ISL 2016: Sustainable transport and supply chain innovation

• Pages: 2-4
• Date: 12 February 2018
• Published date: 12 February 2018
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-12-2017-0336
• Author: T.C. Ted Lirn,Yenchun Jim Wu,Adrian E. Coronado Mondragon
• Subject Matter: Management science & operations,Logistics

Guest editorial

ISL 2016: Sustainable transport and supply chain innovation

Declining natural environment quality presents challenges and opportunities for

academics and business executives. Supply chain innovation and sustainable transport

are issues that have attracted increasing attention to modern logistics and transport

research worldwide. Using the academic search engine, Google Scholar, to search the

keywords supply chain innovation and sustainable transport, the results showed 126 and

1,680 literatures in 2007, and 470 and 3,720 literatures in 2016 on these research topics.

Innovation is classified into technological innovation, organisational innovation, and

market innovation. Technological innovation is particularly important to the service

sector in terms of its rapid ICT development (Chapman et al., 2002). Early research on

environmental supply chain and innovation in the grocery market found a correlation

between environmental management issues and buyer-supplier relations (Hall, 2001).

Another early research studied the relationship between the manufacturer support of its

suppliers’innovation and its supply cost reduction in a particular supply chain situation

(Kim, 2000). Recent research work has investigated the relationship between supply chain

innovation and the potential for sustainable development and increased visibility of

opportunities acting as a driver for innovation and change (Isaksson et al., 2010; Melville,

2010). More recently, theory development and innovative management practices via

analysing big data to exploit information in a supply chain is becoming popular

(Kache and Seuring, 2017; Ji et al., 2017).

Over 80 papers were presented at the 2016 International Symposium on Logistics (ISL),

and based on the recommendations of the editorial panel, 14 manuscripts were shortlisted.

A cluster of seven papers wereo included in this issue, five of which were developed from

articles presented at ISL 2016. The first three papers employ structural equation

modelling technique to investigate the impacts of integration and investment on logistics

performance quantitatively. The fourth and fifth papers discuss value creation for

sustainable logistics operation in both emerging economics and developed economics via

a qualitative research methodology. The sixth and seventh papers use mixed research

approach to study the application of modern technologies (including GIS tools and IoT)

in the logistics industry.

The use of structuralequation modelling techniquecan help researchers look into thetacit

elementsof the causes and results in the supplychain industry. The firstpaper by Liu and Lee

(2018) investigates the relationshipbetween three types of integration,supply chain resilience,

and service performance of third-party logistics service providers. The structural regression

research findingsindicate internal integration, customerintegration, and logisticscollaborator

integration have mediating effects on serviceperformance. Alshahrani et al. (2018) developed

a comprehensive conceptual model to measure the impact of hospital-supplier integration on

the overall performance of healthcare organisations. They surveyedhospitals in Saudi Arabia

by using a structuralmodel and found that hospital-supplier integration in terms of logistics

integration, co-ordinated information technology, information sharing, and trust building is

positively and significantly associated with better hospital performance. A survey by Park

and Park (2018) of 420 logistics professionals in Korea examined the structural relationship

between financial investment, public-private partnership (such as AEO), trade facilitation,

effectiveness,and efficiency. Their researchfindings reveal a positive connection between the

financial investment of AEO and the effectiveness and efficiencyof a logistics systemvia the

public-private partnership.

The International Journal of

Logistics Management

Vol. 29 No. 1, 2018

pp. 2-4

© Emerald PublishingLimited

0957-4093

DOI 10.1108/IJLM-12-2017-0336

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