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Refers to the historic article by Theodore Levitt, entitled "Marketing myopia", that appeared in 1960 in the Harvard Business Review which has had significant impact on business thought and practice. The philosophy or orientation presented by Levitt still has profound implications for the discipline of logistics, even 40 years after the writing of his article. This article argues that persons in logistics have sometimes taken a myopic view of the discipline and that if the area is ever to achieve the level of importance prophesied for it, academicians and practitioners alike will have to take a much broader and pervasive view of what logistics is and what it could become. Some provocative questions are posed to those involved in the theoretical and applied areas of logistics.

Proposes that the discipline of logistics can benefit from borrowing theories from other areas of study. Presents examples of theories from other disciplines that have already been applied to logistics issues. Offers potential applications from a variety of non‐logistics disciplines, including accounting, anthropology and sociology, computing, economics, marketing, philosophy, political science, and psychology. Discusses examples from various disciplines in some detail and identifies some possible applications of the theory. Concludes with a discussion of the benefits of "borrowing" non‐logistics theories to logistics research, practice and theory development.

The distribution sector has been hard hit by the energy/ecology crisis. Higher fuel costs coupled with reduced availability of many energy sources have adversely affected distribution activities. Growing levels of pollution have caused global concern. As a part of the physical distribution activity, the transportation modes have been particularly vulnerable to the energy/ecology crisis because they rely so heavily on energy resources. It is important that those involved in physical distribution understand the distribution‐energy/ecology interface. Recognition of the effects that the energy/ecology crisis has had, and will have, on distribution is an integral part of logistics planning and control. The energy/ecology crisis will not go away and it behoves the physical distribution manager, educator and public policy maker to: (1) Understand the Problem, (2) Recognise how the problem pertains to him directly and/or indirectly, and (3) Determine how he and others will react to the problem in the future.

PurposeWithout the adoption of a uniform agreed upon definition of supply chain management (SCM), researchers and practitioners will not be able to "advance the theory and practice" of the discipline. An integrated definition of SCM would greatly benefit researchers' efforts to study the phenomenon of SCM and those practitioners attempting to implement SCM. This paper aims to address these issues.Design/methodology/approachUsing the qualitative analysis software NVivo, this study examines 166 definitions of SCM that have appeared in the literature to determine important components of an integrated definition of SCM.FindingsThree broad themes of SCM are identified, including: activities; benefits; and constituents/components. An encompassing definition of SCM is developed from the qualitative analysis of these definitions.Research limitations/implicationsWhile a large number of SCM definitions have been included in the research design, there may be additional definitions that are excluded given the very large number of SCM publications.Practical implicationsA consensus definition of SCM will allow researchers to more precisely develop theory and practitioners to identify the scope and boundaries of SCM.Originality/valueThis paper is the first attempt to include a large number of SCM definitions for the purpose of developing a consensus definition of the concept. Previous literature has included only a subset of published SCM definitions.

Logistics and related journals typically are oriented towards two
audiences: practitioners and/or educators. This article examines
practitioner and educator perceptions of logistics and related journals.
Comparisons are made among the various journals both with each other and
with the perceived ideal characteristics of logistics journals. While
differences were found to exist between the academics and practitioners,
the overall perceptions were surprisingly similar.

World business, multinational company, and world enterprise are all terms being used with more frequency as a significantly larger number of businesses become international both in philosophy and in scope of operations. For a continually growing number of firms, the entire world is considered a marketplace for their products.