A legitimacy theory perspective on Scope 3 freight transportation emissions

Abstract

Freight transportation emissions reduction is on the environmental sustainability agenda for the logistics and transportation function in many organizations.Transportation is the fastest growing form of emissions in developing countries and is second only to electricity emissions generation globally. However, freight transportation is not a priority on the overall organizational sustainability agenda for many companies. This research uses in-depth interviews with 12 organizations to provide insight into the Transportation functional and the organizational level action and commitment to freight transportation emissions reduction as part of the overall corporate sustainability agenda. The context of this research takes the perspective of shippers to understand the benefits perceived by shippers in joining a green network/partnership focused on the reduction of freight emissions, fuel consumption, and the associated costs. In most organizations, reducing freight emissions is managed within the Transportation function and there is a lack of organizational focus on outsourced freight transportation emissions reduction. Given the increasing saliency of emissions reductions in many organizations, this represents a gap that needs to be addressed. The research suggests methods for creating more concern and visibility of freight transportation emissions.

Applying agility to improve customer performance when supply and demand vary from core conditions

“…Selection of companies To support the inductive research aim of MRT, interviews were conducted with managers from six large manufacturing firms. Data collection closely followed accepted qualitative methods for interviews and case study-based research that have been applied in similar situations where deep contextual insight is sought regarding why certain decisions were chosen (Eisenhardt, 1989;Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007;Pagell and Wu, 2009;Rodr ıguez et al, 2016;Yin, 2017;Longoni et al, 2019;Ellram and Tate, 2020;Ellram et al, 2022). In this research, the focus was on understanding what led each firm to require additional agility and why specific elements of supply chain agility were or were not appropriate for providing this requirement.…”

Transportation as a loosely coupled system: a fundamental challenge for sustainable freight transportation

“…For instance, efforts to create reverse logistics and closed-loop supply chains have become important means of creating circular business models (see e.g., Govindan et al, 2015). Sustainable supply chain initiatives, however, have mostly not concerned, or considered, freight emissions in supply chains (Ellram et al, 2022). Instead, efforts to create closedloop supply chains may increase the need for transportation (van Loon & Van Wassenhove, 2020).…”

“…Such decisions include outsourcing of manufacturing activities to far distant locations leading to an increased demand for transportation (Gurtu et al, 2017). In addition, environmental demands from buyers on transportation services are generally not frequent or well developed (Bj€ orklund, 2011;Ellram et al, 2022;Wolf & Seuring, 2010). Rogerson (2017) found that the specifications on transportation services made by buying firms, especially regarding time requirements, heavily influenced 'logistical variables' such as transportation mode used, length of haul, load factor, empty running, and fuel efficiencyall impacting on freight emissions.…”

“…Referring to the MLP framework, they also concluded that governments are not supporting destabilization of the prevailing regimes. Considered as a loosely coupled system, the freight transportation system seems to be stabilized mainly through its loose couplings; (1) between the supply chain and the transportation layers, to cope with the tight couplings within supply chains (Ellram et al, 2022;Eriksson et al, 2022), and (2) between the transportation and the infrastructure layers which can be seen as a prerequisite for all kinds of vehicles (used for transportation of both people and goods) to share the same road infrastructures, and to provide a high level of flexibility for all users.…”

What about policy research?

“…In the third study, Ellram et al (2022) take a current policy concern head on. In “A legitimacy theory perspective on scope 3 freight transportation emissions,” the authors question the impact of sustainability programs.…”