Abstract

Environmental impact has increasingly become a “buzzword” and an important topic. This topic has been integrated into the agenda of many companies worldwide, and this dissertation focuses on the transportation and logistics industry. Environmental concerns have gained increased attention among many logistic service providers (LSPs) due to the environmental impact from their operations, and they have been identified of having a significant role in reducing the environmental burden in the supply chain. An environmental approach of the LSPs' business has also been identified as a way to achieve competitive advantage and provide market opportunities where the development and marketing of new products and services associated with green issues are suggested as important aspects for future growth. However, considering the scarcity of research regarding this topic, a study that reveals potential aspects in the development of green service offerings can bridge the knowledge gap and provide opportunities for further research within this field. The purpose of this dissertation is therefore to develop and explain a framework for LSPs’ development of green service offerings. The purpose is addressed by first investigating LSPs' service development from a general perspective in order to, in a second stage, reach a better understanding of the implications when integrating green aspects in LSPs' service development efforts. Theoretically, this dissertation departed from service marketing literature or more specifically new service development (NSD) research. This resulted in a conceptual framework including key dimensions and aspects regarding a company’s NSD efforts and activities. From this foundation, the theoretical framework was developed further based on research regarding LSPs' service development and innovation management. Finally the framework was extended with green logistics literature as well as research regarding LSPs' green development and influences on their service offerings. Empirically, this research is mainly based on qualitative data from an in-depth case study on a large LSP active on the Swedish market. In addition, empirical data from a multiple case study and a questionnaire survey conducted for the Licentiate thesis were used in order to enrich the analysis regarding the LSPs' development of green service offerings. The analysis followed a stepwise approach where literature and empirical data were analysed. One of the main results in this dissertation is the framework for LSPs' new service development, consisting of five dimensions: NSD culture, NSD strategy, NSD process focus, IT use and expertise and NSD knowledge and skills. The NSD framework presents a holistic view of the LSPs’ NSD efforts by revealing different dimensions, their roles and relations to each other as well as the pre-requisites to take into consideration in the development of new services. Thus, the different NSD dimensions should not solely be viewed as isolated dimensions; instead, there is a need for LSPs to have a holistic view and understanding of the NSD activities’ reciprocity. Another main result concerns the adaption of the NSD framework to green service development. The results reveal some pre-requisites relevant for LSPs to consider in their efforts to develop green service offerings and are summarised in the following main dimensions: Creating green awareness in the NSD culture – encourage participation regarding green initiatives within the organisation, defining a “common picture” in order to facilitate collaboration efforts and knowledge exchange concerning green expertise. The support from top management was also identified of having an influencing impact. Defining the strategic approach of green service offerings – integrate a green concern in the overall business strategy and to define the strategic role and incentives for developing green service offerings. The results also suggest LSPs to adapt green NSD efforts to different business contexts and market possibilities to match existing resources and skills with customers’ green requirements, and to perform a segmentation of customers’ environmental work and ambitions to increase the understanding of customers’ green attitudes and requirements. Create processes and routines to facilitate spreading of green knowledge – highlights the relevance of a process focus for spreading green knowledge both from an external and internal perspective. It involves e.g. adoption of certifications, procedures for environmental calculations and documentation as well as routines to spread and integrate green knowledge among employees as well as identification of customers’ green requirements. Improve green internal knowledge and build green collaborations – provide training and education to increase the level of green awareness and knowledge among employees as well as customers and strive for collaboration efforts both internally and externally to utilise each other’s knowledge and resources towards the development of green service offerings. Increase transparency of green information both internally and externally – improve green information transparency to build both internal and external trust and increase possibilities to effectively use other actors’ knowledge and resources to develop environmental improvements in the supply chain. Integration of IT expertise and synchronisations of IT systems to facilitate and support environmental work and development of green service offerings.

Abstract

It is well-recognised that companies are under pressure to take responsibility for the environmental impact of their operations. Logistics service providers (LSPs), who through their transport and logistics operations have a large negative impact on the environment, are one type of supply chain actor that is under such pressure. However, in order for LSPs to be able to lower their environmental impact sufficiently, their customers, the shippers, also need to take responsibility. This thesis takes its starting point in the relationships between LSPs and shippers and argues that in order for LSPs’ environmental activities to reach their full potential, the shippers must be included in the activities. The purpose of this thesis is to describe and explain how supply chain actors, with a specific focus on logistics service providers and shippers, can include environmental activities in their relationships with each other. This comprises identifying those environmental activities that are relevant for relationships between LSPs and shippers, as well as describing the extent to which environmental activities are included in such relationships. By means of the theoretical perspective of power between supply chain actors, the thesis also sets out to further understand how power balances between LSPs and shippers can influence the extent to which they include environmental activities in their relationships with each other. Finally, the use of the theoretical perspective of coordination aims, through the analysis of coordination mechanisms, to shed light on how environmental activities are included in LSP-shipper relationships. The research in this thesis has mainly descriptive and explanatory aims, although due to the novelty of research into LSPshipper relationships in an environmental context, the research process as such is mainly exploratory. Following an abductive approach, the insights from literature are combined with empirical data from two cases studies, a homepage scan, a survey and a study of city logistics projects. Most of the applied research methods take a dual perspective of relationships between supply chain actors and thus include both LSPs and shippers. One conclusion from the research conducted for this thesis comprises the identification of environmental activities as well as a suggestion for a classification based on the activities’ role in the business between LSPs and shippers. With a starting point in the identified activities, a comparison of a market perspective and a relationship perspective of environmental activities in LSP-shipper relationships indicates that LSPs are able to fulfil the requirements set by shippers and that shippers’ requirement thus are met. The research does, however, point to a passiveness among LSPs in their relationships with shippers, who in turn would like the LSPs to be more proactive. Further, based on an analysis of power balances in LSP-shipper relationships, it is suggested that in an LSP-shipper relationship in which the shipper has a power advantage, the shipper’s environmental ambitions for logistics sets the agenda for the environmental activities in that relationship. An analysis of coordination of environmental activities in LSP-shipper relationships indicates that the mechanisms of direct supervision, which is when one actor tells the other actor in the relationship what to do, and mutual adjustment can be chosen to be used in order to include environmental activities in LSP-shipper relationships. While direct supervision is suggested to be a coordination mechanism that is easy for shippers to apply, mutual adjustment appears to hold greater potential for the development of environmental activities. Finally, these findings in combination are suggested to have implications for the coordination of environmental activities in LSP-shipper relationships. More specifically, this thesis offers a categorisation of different types of LSP-shipper relationships and the involved actors’ environmental ambition. Depending on whether the environmental ambition of the LSP and shipper in a specific relationship is high or low appears to have implications for the possibility to work towards greener supply chains for each type of relationship. Många företag känner av pressen av agera för att minska sin miljöpåverkan. Flera företag har också insett att ett sådant agerande även har affärsmässiga fördelar. När det gäller miljöpåverkan så tillhör logistikföretagen, till stor del på grund av sina transporter, de företag som insett att något måste göras. Möjligheten för dessa företag att göra olika miljöåtgärder påverkas av varuägarna som köper logistikföretagens tjänster. Som en följd av detta blir länken mellan dessa företag – relationen – viktig för att möjliggöra förbättringar när det gäller påverkan från logistiken. Denna avhandling har som syfte att beskriva och förklara hur aktörer i försörjningskedjan, med ett speciellt fokus på relationer mellan logistikföretag och varuägare, kan inkludera miljöåtgärder i sina relationer med varandra. För att över huvud taget kunna diskutera miljöåtgärder i relationer mellan logistikföretag och varuägare så är det viktigt att veta vad för typer av miljöåtgärder detta kan röra sig om. Första forskningsfrågan i avhandlingen behandlar detta och i avhandlingen identifieras ett antal sådana åtgärder. Det kan röra sig om relativt tekniska åtgärder så som alternativa bränslen, olika typer av fordon och energieffektiv körning, till åtgärder som handlar om styrning av logistiken, så som design av logistiksystemen, till åtgärder som är väldigt relationsspecifika som exempelvis specifika projekt eller miljögrupper. Med avstamp i de identifierade åtgärderna analyseras sedan relationerna mellan logistikföretag och varuägare i några olika steg. En jämförelse mellan logistikföretagens och varuägarnas perspektiv på de miljöåtgärder som erbjuds, efterfrågas samt ingår i relationerna dem emellan visar att logistikföretagen ofta kan tillgodose sina kunders önskemål. Samtidigt som detta visar att varuägarnas önskemål verkar vara uppfyllda, så finns det en frustration från varuägarnas sida över att logistikföretagen inte är mer proaktiva. En av anledningarna till detta kan vara maktbalansen mellan logistikföretag och varuägare. Resultaten i avhandlingen pekar nämligen på att varuägarna oftast har makten över logistikföretagen, vilket verkar leda till att varuägarens ambitioner gällande miljö ofta är det som sätter agendan för vilka miljöåtgärder som inkluderas i relationen mellan dessa företag. Vidare så kan de miljöåtgärder som ingår i en relation mellan logistikföretag och varuägare koordineras på olika sätt och flera sådana tas upp i avhandlingen. Resultaten pekar även på att maktbalansen i relationerna påverkar i vilken grad miljöåtgärder inkluderas i relationer mellan logistikföretag och varuägare samt hur dessa koordineras. En matris, som bygger på logistikföretagets och varuägarens ambitioner gällande miljö för en specifik relation, sammanfattar resultaten i avhandlingen. Beroende på om denna ambition är hög eller låg för de båda aktörerna påverkar i sin tur möjligheten för varje typ av relation att arbeta mot gröna försörjningskedjor.

Abstract

The increased demand and supply of logistics services bring together the logistics service providers (LSPs) and the companies that outsource logistics activities. LSPs stand in between those companies and their customers, thus playing an essential role for supply chain integration. If the two parties have different viewpoints of the processes in the supply chain, the fulfillment of the goal to satisfy the end customers may be hindered. The purpose of this article is two-fold: First, to investigate the characteristics of logistics outsourcing in Bulgaria from the perspectives of the logistics service providers and their customers, and more specifically, to compare their viewpoints concerning the motives for outsourcing, the methods and contents of communication and some relationship management aspects; Second, to assess the relations of the communication and relationship management aspects to customer satisfaction. This article is based on empirical data provided by 138 manufacturing and trading companies and 136 LSPs and collected through two structured questionnaires designed to address the researched issues. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the independent samples t-test. The research found that the service related reasons for logistics outsourcing are prevailing and that LSPs overestimate, compared to manufacturing and trading companies, motives related to service, organizational capabilities and relationships, while more manufacturing and trading companies concern as important the availability of logistics assets and the provision of value-added services. The research also found that both the LSPs and their customers consider that the extent of sharing of knowledge and information essential for material flow integration is very low and that the usage of team meetings and joint teams is quite rare. Also, customers do not view their relationships with the LSPs as so collaborative as viewed by the LSPs. Furthermore, the research proved the existence of positive relationships between customer satisfaction and communication through team meetings and joint teams, knowledge sharing concerning material flow management and relationship management issues such as trust, mutual problem solving, understanding the logistics strategy of the other party and respecting its financial interests. The research findings may help fill in some of the gaps between LSPs and their customers. They point the need for LSPs to include in their service offerings more value-added services and to invest in assets that provide reliable and flexible services for their customers. The research also highlights the importance of knowledge sharing and trust building and reveals great potential for effective trust-based alliances between LSPs and their customers that could help them extract more competitive benefits from their relationships. Document type: Article