Maintaining consistent sustainability performance through peaks in last mile logistics: What factors most influence the maintenance of consistent social and environmental sustainability performance in last mile logistics during peak periods? How do these factors exercise this influence?

• Main Author: SARAN, Prashant
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2023
• Subjects: Last mile logistics; social sustainability; environmental sustainability; consistent sustainability performance; e-commerce; demand peaks; stakeholder pressure; contingencies; partnerships; demand management; supply management; last mile network resilience.; E-Commerce; Operations and Supply Chain Management
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/etd_coll/542; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/etd_coll/article/1540/viewcontent/GPBA_AY2019_DBA_Prashant_Saran.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Last Mile Logistics (LML) is the final leg of the supply chain that gets the product to the chosen destination point of the end consumer. LML has been witnessing unprecedented growth driven by increasing urbanization and growth in e-commerce retail sales. The impact of the rapid growth of LML is being witnessed both in the social and environmental dimensions, making social and environmental sustainability (S&ES) of LML an impactful area of research. LML deliveries driven by e-commerce also experience multiple demand peaks where the number of packages to be delivered spikes significantly over a short period of a few days or weeks. Business media frequently covers the impact of demand peaks on LML delivery system being “stretched to limits” and the social impact of “long hours”, “difficult choices” and “depleted morale”. However, impact of demand peaks on social and environmental sustainability performance of LML has not been studied in peer reviewed academic journals. We therefore investigate what factors most influence the maintenance of consistent social and environmental sustainability performance in last mile logistics during peak periods? And, how do these factors exercise this influence? Through our inductive, qualitative research based on 32 in-depth interviews of employees of LML firms across 3 countries we first identify the key aggregate dimensions of stakeholder pressure, partnerships, contingencies, business goals and priorities, people management practices, and organization structure (ownership), processes and measurement systems. A model is proposed to elucidate the linkages between the various factors that influence the S&ES performance of LML. Our results also explicate the risks to S&ES performance of LML during peaks through specific factors such as shift of business priority, increased stress, increased reliance on temporary resources, and the willingness to overlook or lower standards over a short duration that influence peak S&ES performance. We then identify specific practices for peak planning and execution that influence the maintenance of consistent S&ES performance during peaks: demand and supply management best practices, increased focus on people management, building resilience of the LML network, establishing learning mechanisms from peak to peak and effective management of product returns and rejects. Based on these insights, we evolve our model to reflect these specific factors and the mechanisms influencing S&ES performance of LML, during peak periods. We also present eight propositions, that can be empirically tested and form the basis of future research to further improve our understanding of the factors influencing S&ES performance of LML during peaks, and aid in addressing social and environmental sustainability challenges in urban areas.