infonet-economy

Sustainability management implies the planning, organizing and controlling of balanced economic, ecologic and social objectives in companies operations. Since, in present supply networks these operations are increasingly outsourced, focal companies need to integrate their suppliers into their sustainability management. Although logistics services play a prominent role in supply networks, they are rarely considered in sustainability activities of focal companies as well as in sustainability research. This paper contributes to research on inter-organizational sustainability management in the context of logistics services by applying a stimulus-organism-response framework. An explorative case study analysis of 10 European logistics service providers (LSP) is conducted in order to gain knowledge on the status of implementation of sustainability incentives set by shippers, and sustainability activities conducted by LSPs. The results of the stimuli and response analysis lead to a taxonomy of response types of LSPs. We identify a lack of incentives, since shipping companies only request for sustainability information, whereas concrete requirements are rarely implemented in terms of sustainability incentives. The taxonomy underlines a lack of responsive high performing companies and outlines sustainability incentives as a future field for research