Purpose: Corporations today see a greater responsibility towards society regarding the environmental impact of their actions, using available transportation options that are more eco-friendly can reduce this impact significantly. Martinsen and Björklund (2012) identifies a set of gaps between supply and demand of green logistics services. This paper aims to address what it is that affects the demand for these alternative solutions and what could be done to increase the usage of them, thereby decreasing this gap. Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative study with six Logistics Service Providers (LSP) and 24 companies that purchase transportation services, all operating in Sweden. Data is collected through semi-structured telephone interviews with people responsible for the purchasing of transports as well as key account managers within the service providing companies. Findings: Just as the LSP’s interviewed in this paper thought, the main focus of the transport buying companies are the costs. Therefore paying extra only to benefit the environment and not the economy of the company is not something a lot of companies are prepared to do at this time. However there are solutions such as intermodality which are highly demanded, these are often both cost effective and more environmentally friendly, the problem as many companies see it, is that the rail network needs to expand to be able to cover bigger areas and increase the capacity. Research limitations/implications: The research paper focuses on companies operating on the Swedish market, for that reason findings cannot be generalized to other countries and sectors. Practical implications: Findings can be used by LSP’s and political decision making parties to get a better understanding of the demand for this type of services and what is perceived as important by the customers. Originality/value: There is a lack of earlier studies that mainly focus on the demand of more environmentally friendly transport services. Therefore a study of this kind is important to create an understanding and thereby improve the overall situation on the market in terms of environmental sustainability.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:sh-19360 |
Date | January 2013 |
Creators | Rehnström, Simon, Almlöf, Linnea |
Publisher | Södertörns högskola, Institutionen för samhällsvetenskaper, Södertörns högskola, Institutionen för samhällsvetenskaper |
Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
Language | Swedish |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
Format | application/pdf |
Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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