Sustainable warehouse management: a literature review and future research agenda
ISSN: 2040-8269
Article publication date: 8 November 2024
Issue publication date: 28 January 2025
Abstract
Purpose
Warehouses, essential nodes in the supply chain, significantly contribute to sustainability issues, accounting for about 11% of emissions related to logistics activities. The purpose of this study is to review articles on sustainable warehouse management (SWM) from the Scopus database to analyze trends, synthesize existing knowledge, and identify research gaps for future studies.
Design/methodology/approach
The review uses text mining of initial relevant documents to create a search string for paper retrieval. Text mining is further used to generate a dendrogram of the most frequently used words in the research papers, which is then analyzed to identify themes and sub-themes in SWM.
Findings
The dendrogram reveals four major themes and their sub-themes within SWM, including two novel themes: sustainable warehouse in green logistics and sustainable warehouse location. In addition, 12 research recommendations are identified through content analysis and are subsequently linked to specific Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Research limitations/implications
The methodological innovation in keyword selection for searching relevant papers and identifying themes serves as a structured template for researchers to explore further.
Practical implications
The research recommendations, aligned with the SDGs, aim to assist managers in making informed decisions and operational strategies to enhance factors associated with the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method and the sustainable performance of warehouses.
Originality/value
This study is novel in its application of text-mining techniques to generate a search string for identifying relevant papers and discerning themes by analyzing the dendrogram.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors appreciate the constructive feedback provided by the anonymous reviewers, which has significantly contributed to enhancing the quality of this paper.
Disclosure statement: The authors report that there are no competing interests to declare.
Citation
Kumar, V. and Adil, G.K. (2025), "Sustainable warehouse management: a literature review and future research agenda", Management Research Review, Vol. 48 No. 3, pp. 358-382. https://doi.org/10.1108/MRR-03-2024-0226
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited