Towards a Business Model for Viable City Logistics Initiatives : The role of financial continuity, externalities and stakeholders

Abstract: Viable city logistics are built on a sound business model that considers the financial viability and performance, and the role of externalities and stakeholders. To this end, the purpose of this dissertation is to increase understanding of how a business model can contribute to achieving viable city logistics initiatives.The research presented is qualitative and consists of three studies and five papers. The first study, based on secondary data, provides insights into the content of business models for city logistics. The second study, a longitudinal case study, analysed various aspects of a business model in city logistics. It investigated how the stakeholders’ goals can be combined and managed in a city logistics business model, and how financial continuity can be achieved through financial and environmental evaluations of the consolidation set-ups. The financial evaluation analysed the relative importance of various cost and revenue variables. The environmental evaluation of consolidation set ups included the development of different scenarios for freight consolidation. This improved the decision-making process by enabling the consideration of outcomes and their implications. The third study, a comparative longitudinal case study, analysed the importance of stakeholders’ interaction in the different stages of the implementation process and evaluated the extent to which interaction can vary between two apparently similar initiatives.The starting point of this research was the need for viable business models in city logistics. To better understand what is required, the research identifies the potential content of such business models and shows how the content results in the creation of a conceptual business model. The research also provides new insights into the economy of scale for viable city logistics business models and concludes that a key to cost-effective city logistics is efficiency in terminal handling. The research shows that the costs of externalities is a critical factor for viable city logistics business models. Finally, the research identifies the patterns and criteria of stakeholders’ interaction and develops a multi-criteria decision model for the management of stakeholders. Future research areas are proposed to extend and complement these findings.