Digital Logistics Integration and Freight Transport Decarbonization: An Evaluation of Operational Efficiency Proxies and Management Frameworks

 

This study examines how digital logistics integration, institutional pressure, organisational capacity and resource readiness, operational efficiency proxies, and management framework maturity combine to support high perceived logistics decarbonisation performance. It addresses whether heterogeneous African corridor conditions permit a single technology centred solution or require multiple capacity configurations. A structured questionnaire was administered to organisational informants from freight carriers, multimodal operations, freight forwarders, shippers, terminal operators, and corridor authorities in Kenya, South Sudan, and Ethiopia. Composite scores were directly calibrated and analysed using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Necessity, sufficiency for high and non-high performance, representative causes, and threshold robustness were assessed. No individual condition is indispensable. High perceived performance arises through several equifinal pathways: digital operational actualisation, integrated digital institutional managerial reinforcement, selected tolerance of institutional or management deficit, and organisational operational compensation where institutional pressure is weak. Digital integration is prominent but conditional, and no high-performance pathway requires its absence. The non-high-performance configuration is narrow and threshold sensitive. Managers and corridor authorities should diagnose capability gaps before selecting interventions. Digital investment should be paired with operational use, management maturity, organisational readiness, and credible institutional support, with capacity building priorities reflecting each organisation’s configuration. This study advances a corridor specific configurational explanation of logistics decarbonisation in an underexamined African setting, showing that uneven infrastructure and implementation conditions make multiple capability recipes viable rather than a one-size-fits-all technology prescription.

Purpose: Digital logistics integration (DLI) is not only a way to support freight decarbonisation in African multimodal corridors but is also an important requirement. Without reaching a minimum DLI threshold, no level of institutional pressure or organisational investment can result in measurable carbon emissions reduction along the corridors operating under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) framework. This necessity-based claim was tested along the Lamu Port South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) corridor.

Design/methodology/approach: A combination of Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) and Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) applied to corridor stakeholders along the LAPSSET. PLS-SEM identifies sufficient drivers of decarbonisation performance (DP), while NCA identifies minimum threshold that are required to achieving high DP, regardless of other conditions,

Findings: PLS-SEM confirms DLI as a significant direct predictor of both DP and OEP, and IP as a major driver of DLI adoption. NCA shows that DLI and OEP are necessary conditions for achieving DP; OCRR is not significant in either analysis. Bottleneck analysis reveals multiples stages.

Practical implications: AfCFTA governance at the corridor should treat the achievement of digital integration threshold not just as  a matter of adoption but also as a key performance indicator (KPI) for progress in decarbonisation. Regulation of IP is the first binding constraint at low DP targets; digital infrastructure investment becomes main factor above 50% of DP.

Originality/ value: The authors believe this study is among the first to apply combined PLS-SEM and NCA to an African freight corridor to explore the role of digital logistics integration and institutional pressures in supporting decarbonisation efforts.