Thesis abstract:

«p style="margin-right:-3px; text-align:justify"»Globally, supply networks are becoming more dynamic, processes are getting more complex, and value chains require new and integrated knowledge. The dynamic SC enables businesses to balance opportunities to drive new economic and environmental values and growth against risk and disruptions. Complexity in the SC is inherent in the process and can’t always be reduced; therefore, it must be managed. In the current global economy, which is progressively becoming more complex, organisations are increasingly looking for both sets of sustainability and resilience to remain competitive in the industry and to change their business strategies accordingly in order to enhance firm performance.«/p» «p style="margin-right:-3px; text-align:justify"»The role of sustainability and resilience has, over the last few decades, evolved into a significant determinant in the operations of businesses. Incorporation and implementation of sustainability and resilience practices in overall SC decision-making have now become an inevitable environmental obligation for modern-day organisations. Incorporating these practices into the SC network fortifies an organisation’s ability to sustain the environment, reduce risk of disruptions, and maintain financial stability. The examination of sustainability and resilience of SCs is significantly important in the present-day given competition to improve firm performance.«/p» «p style="margin-right:-3px; text-align:justify"»The global economy heavily depends on international trade, and freight forwarders are tasked with facilitating the transportation of overall consignments, sustaining the smooth movement of goods globally in an efficient and effective manner. However, sustainability concerns and unexpected disruptions force organisations to balance economic and environmental values by reducing the carbon footprint on the one hand and the risk of disruption on the other. The transport industry contributes approximately 24 percent of global CO2 emissions («span style="color:black"»Crippa et al., 2022),«/span» being an industry with that naturally lends itself to having a high carbon footprint, whilst at the same time is subject to high risk involving unexpected disruptions to operations. Studies of SC sustainability and resilience, specifically considering freight transportation, are becoming increasingly significant. Research on the trade-off/ between sustainability and resilience in the freight forwarder SC industry is underrepresented in the extant literature. Existing freight research tends to concentrate on shippers’ transport mode choice; thus, this work proposes to focus on the choice decisions of freight forwarders and shippers to explore their behaviour towards sustainability and resilience. «/p» «p style="margin-right:-3px; text-align:justify"»In a competitive environment, survival as well as competing with other firms in an efficient and effective manner to improve performance are the most significant tasks for organisations. Competitiveness is considered the backbone of sustainability and resilience initiatives in the SC network. However, firm performance based on competitive priorities has not been adequately examined through the lens of sustainability and resilience based on utility theory. Hence, this study aims to understand the choice of SC managers between different shipping routes at the organisational level, keeping in view the attributes of sustainability and resilience to enhance firm performance.«/p» «p»This study adds to the literature on exploring the trade-off between sustainability and resilience in the freight forwarder industry based on choice behaviour. A discrete choice experiment will be applied to identify the key attributes and their preference heterogeneity in the freight industry to estimate the marginal utility values for both sustainability and resilience.«/p»