Stakeholder relations and their impact on green last-mile delivery on e-commercemarket – a comparative case study
Project manager: mgr Magdalena Mucowska
The development of e-commerce and “last-mile” delivery poses a huge challenge for stakeholders (e-customers, e-commerce services, transportation companies (especially CEP), local governments and residents).
Last-mile delivery is costly, inefficient and environmentally unfriendly. In addition, they contribute significantly to the deterioration of the quality of life in cities, causing congestion, noise, loss of the environment, degradation of infrastructure or blocking of traffic lanes and sidewalks. In the wake of global warming, the European Union has introduced the European Green Deal program, which aims to reduce CO2 emissions from transportation by 90% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. To achieve this goal, CO2 emissions from cars must be reduced by 55% by 2030, and by 2035 all new cars will be zero-emission vehicles. Last-mile delivery issues are addressed in various academic articles, but rarely do they address the issue of stakeholder cooperation, which is considered a key element of success when implementing urban logistics solutions. The only way to achieve environmental goals for last-mile delivery in the e-commerce market is for stakeholders to work together and establish ways to collaborate and relate, and determine how they contribute to green last-mile delivery in the e-commerce market. The issues outlined above identify a literature and cognitive gap, and are the main motivation for undertaking research on stakeholder relationships and their cooperation in last-mile green delivery in the e-commerce marketplace (eGLMD). The scientific objective of the project is to identify eGLMD stakeholders by several types (e.g., regulator, controller, partner, passive, dependent) and to build a universal tool for diagnosing eGLMD stakeholder relationships based on network relationship characteristics such as strength, reciprocity and proximity. This tool will help illustrate the direction and strength of the relationship.
The cognitive objective is to determine the relationship and power between eGLMD stakeholders based on a case study of 4 cities of Rotterdam, Goeteborg, Wroclaw and Kosice, and to see what actions are taken by the stakeholders of last mile green delivery in the cities and how the stakeholders (regulator, controller, partner) work together in selected European cities for the implementation of eGLMD. The end goal is to develop recommendations for developing stakeholder relationships for green last-mile e-commerce deliveries conducive to greening these deliveries in cities qualified for the EU’s European Climate Mission. The identified good practices will then be able to be implemented in other EU cities, particularly in Eastern and Central European countries. The proposed research is in line with basic research, focusing mainly on a systems approach to management. The aim of the project is to increase knowledge of ecological last mile delivery in e-commerce, resulting from the cooperation of various stakeholders (regulator, controller, partner). The research will also contribute to the development of stakeholder theory, in particular by providing an innovative tool for diagnosing the relationships (their strength and direction) of green last mile stakeholders in the urban e-commerce market, which can support the introduction of green solutions (by local governments, in e-commerce services and CEP companies). Another important value of the project is that the challenges of organizing green last-mile e-commerce deliveries in a city like Wroclaw or Kosice (cities less prepared to achieve climate neutrality) are analyzed from
a European perspective. Case studies of cities such as Rotterdam, Gothenburg, include a selection of leader cities mature in terms of planning and implementing city logistics solutions.
The entire project consists of 6 stages: (1) Updating the literature review, (2) Creating a research tool based on the literature and an expert survey (3) Researching a case study in 4 cities. (4) Conduct a comparative analysis of case studies (5). Create a set of recommendations for developing stakeholder relationships conducive to implementing green last mile delivery in the urban e-commerce market. The research methodology will combine qualitative and quantitative methods, such as an expert survey, semi-structured interviews, and case studies. In addition, stakeholder analysis and social network analysis methods will be used. This research will also be important for the development of civilization. The project will contribute to a better understanding of the strength and direction of stakeholder relationships on the issue of last-mile green delivery within and between cities, and identify good practices for their cooperation. This should help local governments formulate and implement city logistics strategies for green last-mile delivery in e-commerce.
Funding organization:
National Science Center
Programme:
PRELUDIUM 22
Project duration:
19/01/2024 – 18/01/2026
Funding amount:
100 508 PLN
Project status:
Project in progress
