Environmental sustainability in third-party logistics: a systematic literature review

Purpose: The role of environmental sustainability is becoming a relevant element in the strategies of companies operating in the third-party logistics service industry as result of intense pressures coming from different sources including customer, legislation, competitors etc. As a result, environmental sustainability is becoming and expected dimension of the third-party logistics companies (3PLs) offering. This development provides 3PLs opportunities but also challenges and concerns on how to translate green efforts into practise. It is therefore timely to review the relevant aspects and dimensions in the existing literature to investigate the relationship between environmental sustainability and third-party logistics companies. The purpose of this paper is to investigate different aspect of sustainability strategies and actions adopted by third-party logistics companies. Research approach: A comprehensive search including a sample of peer-reviewed articles has been carried out in the period ranging from 2000 until 2015. As a result, the methodology adopted for carrying out the systematic bibliographic analysis comprises the following four steps: 1.Material retrieval. In this step research materials has been retrieved and selected through an appropriate search strategy. The output is a sample of articles in which the single article is the unit of analysis. 2.Descriptive analysis. The selected material has been analysed for outlining formal characteristics for example in terms of distribution of articles over time, journals in which articles have been published, methodology adopted, theories, etc. This step allows to identify some key features of the sample of articles selected and it is useful for further analysis. 3.Identification of relevant topic areas. In this phase structural dimensions and related topic areas have been identified using a mixed method based on an inductive and deductive approach. 4.Content analysis and results. In this final step the articles included in each topic area identified are analysed. The aim is to detect relevant issues and provide the base for interpreting results. Findings and Originality: A literature classification framework has been proposed combining relevant topic areas and research methodologies dimensions. On the basis of results achieved through the content analysis, a set of propositions have been identified that form an agenda for future research. Research impact: This paper provide a useful contribution toward the systematisation of the extant literature summarising the main perspectives in relation the role of environmental sustainability in logistics service companies. The hope is that this paper may be a useful source that may inspire future research in this field.