In a world in which global trade is at risk, where warehouses and airports, shipping lanes and seaports try to guard against the likes of Al Qaeda and Somali pirates, and natural disaster can disrupt ...the flow of goods, even our "stuff" has a political life. The high stakes of logistics are not surprising, Deborah Cowen reveals, if we understand its genesis in war.
InThe Deadly Life of Logistics, Cowen traces the art and science of logistics over the last sixty years, from the battlefield to the boardroom and back again. Focusing on choke points such as national borders, zones of piracy, blockades, and cities, she tracks contemporary efforts to keep goods circulating and brings to light the collective violence these efforts produce. She investigates how the old military art of logistics played a critical role in the making of the global economic order-not simply the globalization of production, but the invention of the supply chain and the reorganization of national economies into transnational systems. While reshaping the world of production and distribution, logistics is also actively reconfiguring global maps of security and citizenship, a phenomenon Cowen charts through the rise of supply chain security, with its challenge to long-standing notions of state sovereignty and border management.
Though the object of corporate and governmental logistical efforts is commodity supply,The Deadly Life of Logisticsdemonstrates that they are deeply political-and, considered in the context of the long history of logistics, deeply indebted to the practice of war.
In recent years, the location of logistics facilities, in particular with regard to “logistics sprawl,” has emerged as a topic in the literature that is, a process of spatial decentralisation of ...logistics facilities in large metropolitan areas. The aim of this paper is to look at logistics sprawl patterns in the Gothenburg metropolitan area, in the south-west of Sweden. Looking at a medium-size monocentric urban region that is also a major port gateway for the country, this study provides novel elements in the study of locational patterns of freight facilities in metropolitan areas. It also provides an opportunity to identify the role of freight in planning, land use and zoning policies. A literature review is carried out on the issues of freight and logistics facilities locational patterns. A quantitative analysis is proposed, using data from Swedish statistics about the number of establishments with a NACE code related to logistics, as well as an original method providing a “cleaned” and more comprehensive dataset. We look at data at two different scales, one metropolitan and one regional, for years 2000 and 2014, as to enable a comparative and diachronical analysis. Logistics sprawl is measured by the average distance of warehouses to their common centre of gravity. Finally, interviews with transport and logistics providers as well as real estate investors and public agencies in the region, add qualitative information on the relative importance of different location factors related to logistics facilities and the issues raised. Logistics sprawl in Gothenburg occurs in specific ways, and differently at the two geographical levels of analysis.
PurposeLogistics at work is rapidly changing. The changing trend is especially prominent when considering the active involvement of individuals that perform diverse forms of formal/informal ...“logistics work” (e.g. crowd logistics and self-collection). Thus, by conducting a synthesised review (n = 55), this study aims to provide a typology of individuals' logistics work.Design/methodology/approachThe total social organisation of labour is used as a guiding framework. A deductive literature analysis is performed based on the identified journal articles.FindingsThe review findings reveal three major contexts where individuals perform logistics work: formal organisation, social community and private household, with a decreased level of formality. Under each context, individuals may be engaged in paid or unpaid activities, creating six forms of logistics work, termed as paid/voluntary professional logistics, incentivised/friendly social logistics and rewarded/free consumer logistics. Furthermore, an actor–sphere–resource–value conceptualisation of individual logistics is proposed, focussing on the chains of actors, work settings, resource input and value outcome.Originality/valueThe results provide a theoretical foundation for further research in individual- or consumer-centrism in logistics. Two research directions and seven research questions are presented for future investigation.
Today, optimizing logistics costs based on their accounting and analysis is an essential tool for ensuring enterprises' competitiveness. The article aims to reveal the methodical principles of ...accounting for logistics costs and identify problematic aspects and directions for improving this process in Ukrainian enterprises. It was determined that Ukrainian researchers offer quite a lot of classification features for the grouping of logistics costs. Instead, in foreign literature, logistics costs are divided into types based on the processes that are the objects of management. In Ukraine, there is a problem of regulatory and legal support, which is manifested in the absence of an appropriate definition of the term “logistics costs” in accounting regulatory documents, separate accounts or sub-accounts in the current Chart of accounts intended for accounting for these costs, limitations of methodical support. The idea of introducing an individual account for logistics costs, proposed by many researchers, has not yet been implemented. All this complicates the accountant's work in identifying, classifying, and displaying logistics costs in the company's accounting system. At the same time, accounting and control tools (methods) are still available to the accountant, which collectively form the method of accounting for logistics costs at the enterprise, which covers their identification, measurement, analysis, monitoring and reporting. At each stage, the accountant implements appropriate methods and tools guided by his professional judgment. The work defines a list of measures that can ensure the improvement of the method of accounting for logistics costs at the enterprise. The key direction in improving the accounting for logistics costs is digitizing management processes because introducing innovative technologies makes logistics management more flexible, effective, and straightforward.
The main objective of this article is to identify the direction of change in logistical activities and their critical segments as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in a country that is an important ...logistical hub of Europe. The specific objectives are to identify changes in logistical activities, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, to determine the dynamics of changes in business revenues and in quantitative parameters for total logistics services and their segments during the pandemic, to establish the relationship between the economic situation and parameters related to logistics services, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the method of purposive selection, Poland, which is well developed in logistics and aspires to be a crucial logistical hub of Europe, was selected for the study. The analysed period covered the years 2015–2021. The material sources were the literature on the subject and data from reports on individual logistics segments. Dynamic indicators with a fixed and variable base, coefficient of variation and Kendall’s tau correlation coefficient were used for analysis and presentation. It was found that the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated changes in logistics activities. These changes included digitalisation, the development of the e-commerce market, multi-channel sales and the development of these services, and the introduction of automation and artificial intelligence. In all activities, 2020 was the most challenging year, but there was generally a reduction in revenue growth and, less often, stagnation. Logistics companies gained in the second year of the pandemic (2021) when implemented solutions generated record revenues. Among the winning segments were logistics services in general, especially sea freight forwarding, warehousing services, courier services related to e-commerce, and a lesser extent, freight transport. Losses were incurred in the segment related to passenger transport. COVID-19 became a positive catalyst for change. The logistics industry ultimately benefited from the pandemic. Additionally, due to the pandemic, logistics operations have had greater sustainability, contributing to resource conservation and environmental protection.
•Present a systematic review and analysis of the current taxonomy of crowd-shipping.•Study areas ranging from supply and demand to operations and management.•Identify gaps in literature and practice ...supported by knowledge from real-world data.•Provide several avenues for promising areas of applications, operations, and management.•Give suggestions to improve behavioral and societal impacts.
Crowd-shipping promises social, economic, and environmental benefits covering a range of stakeholders. Yet, at the same time, many crowd-shipping initiatives face multiple barriers, such as network effects, and concerns over trust, safety, and security. This paper reviews current practice, academic research, and empirical case studies from three pillars of supply, demand, and operations and management. Drawing on the observed gaps in practice and scientific research, we provide several avenues for promising areas of applications, operations and management, as well as improving behavioral and societal impacts to create and enable a crowd-shipping system that is complex, yet, integrated, dynamic and sustainable.
PurposeThis paper discusses logistics service providers' (LSPs’) energy efficiency initiatives for sustainable development, both from an evolutionary perspective and based on a framework consisting ...of actions, processes (i.e. at the operations interface) and services (i.e. at the customer interface).Design/methodology/approachFollowing a qualitative research design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with sustainability managers at LSPs and the data were analysed via inductive coding. Based on the results and the literature, the authors developed a maturity model for LSPs' transitions to environmental sustainability.FindingsLSPs' sustainable development occurs via operational processes, services at the customer interface, and actions that support those processes and services. Energy efficiency efforts are characterised by process depth that helps LSPs to align with their customers' energy efficiency improvement processes. While services related to energy efficiency connect LSPs and their customers, actions in support vary depending on the logistics activities in which LSPs participate.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research is needed to test and verify the maturity model and to clarify the interdependency of its three dimensions.Practical implicationsBy categorising energy efficiency initiatives and proposing a maturity model for LSPs' sustainable development via energy efficiency, the authors have developed a tool for logistics actors to assess their progress towards improved sustainability.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the literature by providing a three-pillar framework to understand the sustainability transitions of LSPs through energy efficiency. Developing a maturity model using this framework also contributes to the literature with an approach to assess sustainability advancement in the logistics industry.
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