سیستم های پشتیبانی تصمیم گیری برای لجستیک پایدار: یک مرور و آنالیز کتاب شناختی Decision support systems for sustainable logistics: a review and bibliometric analysis

INTRODUCTION Logistics is vital to the success of supply chains and inevitably linked with the overall organizational performance. The activities may involve freight transport, materials handling, storage and inventory management. Logistics has the potential of bringing tremendous impact on local as well as global trade by aiming to supply the right items at the right place and right time. In the past two decades, there has been a growing concern for environmental and social impacts of logistics besides economic aspects. In this regard, the term ‘green logistics’ and ‘sustainable logistics’ has been used by organizations and academic researchers. According to Chang and Qin (2009), “The green logistics refers to plan, control, management and implementation of the logistics system through the advanced logistics technology and environmental management, aiming to reduce the pollutant emission.” Zhao et al. (2009) further explained that “the meaning of green logistics is to improve resource utilization, reduce resource consumption and waste, and minimize environmental pollution when implementing logistics activities, through rational planning, optimize resource allocation and use environmental technology”. Mckinnon et al. (2012) defined ‘green logistics’ as the study of the environmental effects of all the activities involved in logistics in both forward and reverse directions. Sbihi and Eglese (2010) suggested that “green logistics is concerned with producing and distributing goods in a sustainable way, taking account of environmental and social factors.” The most widely accepted definition of sustainable development was given by the World Commission on Environment and Development which is concerned with the fulfilment of the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (WCED, 1987). Elkington (1997) suggested the consideration of three closely interrelated economic, ecological (environmental) and social aspects of sustainability in a “triple-bottom line”. The scope of sustainability in supply chain and logistics has also been borrowed from these concepts. However, there is still a lack of consensus among researchers over a unified definition of green and sustainable logistics, and both of these terms have been used interchangeably in the literature with a different implied scope. Moreover, the formal definition of ‘sustainable logistics’ is relatively scarce in literature compared to ‘green logistics’. It is evident that environmental issues are extensively addressed in the literature in comparison to that of social issues, which is partially covered under green logistics. The lack of research addressing social issues in sustainable logistics gives the field a direction to develop further considering sustainability in logistics as a whole giving equal importance to economic, environmental and social aspects. In the context of this study, we are limiting our scope to those papers that have addressed economic as well as at least either the environmental or social dimension of sustainability.