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The purpose of this study is to identify, characterize and assess supplier flexibility measurement practices in the order-to-delivery process.

The study involved a survey; participants were 224 purchasing managers at Swedish manufacturing companies that had more than 20 employees.

Scrutiny of the details of measurement practices revealed that most respondents actually do not specifically measure supplier flexibility. Instead they measure other measures like delivery reliability, conduct qualitative follow-ups, or cannot specify how supplier flexibility is measured. It was acknowledged that they measure different supplier flexibility aspects, and the applied measures were characterized, e.g. in terms of which flexibility dimension they represent.

Conceptual clarifications and adaptations to measuring supplier flexibility in the order-to-delivery process are provided. The identified measures can be a contribution in further developing literature on flexibility performance measurement.

Purchasing, logistics and supply chain managers in search of supplier flexibility performance measurement can find ways to measure and an extended flexibility vocabulary. This has the potential to improve flexibility in the supply chain.

Even though flexibility is claimed as being an important competitive advantage, few empirical studies and operationalized measures exist, particularly in the order-to-delivery process.

This study aims to explore how to apply and integrate the performance management (PM) process in humanitarian supply chains (HSCs) among and between humanitarian organizations (HOs) and donors so as to improve cost-efficiency (CE) and lead-time effectiveness (LTE) in the stage of natural disaster preparedness.

This study adapts and operationalizes a framework for the PM process used in commercial supply chains to assess HSCs. A multiple-case study with two types of actors – six HOs and three donors—is used to describe the applications of the PM process and analyze the level of integration between the actors.

The activities in the PM process could sometimes be only vaguely described. Both actors emphasized improving CE, with less emphasis on LTE. Both actors have a low level of integration in each PM process activity, decreasing the CE and LTE. Therefore, guidelines for improving the level of PM process integration are provided.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to combine literature on HSCs and PM process integration, thereby contributing to both literature fields. The concrete contribution of this study is a framework for PM process application and integration among and between HOs and donors.

The PM process framework can be used to assess PM process application, as well as current and increased level of integration, to improve CE and LTE. The current applications can also inspire other HOs and donors.

Previous studies indicate the lack of frameworks in the PM domain of HSCs, especially in the stage of natural disaster preparedness.

The purpose of this study is to develop a framework of strategies to achieving customer order flexibility in and related to the order-to-delivery (OTD) process. The purpose is also to investigate how companies prioritize various strategies to achieve customer order flexibility.

Based on a literature review, pre-tests and conceptual reasoning, a conceptual framework of strategies related to the order-to-delivery process was developed. The strategies were linked to the order quantity and delivery lead-time flexibility dimensions. This structure resulted in six groups covering enabling as well as remedial strategies. An empirical interview study of ten customer–supplier relationships was conducted.

The interviews identified additional strategies, thereby expanding the framework. The enabling strategies with the highest median values were “have continuous contact with the customer's purchaser” and “use safety stock of raw materials/semi-finished products”. The remedial strategy with the highest median was “re-plan/re-prioritize the order backlog”. In the delivery sub-process, it was more common to apply remedial strategies for delivery lead-time than for order quantities.

The developed framework is a contribution to the literature on operational flexibility in and related to the OTD process. It complements existing knowledge by taking a supplier perspective.

Suppliers can use the framework as a tool to understand and systematically achieve better customer order flexibility in and related to the OTD process. Customers can use the framework as a checklist for supplier evaluation and supplier development.

Few identified studies include empirical data on customer order flexibility.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an indicator framework for measuring sustainable logistics innovation (SLI) in retail.

A literature review in different theory areas was conducted to generate a literature-based SLI indictor framework. The literature-based framework was then compared to five-year sustainability reports of three Swedish retailers to identify SLI indicators and how to measure them. This comparison led to a developed framework.

The developed framework combines sustainability dimensions with logistics activities. It identifies SLI indicators and how to measure them. Significant gaps between the framework and sustainability reports prompted the creation of an agenda for future research. Items that further research should consider include broadening or deepening the framework, developing specifically social SLI indicators for all logistics activities and developing measurement scales for the SLI indicators.

The study presents an SLI indicator framework as an initial contribution towards knowledge creation, and following the agenda for further research could generate even more implications for research.

Managers need inspiration concerning which indicators to use to measure SLI and how.

The study addresses both environmental and social sustainability, as well as suggests SLI indicators.

No identified study has merged sustainable logistics innovation and performance measurement in retail.

Contradictory sustainability priorities and perspectives among supply chain actors in greening transportation can be challenging. Several of these contradictions can be described as paradoxes (i.e. interests that are logical in themselves, but become irrational when perceived together). The aim of this study is to increase the understanding of paradoxical tensions hampering the greening of transportation in transport buyer–supplier dyads.

A case study method targeting greening transportation in two transport buyer–supplier dyads was applied, followed by an analysis with a point-of-departure in paradox theory.

Tensions related to performing, belonging, learning and organizing paradoxes in greening transportation were identified. These tensions arise as a consequence of actions, perspectives and other tensions, within three identified loci in individual companies and in dyads.

By identifying examples of tensions through the lens of paradoxes in a particular setting, this study provides an increased understanding of why the transition toward green transportation goes slow, despite the high ambitions of involved actors. The suggested framework provides a novel contribution to the literature that further increases the understanding of tensions, by providing additional insights into where tensions arise and how actions, perspectives and tensions in one place of a locus spectrum can disseminate along that spectrum.

This study is original because it applies paradox theory and the four categories of performing, belonging, learning and organizing within the field of greening transportation, and in particular as a lens to study interactions between different actors.

The purposes of this study were (1) to explore empirical challenges in dimensioning safety buffers and their implications and (2) to organise those challenges into a framework.

In a multiple-case study following an exploratory, qualitative and empirical approach, 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted in six cases. Representatives of all cases subsequently participated in an interactive workshop, after which a questionnaire was used to assess the impact and presence of each challenge. A cross-case analysis was performed to situate empirical findings within the literature.

Ten challenges were identified in four areas of dimensioning safety buffers: decision management, responsibilities, methods for dimensioning safety buffers and input data. All challenges had both direct and indirect negative implications for dimensioning safety buffers and were synthesised into a framework.

This study complements the literature on dimensioning safety buffers with qualitative insights into challenges in dimensioning safety buffers and implications in practice.

Practitioners can use the framework to understand and overcome challenges in dimensioning safety buffers and their negative implications.

This study responds to the scarcity of qualitative and empirical studies on dimensioning safety buffers and the absence of any overview of the challenges therein.

Flexibility is one enabler of efficient use of resources and is therefore an antecedent to sustainability. The purpose of this article is to identify supplier flexibility variables in, and related to, the order-to-delivery (OTD) process and categorize them into a framework, followed by empirically exploring the framework.

A perception-based survey was sent to Swedish purchasing managers. 289 responses were received. After descriptive gap analysis, exploratory factor analysis was applied to structure the responses into factors. This formed the basis for hierarchical linear regression analysis, explaining supplier flexibility.

A conceptual framework, specifying supplier flexibility into volume, delivery and information exchange dimensions and relating these dimensions to the OTD process, was developed. Significant negative gaps between actual and demanded volume flexibility and delivery flexibility were identified, while positive gaps were found for information exchange flexibility. The factor analysis revealed three factors. The regression analysis verified that OTD-related information exchange flexibility and OTD-related volume and delivery flexibility explain the variation in OTD-specific flexibility and are important antecedents for supplier flexibility in the OTD process.

A contribution to research is the framework – with defined, related and empirically validated flexibility types.

The study proposes a perception-based way to capture supplier flexibility in the OTD process, which is of practical relevance when evaluating suppliers.

Identifying, conceptualizing and capturing types of supplier flexibility in the OTD process is new related to academic literature. Also the wide empirical study mapping supplier flexibility gaps is unique in its focus.

Sustainability approaches across product supply chains are well-known, while similar knowledge on transport supply chains (TSC) is limited. The purpose of this paper is to explore sustainability approaches and managerial challenges in extending sustainability across a TSC.

This paper presents a case study of a TSC with a shipper, a third-party logistics firm and a hauler. Each actor’s views on sustainability-related communication and relations with other TSC actors are analyzed through the lens of agency theory.

Each dyad in the TSC reveals different, more or less collaboration-based approaches. Challenges are revealed, including the lack of shipper understanding for the TSC context and the use of immature contracts, which disincentivizes sustainability compliance. The multi-tier study object reveals the silencing of distant actors and the need for actors to take on mediating roles to bridge information asymmetries.

Combining literature perspectives (relations, communication and agency theory) provides a deeper understanding of the approaches applied and identifies different challenges. The inclusion of agency theory reveals principal problems such as information asymmetries between agents and less-informed principals and suggests complementary labels of supply chain actors.

Practical contributions include the highlighting of managerial challenges, which can aid managers in extending sustainability across TCSs.

The case study method offers insights into collaboratively improving sustainability in supply chains (such as using contracts), thus having social and environmental implications.

The paper narrows knowledge gaps about managing sustainability among logistics service providers and analyzes data from multi-tier actors.

Product-as-a-Service (PaaS) has the potential to enable closed-loop supply chains (CLSC) and decrease environmental impact, but it is only applied on a small scale. The purpose of this paper is to explore and develop a framework of challenges and corresponding mitigations encountered by Business-to-Consumer (B2C) retailers when transitioning to PaaS.

Data collection drew on a qualitative interview study with two industry experts and four PaaS B2C retailers from different Dutch industries.

A framework was developed linking 26 challenges in eight clusters—financial, product-related, supply chain-related, consumer-related, human resources, research and development/technology, regulatory and industry-related—to 24 mitigations. The mitigations were elaborated, and theoretical insights for matching challenges with mitigations were provided.

This study expands PaaS literature to the generally under-researched retail context. It contributes to CLSC literature by applying it to a less-studied context, thereby revealing many supply chain-related challenges and mitigations encountered by B2C retailers.

The framework offers practical guidance to retail managers for overcoming or preventing challenges in PaaS, in their endeavours toward adopting environmentally sustainable practices.

The study creates awareness about environmental sustainability and the potential to reduce societal impact, in which a PaaS-enabled CLSC is one step.

Studying PaaS and CLSC in a retail context is timely and novel.

The development of more sustainable logistics calls for innovative thinking. In order to accelerate the development in the field, there is a need for increased understanding of the process behind successful implementation of sustainable logistics innovations (SLI). The purpose of this paper is to explore the SLI process, in order to identify critical factors, challenges as well as actors involved.

A multiple-case study in six Swedish retailers and logistics service providers (LSPs), successful in SLI implementations, was conducted. Both within-case and cross-case analyses were applied.

The SLI process consists of five phases. The positive relationship between formalisation and SLI success is supported. Critical activities and challenges not known from literature were found in each phase. Examples are the use of logistics and customer KPIs, quickness, developing simple concepts, using a sustainability business case template and selecting where to test SLIs. Some phases are involving many internal and external actors, while others involve few internal actors. Customers are not particularly involved, and retailers involve their LSP suppliers.

This study addresses the lack of empirical research in logistics innovation and has bridged the gap of innovation studies in other companies than in LSPs. Furthermore it has combined two developing areas, sustainable innovation and logistics innovation, into SLI. A number of critical activities and challenges, and complex patterns for actors’ involvement in the SLI process phases are explored as insights from particular cases; these results could be analytically generalised to theory.

The practical implications lie in guiding managers who wish to improve sustainability and innovativeness in logistics and, consequently, business success. Knowledge from successful companies about which phases to go through in which sequence, which challenges that can be expected and who to include in the SLI process could imply that more companies focus on SLI.

Knowledge on how to include sustainability in a clear innovation process, e.g., by making strong business cases, should imply an accelerated development of sustainable logistics in society.

This study addresses the lack of empirically-based research in logistics innovation and expands the concept to retailers.