The spread of environmental sustainability in logistics service providers: A cross-country investigation in Europe

This paper provides an overview on emerging green practices and technological systems adopted by logistics service providers (LSPs). On the basis of a literature review on the topic, two research questions were identified and addressed through a literature review on the topic and a cross-country analysis conducted in a sample of 402 Italian LSPs, 304 British LSPs, and 295 German LSPs. The first research question regards a taxonomy of green practices and technological systems that could be adopted by LSPs. The second research question concerns the degree of adoption of green practices and technological systems. As for the degree of adoption of both green practices and technological systems, the paper shows that LSPs are not a homogeneous industry, but a variety of behaviours emerges. The results highlight that the LSPs investigated tend to plan their environmental sustainability strategies without setting out in an integrated manner the green practices related to the different typologies of service provided. The low level of diffusion of green practices shows the attempt of LSPs to combine management and environmental efficiency without a defined environmental sustainability strategy roadmap. As for the technological systems, the results highlight that these are more commonly adopted than green practices. British, German and Italian LSPs tend to assume a fairly homogeneous behaviour and tend to adopt collaborative supply chain technological systems instead of sharing supply chain technological systems. This aspect is even more significant considering that LSPs are becoming third-party supply chain management providers (3PSCM), supplying value-added services connected with the production or procurement of goods to customers operating in different complex industries, and tend to adopt the most updated technological systems. The result is a technology gap between the LSP and the customer.