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Urban consolidation centers (UCCs) are presumed to provide more efficient goods distribution in cities and lead to decreased environmental impact and energy usage. There is, however, limited knowledge as to the actual performance of UCCs, and what roles and perspectives the involved actors have in the performance measurement. The overall aim of this paper is to investigate the roles and perspectives of involved actors when estimating and evaluating the performance of UCCs. The article is based on a study of one case that evaluates the performance of a UCC involving several actors. Interviews were triangulated with documents from the case. The results showed that actors have different roles in performance measurements and even if they share a mutual interest in conducting the measurements, they did not share opinions regarding factors such as system limits or performance indicators. The study provides a deeper understanding of the importance of inter-organizational interaction when conducting performance measurements. The study provides additional insights into the roles of the actors and their perspectives in logistics performance measurement that targets energy usage and environmental impact. These aspects are seldom addressed in less complex estimations or mathematical modelling estimations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on inter-organizational supply chain interaction (IOSCI) for sustainability can be described as fast-growing and fragmented. It is uncertain to what extent logistics and supply chain management (SCM) literature has been able to close research gaps regarding e.g., empirical scope and sustainability dimensions addressed. A systematic literature review (SLR) is carried out to synthesize the existing knowledge and ongoing trends, and to propose a research agenda. The trend analysis shows that the gap between the environmental and social dimension is increasing, that Asian studies grow nearly exponentially, and that the focal firm perspective gains more ground. The research agenda calls for participatory studies of multiple actors and for studies addressing, e.g., the invisible logistics service providers. This study provides an important complement to existing literature reviews on sustainable supply chain interaction, primarily by its focus on the development over time, the empirical scope, the focus on publications in logistics/SCM journals, and its narrow focus on the interaction among firms in supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable logistics business case (SLBC) provides underlying argumentation to convince decision makers to approve initiatives within sustainable logistics. Little knowledge exists on how companies conduct SLBCs or the challenges that need to be addressed. The purpose of this paper is to explore how companies conduct SLBCs, to increase the understanding of how perceived challenges can be addressed. Potential challenges were identified in literature on business cases models in general and sustainable logistics business cases. As third-party logistics providers (3PL) are big contributors to emissions and often are responsible for designing logistics setups, they were focused in the empirical study. How SLBC were conducted was investigated based on interviews with managers responsible for conducting SLBCs and the responses triangulated with information derived from actual business cases. Despite the careful selection of 3PLs well ahead within the area, few challenges were perceived by the studied companies. This does not imply that challenges do not exist but can rather be described as a consequence of their pragmatic and inward-looking perspective. Examples of how to address challenges are provided. The compiled list of SLBC challenges provides an overview that was missing in literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]