Doing the right thing – ethical issues in logistics and supply chain

‘Doing the Right Thing – Ethical Issues in Logistics and Supply Chain’ was the theme of the 2016 LRN conference. In developing this theme, we wanted to find something meaningful for participants to showcase the work that they do that can make a difference to society at large.

‘Doing the right thing’ may seem the obvious choice when it comes to supply chain management decisions, yet we continue to see instances where companies or individuals have allowed their ethical decision making to be swayed by the quest for more profit. The conference saw papers on a wide variety of ethical issues including Green/Low Carbon Logistics, Urban/Last Mile issues, Food Supply Chains and Humanitarian Logistics, to name just a few topics.

This special issue for the International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications invited submissions based on feedback from track chairs at the LRN annual conference, as has been customary practice. All submissions underwent a rigorous double-blind review process which yielded the resultant four papers. This process required the cooperation of both authors and reviewers and we thank all of them for their efforts and diligence; they all made our role as special issue editors easier and enjoyable.

The paper by Pålsson and Sternberg was recognised as the Best Paper at the 2016 LRN Conference. The paper examines the effect of allowing High Capacity Vehicles (HCVs) to operate on modal shift (to/from road/rail). Their models indicate that the cost will drop, but the CO₂ impact will be negative, in spite of the larger capacity of the vehicles (compared to the base case). It becomes a government policy decision that tests costs versus environmental impacts.

The paper by Sternberg and Lantz studied transport crime in the road haulage industry in Sweden. They employed a novel method of combining crowdsourced data with police statistics. Their findings imply that transportation is significantly more vulnerable to antagonistic threats in certain geographical areas, meaning that the adaptation of existing security measures can assist in reducing crime.

Meers and Macharis's paper considers the sustainability of container transferia, a specific type of intermodal freight terminal. They examine the impact on external costs by moving from direct to port truck transport to delivery to the transferium, with onward intermodal (barge or rail service) transport to port. As a result, external costs decrease in the vicinity of the port area but remain constant in the hinterland. Further reductions in hinterland external costs can occur if intermodal transport can replace truck service to the transferium.

The fourth paper by Liu examines the impact of a predisposition of a firm towards supply chain collaboration (SCC) on the reduction of CO₂ emissions and subsequent impact on a firm's performance. One of the key implications is that firms can gain a competitive advantage in a low-carbon business environment by working with like-minded supply chain partners.

In order for this and every other issue of this journal to be a success, we would like to thank the reviewers who usually go unnoticed and unheralded despite their very important efforts towards the academic publishing process. Thus we want to thank all the reviewers for this special issue who gave up their time and had to endure constant e-mail follow-up, and recognise them below by listing their names and affiliations in alphabetical order:

Remi Boivin, Université de Montréal, Canada

Claudia Colicchia, University of Hull, UK

Alessandro Creazza, University of Hull, UK

Theodore Farris, University of North Texas, USA

Michiel Kohne, Wageningen University, Netherlands

Hyunwoo Lim, Inha University, Korea

Aristides Matopoulos, Aston University, UK

Stefan Seuring, University of Kassel, Germany

Dongping Song, Liverpool University, UK

Risto Talas, University of Portsmouth, UK

Bill Taylor, City University Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Cody Telep, Arizona State University, USA

Johan Woxenius, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Finally, we would like to acknowledge and thank the efforts of CILT staff, especially Allison Glandfield, Zoe Buss and Fiona Palmer in supporting our efforts and making the conference run much easier.

We hope this selection of papers provides invaluable insight, and more importantly, spurs you to continue to ‘Do the Right Thing’ … !