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The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe the strategic potential of logistics‐driven packaging innovation in retail supply chains, and suggest propositions for further research and development, providing practitioners with a better basis on which to make strategic packaging and logistics decisions.

An in‐depth case study was conducted at a large global retailer which had implemented an innovative unit load carrier. The case study highlights a previously inaccessible phenomenon, as this type of unit load carrier has only been implemented on a large‐scale in the studied retailer's supply chain. In order to explore the impact of the innovative unit load carrier, the case study draws on a longitudinal research approach.

The case study demonstrates the potential of logistics‐driven packaging innovation in retail supply chains. It provides detailed insights into the impact of an innovative unit load carrier on different supply chain echelons. These insights emphasise the need for a systems perspective in order to understand the total impact of packaging innovations on supply chains.

The case study focuses on the impact of a particular innovation on a particular supply chain. Even though the consequences in other supply chains may be different, this study provides detailed explanations and illustrative examples which generate insights relevant to other firms and supply chains.

This paper provides an understanding of potential trade‐offs between standardised and differentiated packaging, providing practitioners with a better basis for making decisions on packaging design and development.

The paper illustrates the need to consider packaging as a strategic component which contributes to overall supply chain performance. To support strategic packaging decision‐making propositions for packaging innovation in retail supply chains are provided.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the aspects of internal and external transformation that take place in each company along the supply chain when a “sustainable packaging logistics” approach is implemented. Before this can be achieved, it is necessary to identify and characterise the principal cornerstones and stages associated with this implementation.

In the paper the combination of “case study” and “action research” techniques have been chosen. It has been analysed the implementation of “sustainable packaging logistics” in the supply chain of Mercadona (one of the largest retailers in Spain), paying special attention to the implementation and evolution in one of its main food suppliers.

To adopt a “Sustainable Packaging Logistics” approach allows for a proactive integration of the efficiency and sustainability in supply chains. The proposal to implement “sustainable packaging logistics”, based on four cornerstones and three stages of evolution is particularly significant, while contributing to improved competitiveness. This implementation constitutes an evolutionary process which is conditioned by how each area, department or company along the supply chain interpret and assess different packaging features over time.

The model is based on a single supply chain analysis.

This paper may be of interest both for researchers and professionals, because the model can aid companies in improving their global vision of product and packaging design in order to jointly increase sustainability and efficiency in the supply chain.

The outcome of product development, i.e. the product design, together with the packaging solution, has a great impact on the logistics performance of supply chains. Despite this, packaging has traditionally been given a very modest role in the product development literature as well as in the logistics literature. The aim of this paper is to show how logistics performance and product design can be affected, and improved, by the packaging organization within a company.

A single case study has been conducted at IKEA, including on‐site interviews and review of internal documents. Along with the case study, a literature study has been conducted within the areas of product development, packaging and logistics.

The IKEA case suggests that the packaging function should have a strong link to both the logistics function and the product development function within a product‐developing company to be able to improve the logistics performance.

As the evidence is collected through a single case study, the results are not to be seen as generalizable but should be regarded as a first step to future research within the interface of product development, packaging and logistics.

Packaging and logistics are usually considered late in the product development process with the result that possible logistics solutions are constrained. Through considering “the whole package” – i.e. the product, the packaging and the supply chain characteristics – at an early stage in the product development process, savings can be made.

This paper includes the aspects of product development, logistics and packaging, an interface with very limited research contributions.

Packaging is a strategic tool that merits holistic management. Three managerial disciplines have the potential to significantly influence packaging strategy: marketing, logistics, and ethics. Despite the multidimensional nature of packaging, the academic literature tends to analyse these three dimensions separately. To address this shortcoming of a more integrated approach, the aim of this paper is to identify the main integration areas among marketing, logistics, and ethics in packaging innovation projects, in the retail grocery sector.

In total, 186 cases of packaging design were selected and the data collected were analysed by quantitative content analysis (cross‐tabulation).

The results show that simultaneous integration among marketing, logistics and ethics recurs in only one third of the cases. The main area of integration is between marketing and ethics. To a lesser extent, there is a significant degree of integration between marketing and logistics as well as between logistics and ethics. Nevertheless, the findings of this initial analysis suggest that the potential in terms of integration has yet to be exploited.

Taking a holistic view of innovation in packaging, the study can assist managers participating in packaging management by providing a conceptual instrument for the integrated evaluation of the multidimensional relationships among the three perspectives.

The paper provides the first empirical exploration in this field and an original conceptual framework that could serve as a theoretical reference point for future research and as a managerial tool, recognising the urgent need for a careful understanding of how marketing, logistics and ethics may be integrated in innovation projects.

Grounded in paradox theory, and with the objective of structuring and extending existing knowledge of conflicts of interest (e.g. trade-offs) in packaging logistics, the purpose of this paper is to identify categories of paradoxical tensions in packaging systems used in supply chains, and to develop a conceptual framework that describes these categories.

This research uses a theory building approach. It develops a conceptual framework of paradoxical tensions for packed products in supply chains. It revises and extends current knowledge in this domain by applying paradox theory from organisational research.

The paper develops a generic, conceptual framework that identifies, categorises and describes packed product paradoxes on two system levels: supply chain and company levels. The categories of paradoxes refer to performing, organising, belonging and learning.

The framework provides a new theoretical explanation of conflicts of interest in packaging logistics in terms of paradoxical tensions related to packed products in supply chains. It structures and increases general understanding of such tensions within and between actors in a supply chain. The paper also discusses differences in terminology between tensions which are possible to settle and those which lead to paradoxes.

The framework provides a structure for analysing the organisational impact of strategic packaging decisions. It can help highlight different stakeholders' organisational constraints related to packaging.

The framework's systematic categorisation of four types of paradoxical tensions, with thorough descriptions of the meaning of packed product paradoxes of each type, offers an expanded and in-depth explanation of the organisational impacts of packed products in supply chains.

For packed products, packaging affects every logistical activity and thus the overall economic and ecological efficiency (eco-efficiency) of supply chains. The purpose of this research is to explore how integrated approaches are used in packaging development processes to increase eco-efficiency along supply chains and how a set of pre-selected factors influences the adoption of practically integrated approaches within companies.

The research approach is explorative and based on nine cases in the food and manufacturing industries in Sweden. In total, 26 semi-structured interviews were conducted.

The chapter describes the way in which companies work with ‘integrative’ packaging development process elements. It explores how four factors – product characteristics, packaging requirements, logistical conditions and environmental efforts – influence their approach.

The study analyses the packaging development processes at a limited number of companies in Sweden.

The findings can help logistics managers to better understand how integrated approaches can be applied in packaging development processes to increase eco-efficiency of logistical processes along the supply chain. The study provides logistic managers also with information about which influencing factors can serve as facilitators or barriers to these approaches in their organisations.

Previous research has demonstrated the potential economic and environmental benefits of integrating a logistics perspective into the packaging development process. This study complements existing knowledge by presenting extensive empirical data on the practical application of integrated approaches in packaging development processes in industry.

The purpose of this paper is to explore packaging in developing countries by means of identifying and describing supply chain needs regarding packaging.

The research approach is qualitative and includes an embedded single case study of ambient milk supply chains in developing countries. Data collection is based on the review of internal company documents, semi‐structured interviews with industrial experts and field observations.

The paper shows that secondary packaging is a vital supply chain component in these countries and that there are extensive interactions between packaging and the supply chain. The findings constitute a list of supply chain needs regarding secondary packaging broken down into categories. Moreover, propositions for managing the supply chain needs and challenges of packaging in developing countries are presented.

In the supply chains investigated, the focus is on the actors from the filling point at the manufacturer to the point of sale at retail stores in the ambient milk sector. To understand general aspects, the authors suggest further studies to test propositions developed in other contexts.

The proposed list of packaging supply chain needs and suggested propositions provides insights into the issues and challenges of packaging as a part of designing and planning supply chains in developing countries and, by implication, in humanitarian supply chains that often (but not always) operate in such environments.

This research complements previous research in the areas of packaging and supply chain management by exploring supply chain needs regarding packaging in developing countries. It extends the traditional perspective of humanitarian logistics by linking supply chain thinking in developing countries to long‐term development and disaster relief logistics.

Discusses the relationship between logistics, packaging and the environment. Attempts to clarify industry confusion by identifying the current status of the proposed EC Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste, which focuses on the recovery of packaging materials. This directive has major implications for logistics. Presents a survey conducted with UK marketing executives involved with the production of consumer goods. Finds that awareness of the EC packaging directive is very high – especially among medium– and large‐sized companies. Respondents were concerned that the directive would create excessive distribution costs for their firm. Proposes that it is in this area where the benefits of information technology may be realized by allowing the efficient management of the increased volume of information created by reverse logistics. Finds that industry is somewhat unsure of what the directive is meant to achieve and who will be responsible for carrying out its requirements. Suggests that it would be unwise at this stage for firms to make significant spending decisions until the directive has been finally adopted since the directive as it currently stands raises more questions than it answers.

This paper aims to present an integrated management model for packaging design.

This model is the result of research of the concepts of packaging, logistics and “packaging logistics”. With this approach in mind, the design and development of packaging are structured on four basic corner‐stones, i.e. the definition and understanding of design requirements (logistics, marketing and environmental aspects), the definition of an appropriate organizational structure, the application of “best practices”, and, finally, establishing a control system.

It was found that the management model developed provides companies with a useful quantitative tool to find the “trade‐off” between the logistics costs reduction and the differentiation capacity linked to packaging.

The model proposed is designed to fill a gap in the measurement systems for making an evaluation of the detailed impact on the overall operation of the supply chain in certain packaging design decisions.

The purpose of this paper is to expand understandings of how logistics can reduce food waste in food supply chains (FSCs).

Using a research framework that associates causes of food waste with logistics solutions, a multiple-case study was conducted in three Swedish FSCs of meat, fruit and vegetables, and ambient products, respectively, and involving industrial producers, wholesalers, and retailers. Data were collected during 19 semistructured interviews and four site visits, and logistics solutions were analysed according to logistics activities, actors involved and their stages in the FSC, and coordination mechanisms.

A joint analysis of nine logistics solutions revealed that to efficiently reduce food waste in FSCs, solutions have been implemented at three stages of FSCs, as well as that those solutions differ in their integration of six logistics activities and four coordination mechanisms. The findings moreover indicate that the solutions are interlinked, thereby implying that coordination is necessary both within solutions as well as among them.

The chief limitation is that the potential of the identified logistics solutions is not quantified.

The paper makes recommendations for reducing food waste in FSCs by developing new solutions and modifying existing ones.

The paper suggests ways to reduce significant environmental impacts of food waste.

By building upon previous research explaining causes of food waste, this paper focusses on logistics solutions for reducing such waste.