Árni Halldórsson

1. As organizations extend their market offerings and business models towards value-in-use (Niu, Deng, and Hao 2020) and aftermarket services (Wagner, Mizgier, and Papageorgiou 2017), the digitally...

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify requirements and tradeoffs on logistics services for enhanced circularity of materials and resources.Design/methodology/approach: Based on multiple case study design and abductive reasoning, the study investigates 13 different product categories. The data were analyzed based on theoretical,a prioricodes from the literature review. Inductive, emerging codes were added to the coding scheme during the analysis.Findings: Requirements of logistics services to support slowing of resource flows are categorized with respect to initiator, location of the service, single or multiple actors, and transportation of parts, products and people. Moreover, the study identifies new logistics tradeoffs: material and people, knowledge and people, and information and knowledge. Transportation of product, people and parts can be reduced by increasing local knowledge and improve information sharing.Research limitations/implications: This review contributes to the understanding of the relationship between logistics services and enhancement of circularity by highlighting requirements on logistics services in the aftermarket supply chain that support slowing of resource flows. To enhance circularity, logistics services must extend the traditional material information flow with the flow of people and knowledge, respectively.Practical implications: The categorization provides practitioners and researchers with an overview of requirements and tradeoffs on logistics services to enhance circularity of a particular circular cycle. The implications will provide an opportunity to address environmental impact of transportation and improve the utilization of scarce materials.Social implications: Variety of tradeoffs in logistics services can enhance slowing and hence circularity of scarce materials.Originality/value: First, the authors illustrate how traditional tradeoffs in logistics such as flow of materials, resources and people need to be addressed to enhance circularity through slowing. Second, the authors identify two new tradeoffs in logistics services: knowledge flow and degree of customer involvement.

Purpose: Service modularity promotes efficiency at the provider end of the supply chain and customisation at the customer end. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how logistics service modularity contributes to sustainable development through the means of energy efficiency. This is analysed in the context of logistics services for household waste collection.Design/methodology/approach: A single case study methodology with embedded units is adopted where semi-structured interviews were conducted with a waste service provider (WSP) and buyers (municipalities) in Sweden, focussing on five types of logistics services for waste collection: collection of food and residual waste at apartments and one-family houses, as well as collection of gardening waste. Service modules are identified and analysed by blueprinting the service.Findings: The findings show different service modules – standardised or customised – and their contribution to sustainable development operationalised through energy efficiency. Principles for an energy-centric service design are proposed.Research limitations/implications: The research is limited to Swedish household waste collection setting. Promising efficiency through standardisation, logistics service modularity has a potential to improve energy efficiency as well. This neglected link between sustainability and service modularity offers fruitful research avenues.Practical implications: This research is of practical relevance to waste logistics service providers and the municipality by suggesting principles for energy-centric service design. The service blueprint enables using logistics service modularity for improving energy efficiency in different logistics service settings.Originality/value: This research incorporates an environmentally sustainable development perspective into logistics service modularity and contributes to the literature by exploring how energy efficiency is improved by modular design of logistics services. Furthermore, the study is one of the first to use service blueprinting to analyse logistics service modularity, providing a methodological contribution to that field in general and logistics in particular.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the sustainability of waste supply chains regarding the energy efficiency of first-mile waste collection systems and quality of waste. Roles of actors in the waste service triad are considered, particularly focusing on households. Design/methodology/approach: Primary data are collected from respondents including municipality officers, waste service providers (WSPs) and households through brainstorming sessions, semi-structured interviews, site visits and a focus group. Secondary data are collected from official reports for validation. Findings: Findings reveal tension between the energy efficiency of waste collection logistics and the quality of waste collected. Households are co-producers of logistic services providing important inputs in the form of sorting and moving waste and raw materials into new cycles of goods circulating in logistics systems. Other actors in the logistics service triad are the municipality as regulator and the WSP acting as a reverse-logistics service provider. Practical implications: This study provides principles for policymakers and practitioners to evaluate the energy efficiency of waste management options, considering the quality of waste. Also, “logistics services” and “quality of waste” as concepts might provoke new thoughts on how to involve the consumer in resource recovery. Originality/value: Few studies have focused on the end-consumer’s role in waste supply chains. By considering waste as a resource and the consumer as the supplier of this input, this study provides a new way to think about logistics services for waste collection.

The potential for integrating principles of lean management and sustainability initiatives has been recognized in earlier research. The present study argues for the need to focus on how this should be implemented and to acknowledge the criticality of developing individuals’ competencies to support such integration. The purpose of this paper is to explore the integration of lean and energy efficiency practices and provide practical examples of such integration. This study is explorative in nature and based on a qualitative research approach. Primary evidence was collected through an interview study of 19 participants in a lean energy course, and through a participant observation at a company workshop following up the program results. Secondary evidence was collected on the development and evaluation of this course. By operationalizing sustainability through energy efficiency and combining with lean principles, organizations can exploit continuous improvement efforts for sustainable development. This paper focuses on professional education as a component for integrating improvement initiatives and sustainable development. Whilst professional education enables individual learning, organization-wide efforts are needed to follow up on the educational program and support a scaling-up of lean energy. The scaling-up means that the organization itself encourages the use of principles and tools to identify and remove energy waste and support a move from local practices to shared experience.

A significant step in integrating environmental sustainability into daily operations is through product development. One way to achieve such integration of environmental considerations into product development is by relating sustainability competencies to practices of Quality Management. However, practices seem to vary for how competencies within environmental sustainability are organised in order to make sustainability more actionable. This study explores two ways of organising sustainability competencies in product development: integration and specialisation. The organisation of sustainability competency is illustrated through two cases; one case in which sustainability is integrated with the quality management competency, and the other in which a new competency focusing on sustainability has been added as a separate function in product development. It is suggested that the organisation of sustainability competency influences the extent of environmental impact. Further, trade-offs, such as material source versus weight may not be exploited when sustainability is integrated as one area of responsibility for another specialty competency, suggesting a lack of sufficient competency within environmental sustainability to recognise potential trade-offs between—for example—quality and environmental impact.

Purpose: – Within the emerging research field of humanitarian supply chain management (HSCM) the use of existing theoretical concepts and frameworks to provide explanation and understanding of the phenomena under scrutiny is not yet well understood. There is still a lack of research on which theoretical approaches are used in this field, and to what extent this emerging field “borrows” theories from other disciplines. The purpose of this paper is therefore to deepen the understanding of HSCM from a theoretical point of view by identifying and evaluating the use of theories in HSCM literature.Design/methodology/approach: – A literature review is conducted based on academic journal articles included in a well-recognised and publicly available bibliography on HSCM articles (Tatham, 2015). A content analysis is applied to the articles in terms of level of theory, research methodology, disaster management stages, disaster types, and disaster name/region.Findings: – A trend towards using more established, “middle- range” theories, is evident. However, the use of theoretical approaches is not evenly spread between the different phases of disaster relief. A strong emphasis on SCM as a background discipline is also mirrored in the choice of theories used, which indicates the solidification of humanitarian logistics as a primarily supply chain discipline. The lack of use of other theoretical perspectives and grand theories is, however, still evident, which provides an interesting research agenda for future research.Research limitations/implications: – The use of the bibliography limits the generalisation of the findings although some trends are evident.Originality/value: – This is a first review of theories used in HSCM. It provides an overview of the state of the art of HSCM research but contributes to the maturation of research in this field. The paper concludes with a research agenda.

Purpose: – The aim of this paper is to identify ways by which the theorizing of supply chain management (SCM) takes place, with particular attention to complementary theories. SCM suffers as well as benefits from a “conceptual slack”.Design/methodology/approach: – The nature of SCM is discussed, and the role and relevance of theorizing is addressed by using key characteristics of “academic scholarship” based on a literature review of SCM and evaluation of application of theory and theory development.Findings: – The integrative and multi-layered nature of SCM sets the conditions for “theorizing SCM” that can take place through various forms: theory application, new theoretical combinations and sensitivity to managerial practice. It is pivotal that future research explore further the performative potential of SCM.Research limitations/implications: – Research with focus on theory development or using complementary theories to advancing understanding of SCM can benefit from the five building blocks of theorizing SCM proposed in the paper.Practical implications: – Theoretical principles in SCM are not only used to describe practical problems but also to “produce the world”; supply chains can be seen as organizational units that act or consummate an action that delivers a particular performance.Originality/value: – This paper portrays SCM sensitivity to managerial challenges by moving from borrowing to a more bilateral view on theorizing of SCM, reflecting the nature of SCM.