363 research outputs found
A call to action: a stakeholder analysis of green logistics practices
No full textPurpose – There is a growing body of literature discussing the green logistics practices (GLPs) that companies could introduce to reduce the logistics environmental impact. Current approaches also identify several influencing factors within firms that could serve as barriers to, or enablers of, GLPs. However, less is known about the role of extra-firm stakeholders, even though these are crucial to operationalizing green logistics effectively. This study merges current theoretical understanding with empirical evidence to provide a detailed stakeholder analysis of GLPs.
Design/methodology/approach – Using stakeholder theory as a theoretical lens, we aimed at offering a mid-range contribution by conducting multiple embedded case studies examining Italian logistics service providers and shippers. GLPs and the related influencing factors were examined as sub-units of analysis within broader companies’ environmental sustainability strategies.
Findings – We identified cascading effects among factors influencing the adoption of GLPs (e.g., key economic factors are affected by external factors which also influence organizational and collaboration factors). These effects are moderated by interdependencies between primary and secondary stakeholders, and the study highlights the prominent involvement of secondary stakeholders, such as final consumers.
Originality/value – Our paper contributes to better understanding how and why companies adopt GLPs, emphasizing the wide set of stakeholders involved and illustrating how different stakeholders impact on GLPs adoption by affecting a set of influencing factors. By combining insights from the available literature with contemporary empirical data, we emphasize how Logistics Service Providers and shippers can no longer address the adoption of GLPs as “focal companies”, but only as part of a “focal network of interconnected stakeholders”, all of them influencing GLPs adoption
eq footprint computation
No full textThe environmental sustainability of logistics facilities is widely acknowledged as an important issue, but a
omprehensive standardised methodology for assessing their environmental impact is lacking. This study proposes a structured model for quantifying both consumptions and generated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, adopting a three-phase methodology that combines multiple methods. A literature-based conceptual framework was leveraged to design an analytical model, and in-depth interviews with 11 senior logistics managers were conducted. The study offers a replicable methodology that considers heterogeneous sources of consumption and related end-use types, further splitting consumptions and emissions by warehouses' functional areas. It offers a set of Environmental Performance Indicators (EPIs) that could bolster a clearer understanding of the warehouse environmental performance. A robust tool is offered to managers to support their decision-making processes, allowing for both internal assessments and benchmarking with competitors or other players along the supply chain, thus contributing to shape company's, or even supply chain, sustainability strategies
Postponement Strategies for Global Downstream Supply Chains: A Conceptual Framework
No full textPostponement is a well-known organizational concept and usually relates to the deferment in time of manufacturing and/or logistics operations. In the current global competitive landscape, situations where postponement can be applied are rapidly increasing. Faced with the wide range of customs duties and free-trade agreements currently in place, companies need to (re)design their postponement strategies to customize their products appropriately, and to the proper degree, in each market. As the actual location where operations take place has a major impact on a company’s overall performance, the spatial perspective must also be taken into account when designing global postponement strategies, alongside the conventional temporal perspective. Heretofore, the academic literature does not offer any comprehensive framework on a global scale either for handling what is known as the postponement boundary problem, or for conceptualizing the related postponement strategies. Building on previous research, the aim of the present study was to investigate the postponement concept in a global environment with a downstream focus. The intended purpose is twofold: first, to review and expand previous studies on the subject and, second, to provide some guidelines for conceptualizing global postponement strategies. A structured literature review was first conducted, followed by the development of a framework that combines both the temporal and the spatial dimensions. Finally, the framework was applied to a group of 28 business cases taken from the literature, to act as a bridge between academic theories and practitioners’ current business operations. 
State ownership - a residual role?
No full textThe author reviews the state of thinking on the governance role of state ownership. He argues that a gradual transfer of operational control and financial claims over state assets remains the most desirable goal, but it needs to be paced to avoid regulatory capture, and the capture of the privatization process itself. In addition, the speed of transfer should be timed on the progress in developing a strong regulatory governance system, to which certain residual rights of intervention must be vested. In many countries institutional weakness limits regulatory capacity and reliability, yet the author's conclusion is that in such environments, maintaining state control undermines the very emergence of institutional capacity, and so the balance should tip toward progressively less direct state control. After all, what are"institutions"if not governance mechanisms with some degree of autonomy from both political and private interests? The gradual creation of institutions partially autonomous from political power must become central to the development of an optimal mode of regulatory governance. The author offers some suggestions about creating maximum accountability in regulatory governance, in particular creating an internal control system based on a rotating board representative of users, producers, and civic organizations, to be elected by a process involving frequent reporting and disclosure.Decentralization,National Governance,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Banks&Banking Reform,Municipal Financial Management,National Governance,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Governance Indicators,Banks&Banking Reform,Municipal Financial Management
How to align logistics environmental sustainability with corporate strategy? An Italian perspective
No full textLogistics environmental sustainability is a priority for practitioners and policymakers, but companies lack clarity about how to align it with strategic purposes. As this prevents them from coherently turning sustainability into action, this paper focuses on how companies can align logistics environmental sustainability with corporate strategies.
We conducted multiple embedded case research involving logistics service providers (LSPs) and shippers operating in the Italian context. We selected 13 companies (6 LSPs and 7 shippers) and conducted semi-structured interviews to contextualise and elaborate the extant theory.
Results highlight that companies seem more motivated by the need to comply with regulations or to protect their environmental reputation than by a genuine understanding of the actual need for sustainability. A framework is proposed to foster the alignment of logistics environmental sustainability with corporate strategy, underpinned by five main dimensions: degree of awareness, degree of formalisation, measurement systems, governance and accountability, and budget allocation
Fiscal Policy, the Real Exchange Rate and Traded Goods
No full textWe estimate the effects of government spending shocks on the CPI real exchange rate, the trade balance and their co-movements with GDP and private consumption. We decompose the variations of the CPI real exchange rate into variations of the traded goods real exchange rate and the relative price of traded to non-traded goods. We reach three main conclusions: a rise in government spending induces a "depreciation" of the CPI real exchange rate and a trade balance deficit; private consumption rises in response to a government spending shock and therefore co-moves positively with the real exchange rate; both components of the CPI real exchange depreciate. Copyright � The Author(s). Journal compilation � Royal Economic Society 2010.
Perotti, per una definizione di Zeus-Luce: spunti esiodei
No full textStarting from the relevant passages of the Theogony by Hesiod, the author has tried to point out the close relation between Zeus and the light, considered both in physical and spiritual sense, as some of the divinities that originated from Zeus-light seem to demonstrate. Looking through the differences as regards the tire and the lightning -Zeus' specific attribute-, you might recognize, in this property of the lord of gods, a kind of fifth primeval element, besides air, water, earth and tire.Prendendo le mosse dai relativi passi della Teogonia esiodea, I'autore ha cercato di mettere in evidenza lo stretto rapporto tra Zeus e la luce, intesa in senso sia tisico sia spirituale, come sembrano dimostrare alcune delle divinità che da Zeus-luce hanno avuto origine. Osservate le differenze rispetto al fuoco, e al fulmine -attributo specifico di Zeus-, si potrebbe riconoscere, in questa proprietà del signore degli dei, una sorta di quinto elemento primordiale, oltre ad aria, acqua, terra e fuoco
Realisation of an automated comprehensive design environment for hydroforming of tubular products
No full textIl sacrificio di ifigenia : osservazioni
No full textUn esencial excursus acerca de las vicisitudes del personaje de Ifigenia en el mito es la premisa para el análisis dedicado por el autor a la presencia de lo divino –particularmente, a la intervención de Artemisa y a la influencia de las artes adivinatorias– en las Ifigenias de Eurípides. La clave de lectura sugerida por las dos tragedias ofrece un nuevo aporte a la controversial cuestión acerca de la relación entre el dramaturgo ateniense y la religión.An essential excursus about the vicissitudes of the character of Iphigenia in the myth is the preamble for the analysis dedicated by the author to the presence of the divine – particularly to the intervention of Artemis and to the influence of the divinatory art – in the Iphigenias by Euripides: the reading key suggested for the two tragedies adds a new tessera to the controversial question relevant to the relationship between the Athenian dramatist and the religion.Fil: Perotti, Pier Angelo
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