Many firms are increasing their focus on sustainability. However, this focus has primarily emphasized environmentalism and ethics. Enterprise value chains must develop and support a broader sustainability perspective to ensure that its consumer, business, supply chain, community and environmental relationships and interactions remain viable. Using public documents and Internet sites of major global firms, this article suggests a framework to define the dimensions of sustainability and the categories of initiatives within each dimension. The article then offers examples regarding how major firms are implementing each sustainability dimension to enhance their competitiveness. Building on the framework, the article illustrates the sustainability initiatives applied by different categories of sustainability leaders.

Supply chain disruptions pose an increasingly significant risk to supply chains. This research develops a framework to examine the threat of potential disruptions on supply chain processes and focuses on potential mitigation and supply chain design strategies that can be implemented to mitigate this risk. The framework was developed by integrating three theoretical perspectives—normal accident theory, high reliability theory, and situational crime prevention. The research uses a multi‐method approach to identify key safety and security initiatives (process management, information sharing, and supply chain partner and service provider relationship management) that can be implemented and the conditions under which each initiative is best suited. The research results illustrate that the depth and breadth of security initiatives depends on top management mindfulness, operational complexity, product risk, and coupling.

Information technology has been among the foremost topics within the logistics literature of recent years. However, there has been little empirical evidence relating logistics information system (LIS) capabilities to logistics competence. Seeks to close this gap in the research, identify particular LIS capabilities that contribute most to logistics competence, and develop an understanding of the relationship between LIS development strategy and logistics competence. A review of the LIS literature identifies relevant issues. The research findings suggest four conclusions: world class firms perceive both their logistics operating and planning systems as highly capable; internally controlled characteristics generally receive higher evaluations than criteria requiring external co‐ordination; overall logistics competence is primarily influenced by logistics operating timeliness, usage driven formatting, and flexibility; and LIS development strategy does not significantly influence performance evaluations.

Business units in six Fortune 500 companies were studied to develop better understanding regarding drivers of product portfolio complexity and the means to manage them. Our research focuses on identifying important competencies for managing product portfolio complexity and on the development of appropriate theoretical explanations. We found three important competencies: product/technology portfolio strategy, organization and governance regarding complexity decisions, and product design and decision support systems. We explicate these competencies using a socio-technical systems theoretical perspective. Our findings provide the basis for a model describing the impact of complexity and complexity management on business unit profitability. #

While it is widely believed that information technology is a major differentiator of logistics performance, there has been limited research that empirically tests or characterizes this relationship. The current research investigates the relationship between logistics information technology (LIT) and logistics service performance. The objective of this research is to develop a framework for managers to understand logistics information technology applications and to justify LIT expenditures. The results offer direction for characterizing logistics information technology. The research describes how internal logistics information integration and customer integration can influence customer service performance. These results begin to dimensionalize logistics information technology and the impact it has on strategy and performance.