Value Creation Through Sustainable Supplier Management in Maritime Transport

Procurement relations are one of the areas where sustainability can have the most visible impacts on firms. Ocean transport is one of the most widely outsourced services globally both by shippers and by freight forwarders, as container ocean transport is never carried out by shippers using their own ships, in contrast to bulk transport. However, how logistics firms use sustainability criteria to select ocean transport service providers and how sustainability contributes to value creation between shippers/freight forwarders and ocean freight transport service providers has seldom been investigated. This article investigates value creation through quality improvement and sustainability practices in ocean freight transport. It makes use of a case study of an ocean carrier, combined with interviews and survey data to investigate how liner shipping companies can make use of high-quality and sustainable operations to provide their clients with better service and to create logistics value. A novel aspect of this research is the use of sustainable supplier management concepts in the context of maritime logistics. Sustainable sourcing explains how the sustainability requirements shippers have in sourcing ocean freight services define procurement relationships and how shipping companies can use sustainable procurement strategies to contribute to value creation.