Purpose: This paper presents a comprehensive overview of the cross-disciplinary literature on the drivers, barriers and performance outcomes of sustainable packaging to understand the current state of research in this field and identify research opportunities.Design/methodology/approach: A systematic review is conducted within no time limit. TheMethodi Ordinatiomethodology was applied that resulted in retaining 48 relevant and high impact articles published in 26 academic journals with various scopes.Findings: Seven key drivers are identified and defined: the integrative and collaborative supply chain, environmental capabilities and resources, market-based instruments, cost reduction, consumer pressure, competitive advantage, and regulatory pressure. Three main barriers are identified and defined: cost/benefit ambiguity, additional costs and complex trade-offs between packaging requirements. The review shows that the drivers and barriers to packaging sustainability are contingent on the firm size. Sustainable packaging positively affects the environmental, social and economic performance; however, its operational performance requires a proactive and integrated supply chain. The results highlight the importance of integrated packaging decisions at three different levels to improve packaging sustainability: vertical and horizontal integration, upstream and downstream integration, and product-packaging integration. The authors developed research propositions and provided insightful directions for future research.Originality/value: Most studies focus on specific drivers, barriers and outcomes of sustainable packaging, while this paper brings them together to build a comprehensive framework. The latter provides a deeper understanding of the factors that incentivize or deter firms from pursuing sustainable packaging and its performance outcomes.

La logística tiene un gran potencial de contribución a la búsqueda de los objetivos de calidad, cobertura y eficiencia de las instituciones hospitalarias. Desafortunadamente, ésta área es a menudo relegada a un segundo o tercer plano y sólo es visible a los ojos de la alta dirección cuando aparecen problemas. Este artículo analiza tres casos en los que se logra incrementar la contribución de la logística al desempeño de tres hospitales en Francia, Canadá y Colombia. Este análisis permite identificar algunos elementos comunes que pueden guiar a quienes busquen una transformación similar en sus instituciones.

Companies evolve in an environment characterized by constant innovation and where knowledge is recognized as a strategic resource. Relationships among various business partners constitute a pool of valuable, rare, and inimitable knowledge. The literature nevertheless reveals that the exchange of knowledge is difficult to convert into performance improvement within the framework of customer-supplier relationships. How can this be explained? In this article, we propose a conceptual integrative model suggesting how suppliers can improve their performance through the acquisition of knowledge within the framework of relationships developed with their customers. At the heart of this model, absorptive capacity emerges as a key variable distinguishing firms that have difficulty exchanging knowledge from those with a real aptitude for recognizing the value of new external information, assimilating it, and applying it to maintain a competitive advantage. By adopting the supplier’s perspective, this paper offers an innovative perspective on the study of links between absorptive capacity (relative and absolute), knowledge acquisition, and performance improvement.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the current state of logistics practices in healthcare organizations in Bogota, Colombia.Design/methodology/approach: The assessment is based on case study research using open interviews, focused interviews, a questionnaire and direct observations as sources of evidence. Seven Colombian health care settings are analyzed: four public hospitals and three private clinics. Cross-case analysis allows the identification of patterns regarding supply management, inventory management, replenishment and use of information and communication technologies.Findings: Manual procedures, poor planning, little recognition from top management and a lack of specialized personnel characterize the current situation. Innovative practices with a potential to improve the efficacy of logistics activities are rare, particularly in public hospitals.Research avenues: Future research could replicate this study in other Colombian cities, in order to generalize the results to the whole country. It could also be interesting to document successful and less successful implementations of innovative logistics practices in Colombian hospitals to guide and promote their adoption.Research limitations/implications: The small number of cases considered, and the fact that the research is concentrated in one city, limits the generalizability of the results.Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to explore the state of healthcare logistics practices in Colombia.

Résumé Cet article cherche à caractériser les différentes formes de collaboration que mettent en œuvre les acteurs de la chaîne logistique. Il s’appuie sur l’analyse de trois cas de succès tirés de la grande distribution française. Cette étude démontre qu’une relation de collaboration réussie n’implique pas forcément un niveau de collaboration poussé et que la clé du succès est la mise en place de mécanismes cohérents selon le niveau de collaboration choisi.

L’intégration de la chaîne logistique (supply chainj a souvent été associée à l’utilisation des technologies de l’information. Cependant, les expériences démontrent que la technologie compte pour une fraction d’une intégration réussie de la chaîne logistique. Outre la technologie, un climat de collaboration doit se développer entre les partenaires d’affaires et dans ce contexte, la dimension organisationnelle prendune importance plusgrande. Ainsi, les entreprises doivent envisager une redéfinition des rôles et le développement de nouveaux mécanismes de concertation des actions entre les acteurs de la chaîne. L’objectifde cette étude est donc de saisir les implications de ces reconfigurations organisationnelles lors d’effort de collaboration entre deux partenaires de la chaîne logistique. La présente recherche a documenté une expérience de CPFR (Collaborative, Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment) entre un grand détaillant et un important fournisseur de produits cosmétiques. L’étude mettra en évidence le développement d’un nouveau poste d’interface entre les acteurs logistiques et commerciaux du fournisseur, mais aussi une interface avec l’équipe d’acheteurs du détaillant. Elle présentera également les procédures de travail qui ont été mises en place et les défis dans la gestion de l’information échangée.