ABSTRACT Literature review articles play a crucial role in advancing knowledge by making sense of a body of research and setting a foundation for subsequent inquiry. Because much of the work is unobservable, some readers may wonder about the underlying rigor of a literature review. This hidden element creates parallels between literature reviews and qualitative research. In response to concerns about rigor, qualitative researchers have developed and rely upon a set of criteria by which qualitative work can be judged. In this essay, we adapt those criteria—dependability (analogous to reliability), credibility (analogous to internal validity), transferability (analogous to external validity), and confirmability (analogous to objectivity)—and explain how the criteria can be used to assess and improve the rigor of literature review articles. We then introduce the 2026 Special Topic Forum articles and spotlight examples wherein the articles excelled along the evaluation criteria.
This research investigates how organizations can attain and maintain the legitimacy of their environmental sustainability leadership over time. Utilizing data from the corporate sustainability reports of a global sustainability leader, this research analyzes a company's efforts to secure moral, cognitive, and pragmatic legitimacy in the eyes of its evaluators at the macro level. Adopting a template analysis approach and building on prior research on corporate sustainability reporting, this research examines the temporal shifts in IBM's (International Business Machines Corporation) sustainability commitments, with a focus on its sustainable supply chain management (SSCM). This research advances comprehension of legitimacy theory through theory elaboration by navigating the intersection of empirical data and existing literature. It posits that the construct of authenticity serves as a pivotal link between an organization's SSCM and its attainment of sustainable supply chain legitimacy at the macro level. Furthermore, organizations seeking to attain and maintain legitimacy must continually adapt to evolving expectations from external evaluators.
The Physical Internet (PI) envisions a hyperconnected cyber-physical logistics system inspired by the Digital Internet, yet adoption remains limited due to persistent trust and governance challenges. This study addresses these barriers by conceptualizing systemic trust as a foundational requirement for broad participation in the PI. We apply the echeloned Design Science Research methodology to develop the Governance and Trust Orchestration Layer (GTOL), an extension of existing layered PI models that incorporates mechanisms for rule enforcement, credentialing, dispute resolution, and fair matching. Based on empirical interviews with logistics practitioners and evaluated through scenario-based walkthroughs, the GTOL addresses core commercial, institutional, and technological trust concerns. We contribute mid-range design theory through six design principles that provide transferable guidance for embedding trust in decentralized logistics networks. They serve as a practical and theoretical blueprint for enabling governance structures that are transparent, enforceable, and adaptable across diverse logistics contexts.
The U.S. motor carrier industry has suffered from high driver turnover rates for decades. The need is high for developing techniques that enable carriers to predict the turnover risk (quit probability) of each driver for each time period, as they can provide timely warnings to carriers regarding which drivers are about to quit, allowing carriers to take necessary preventive actions. Despite the strong practitioner interests, development of such techniques has received limited attention from scholars. The existing approach, moreover, uses traditional survival models that typically assume smooth and monotonic hazard functions, which may not properly capture the drivers' complex decision dynamics. We present a more flexible approach to the individual-level, time-specific predictions of driver turnover risk by utilizing two concepts that are new to the literature, namely survival stacking and loss aversion. We theoretically explain why using these concepts can improve the accuracy of turnover predictions and empirically examine, using the data obtained from three different motor carriers, if and to what extent these concepts can enhance performance. Results indicate that these concepts are useful for improving driver turnover predictions. The approach presented in this paper was recently adapted by a U.S. motor carrier as a decision support system.
One issue parcel delivery drivers are facing in their workplace is the limited access to restrooms. Because drivers are constantly pressured to meet the demanding performance standards called work quotas, they have little time to visit restrooms while working, often forcing them to urinate into bottles in the back of their trucks. This paper presents a new vehicle routing approach for parcel deliveries using the driver-centric concept, the aim of which is to improve the drivers' level of comfort at the workplace. We propose a vehicle routing model that allows a driver to stop at either a business customer permitting restroom access or a public restroom every M minutes, where M is the driver-specified parameter indicating the tolerable time between restroom stops. We show that, contrary to what some practitioners believe, our driver-centric approach can give benefits not only to delivery drivers but also to parcel carriers under many practical conditions, thereby providing a win-win solution for both parties. Drivers benefit from using driver-friendly routes that allow them to visit restrooms at their desired intervals, while also increasing the chances of meeting work quotas. Parcel carriers benefit from reduced delivery time and operating costs in each vehicle route.
