331 firms (169 shippers, 162 LSPs). Mean values of the actors' perceptions were analysed using independent- and paired sample t-tests.

While this study supports previous research indicating that LSPs engage more extensively in selling GLPs than shippers do in buying them, it shows that this conclusion does not uniformly apply to all GLPs nor all purchasing phases. Three patterns emerged for the gaps between the actors' buying-selling engagements throughout the purchasing process: (1) steady and wide gaps, (2) steady and narrow gaps and (3) emergent gaps. Distinct GLPs were associated with each pattern. It is also shown that the prioritisation of GLPs is fairly aligned between shippers and LSPs.

This study contributes to the green logistics purchasing literature by systematically and simultaneously creating three types of distinction, between (1) shippers and LSPs, (2) different GLPs and (3) different logistics purchasing phases. Future studies could replicate the analysis in countries other than Sweden.

Managers of shipper/LSP firms learn tips to spot the GLPs that their partners prioritise, enabling them to modify their purchasing/marketing strategies accordingly.

The three types of distinction represent a novel approach in the green logistics purchasing literature.

This paper takes its starting point in the possibilities consumers have to influence the greening of distribution. It focuses on three key actors who can facilitate consumer influence, namely e-tailers, logistics service providers (LSPs) and the consumers themselves. The purpose is to illuminate consumers' possibilities to influence the greening of distribution by exploring the communication between LSPs, e-tailers and consumers.

Website scans of the 40 largest Swedish e-tailers and ten LSPs were combined with interviews of three e-tailers and three LSPs.

The findings suggest that consumers at present have limited possibilities to influence the greening of distribution. One reason for this is the limited communication between LSPs, e-tailers and consumers. A gap in communication arises because e-tailers determine how to promote distribution alternatives on their websites, while it is the LSPs who develop and offer green distribution services.

This paper provides a first step in our understanding of what is needed in order to facilitate green distribution decisions from e-consumers.

E-tailers can gain an increased understanding of their important role as facilitators of environmentally sound decisions for consumers through their design of websites. This study also highlights the need for LSPs to support e-tailers in this work.

The study contributes to the societal striving towards zero greenhouse gas emission by focussing on decreasing environmental effects by using suitable logistics.

In contrast with previous research into the environmental impact of e-commerce distribution, this study investigates the possibilities consumers have to influence green logistics within e-commerce.

The purpose of this study is to identify sustainability practices and to propose a framework for evaluating the sustainability index of logistics service providers (LSPs).

Sustainable practices followed by LSPs are identified through literature review and analysis of a case study. Thirteen such sustainable practices are identified. Thereafter, with expert inputs, nine sustainable practices are shortlisted and considered for the evaluation of the sustainability index in the proposed framework. Graph Theory Matrix Approach has been applied to evaluate the sustainability index of an LSP.

Major practices identified for evaluating sustainability index include the use of recyclable packaging, use of renewable energy sources, green procurement, reduction in carbon emissions, use of CNG/electric vehicles, rainwater harvesting and so on. The sustainability index of an LSP is evaluated by using the proposed framework.

LSPs can benchmark their sustainability index with respect to the best in the industry. Based on it, LSPs can also identify potential areas for improvement.

Novelty of the study lies in the proposed framework for evaluation of sustainability index which can be used to develop strategies for green logistics. LSPs can also improve their performance in terms of sustainability measures by adopting green logistics.

The rapid advancement of digital technologies has fundamentally changed the competitive dynamics of the logistics service industry and forced incumbent logistics service providers (LSPs) to digitalize. As many LSPs still struggle in advancing their digital transformation (DT), the purpose of this study is to discover barriers and identify organizational elements and associated leading practices for DT success at LSPs.

This study utilizes a two-stage approach. Stage 1 is devoted to a literature review. Stage 2, based on multiple case studies, analyzes information collected across nine international and global LSPs.

This research derives a practice-based definition of DT in the logistics service industry, and it has identified five barriers, eight success factors and associated leading practices for DT. The main obstacles LSPs struggle with, are the complexity of the logistics network and lack of resources, while the main success factor is a leader having and executing a DT vision, and creating a supportive organizational culture.

The results contribute to the emerging field of DT within the logistics and supply chain management literature and provide insights for practitioners regarding how to effectively implement it in a complex industry.

The authors analyze DT from the perspective of LSPs, traditionally not viewed as innovative companies. This study compares their DT with that of other companies.

Service development and outsourcing are growing trends in humanitarian logistics (HL). Humanitarian organizations (HOs) have developed specialized units to perform logistics activities on behalf of other aid organizations, as a commercial logistics service provider (LSP) would do. The purpose of this paper is to explore the characteristics of HOs acting as LSPs and the differences with their commercial counterparts.

This research uses a two-level content analysis of 149 annual reports from 50 local and international HOs, performed with the help of qualitative data analysis software. First, a manifest content analysis identified the number of occurrences of logistics-related words and later, a latent content analysis studies the use in context of such words to characterize the nature of HOs as LSPs.

Evidence shows that some international HOs – in some cases through specialized logistics units – perform the same activities as commercial LSPs, providing similar services. However, due to the characteristics of the humanitarian context, HOs acting as LSPs can offer a wider range of value-added and dedicated services to clients (other HOs) than commercial LSPs.

Exploring the activities performed by HOs on behalf of other aid organizations and characterizing them as service providers constitutes a first attempt to grasp the unique features of these particular humanitarian LSPs. The results open the discussion about the services HOs offer, thus contributing to theory development in HL.

The identification of HOs acting as LSPs introduces a new actor to the humanitarian network, which the authors refer to as humanitarian service provider (HSP). This supposes two main managerial implications. First, the results support the idea of seeing servitization as a competitive difference, having a substantial impact on the way HOs build their strategies and achieve competitive advantage. Second, HSPs can push their commercial equivalents to identify new activities or services to offer and maintain their competitive advantage with regard to the newcomers.

This paper furthers the discussion on the concept of HSPs and demonstrates its uniqueness, thus contributing to the ever-growing body of knowledge of HL research.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore the potential of outsourcing of humanitarian logistics activities to commercial logistics service providers (LSPs) throughout the different disaster phases. The authors identify incentives for initiating outsourcing of humanitarian logistics activities to commercial logistics providers, humanitarian logistics activities to be outsourced and selection criteria for partners.

This study is based on empirical data collected by interviewing 12 practitioners from commercial LSPs and 12 practitioners from humanitarian organizations (HOs). A review of related literature guided this research.

This research shows that incentives for initiating outsourcing engagements, partner selection criteria and activities to be outsourced are changing throughout the different disaster phases. A number of research propositions are presented.

This research constitutes a first step towards the goal of a comprehensive analysis of humanitarian logistics outsourcing throughout the different disaster phases. The authors collected data from practitioners and large organizations based mainly in Europe and the USA. Hence, insights from national and local organizations of other parts of the world are missing.

This research provides a deeper understanding of outsourcing of humanitarian logistics activities. As the main implication for practice, the research suggests a strategic use of outsourcing during the three disaster phases. The authors acknowledge that business objectives, risks, stakeholder agendas and requirements, as well as costs play a vital and changing role for outsourcing decision-making during the three disaster stages. The managerial implications arising from the research can provide support to commercial LSPs and HOs that initiate or develop strategic outsourcing relationships.

This study covers the gap in the humanitarian literature related to context-specific factors of outsourcing in humanitarian logistics by empirically investigating the phenomenon. This is one of the first studies that empirically investigate the potential of outsourcing of humanitarian logistics activities throughout the disaster phases.

In recent years, logistics service providers (LSPs) have become important players in the humanitarian field, providing support for NGOs and governments when they respond to major disasters. However, the academic literature on humanitarian logistics has not really explored the roles that LSPs play in relief supply chains. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of LSPs in humanitarian relief.

The research uses a two-stage exploratory approach: first, it systematically reviews the humanitarian logistics literature to see the extent to which LSPs are taken into account. Then it analyses the web sites of leading LSPs to examine how they communicate about their role in humanitarian relief.

This research produces some surprising findings. While the academic literature seems to neglect the roles of LSPs in humanitarian logistics, some major third-party firms highlight their roles in relief networks. A number of research propositions are presented describing emerging roles for LSPs in relief supply chains.

This paper focuses on academic humanitarian logistics literature; a review of practitioner articles and the LSP literature might also be relevant. The web site analysis is based on corporate communication which may contain bias. Further research should add to this work with NGO/government perspectives and produce primary data in order to demonstrate the external validity of the research propositions.

The research identifies different roles LSPs could play in humanitarian supply chains, suggesting opportunities for new business lines.

The main contributions of this paper are to explore the roles LSPs could play in humanitarian logistics and to bring a new perspective to humanitarian logistics research.