Environmental Sustainability in Third-Party Logistics Service Providers: A Systematic Literature Review from 2000–2016

Pietro Evangelista, Lodovico Santoro and Antonio Thomas
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Pietro Evangelista: Institute for Research on Innovation and Services for Development (IRISS) National-Research Council (CNR), 80134 Naples, Italy
Lodovico Santoro: Institute for Research on Innovation and Services for Development (IRISS) National-Research Council (CNR), 80134 Naples, Italy
Antonio Thomas: Department of Engineering-University of Naples Parthenope, 80143 Naples, Italy

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 5, 1-34

Abstract: Despite the increasing interest toward environmental issues in the freight transport and logistics service sector, a comprehensive and updated assessment of the existing literature is still missing. This paper aims to fill this gap by presenting the results of a systematic literature review of publications in the area of environmental sustainability in third-party logistics service providers (3PLs) between the years 2000 and 2016. The review offers insight into the critical dimensions of green matters in transport and logistics service companies using an analytical framework based on the following five topic areas: influencing factors, green actions and the impact on performance, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools supporting the green actions, energy efficiency in road freight transport and shipper’s perspective and collaboration. The results indicate that, despite the number of published papers having grown significantly from 2008 onward, some areas remain highly under-researched such as ICT and performance measurement. Several research gaps have been identified in each topic area, and a set of propositions forming an agenda for future research directions has been suggested.

Keywords: third-party logistics service provider (3PL); logistics service provider (LSP); systematic literature review; influencing factors; green initiatives; impact of green initiatives on performance; Information and Communication Technology (ICT); green supply chain collaboration; procurement of green logistics services (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (35)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:5:p:1627-:d:147769

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