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Urban consolidation centres (UCCs) are often conceived to improve services in retail stores and potentially reduce costs. However, few studies have examined how retail stores perceive the services a UCC could provide. The purpose of this paper is to explore retail stores’ potential demands for different services that a UCC could provide in order to foster the development and implementation of UCC solutions aimed towards more economically feasible business models.

Structured interviews were conducted with employees at 72 retail stores. Qualitative, as well as quantitative analyses, were conducted to identify the potential demands of the retail stores.

The authors have provided arguments why retail stores might be interested in UCC services, and thereby potentially pay for them. Improved customer service to stores’ customers might not be a valid argument. The authors point to the cost aspect: stores expend resources that a UCC could provide in a more cost-efficient manner.

The findings contradict previous studies to some extent, as it indicates that a UCC may actually not enhance customer service in retail stores. Instead, the findings point to the importance of considering the potential advantages according to economies of scale that are facilitated by UCC services.

Taking the perspective of the stores is important in order to identify arguments for why they should pay for the services provided by a UCC.

Financially viable UCC solutions are needed in order for the initiatives to be maintained and thereby provide a long-term decrease in the environmental and social footprints caused by urban freight.

This study answers the call for research addressing retailers’ perspective in urban logistics, as it takes a demand-driven perspective of the development of UCC services. Furthermore, by highlighting services requested by retail stores, it can guide the financing of UCC initiatives, an aspect that has been lacking.

Urban consolidation centre (UCC) is a popular initiative targeting the challenge of negative environmental and social impacts from freight transports in cities. Despite this, UCC often fails in practice, which indicates a knowledge gap. Furthermore, research within the field can be described as fragmented, transdisciplinary and fast growing. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the field by describing dominant categories and themes within the area, identify gaps in order to propose a future research agenda, and provide insights into the needs of practitioners.

A systematic literature review (SLR) targeting journal articles based on UCCs has been constructed with a supplementary snowball approach. A content analysis was performed to categorise themes in the research on UCCs and to identify research gaps, both within and outside the categories identified.

Despite substantial research on UCC, very little research ends up in academic journals. In all, 56 articles address UCC. The most common topics were the role of stakeholders, design of distribution structures and transport resources, environmental and social consideration, and economic considerations. Much focus is directed towards finding “optimal” solutions and designs for potential initiatives with very little, if any, consideration to financial viability or the management of the UCC initiative.

This research points out existing gaps in the literature and proposes a future research agenda with UCCs as the focus. For example, although environmental and social arguments are often applied to justify the implementation of UCCs, few studies measure or evaluate their impact. Another important research gap is the economical consideration, both how to generate revenue and how to consider economies of scale.

The practical contribution of most studies is directed towards municipalities. Few findings are presented in a way to support companies. Additionally, by bridging the gaps related to how stakeholders can collaborate and describe what is happening in a UCC, practitioners can use such information as guidelines.

The results provide a research agenda for the fragmented research targeting UCCs, supporting the viability of future initiatives.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate why companies reduce transportation emissions by examining the relative importance of external drivers vs internal motives for companies in considering CO₂ emissions in freight transportation.

A framework is suggested that captures internal, competitiveness-driven motives and external, stakeholder-driven drivers for companies seeking to reduce CO₂ in freight transportation. These factors are tested in a large industry survey in Sweden. The survey resulted in 172 responses from corporate heads of logistics, a response rate of 40.3 per cent.

Variations in responding to stakeholder pressure vs company strategy for reducing transportation emissions are identified. Company strategy outweighs stakeholder pressure in determining whether a company intends to green its transportation. The strategy leads to company-internal motives for reducing transportation emissions which differ from company to company. These differences, in turn, lead to different levels of intended reductions. Stakeholder pressure sets the minimal levels that elevate the performance of a group of companies in an industry or a country, but the differentiation effect across companies is lost. The intention to reduce emissions is greatest if a company has both economic and image motives. The logistics resource configuration does not seem to impact drivers and motives.

The research is based on companies in Sweden. Studies across several countries are needed to investigate the impact of national requirements.

The paper shows that the combination of the resource-based view and stakeholder theory presents a better explanation as to why companies reduce transportation emissions than either of them do separately. By combining the two theories this research differentiates between how stakeholder pressure and company strategy influence intents to green transportation.

Scenarios have become a vital methodological approach in business as well as in public policy. When scenarios are used to guide analysis and decision-making, the aim is typically robustness and in this context we argue that two main problems at scenario set level is conservatism, i.e. all scenarios are close to a perceived business-as-usual trajectory and lack of balance in the sense of arbitrarily mixing some conservative and some extreme scenarios. The purpose of this paper is to address these shortcomings by proposing a methodology for generating sets of scenarios which are in a mathematical sense maximally diverse.

In this paper, we develop a systematic methodology, Scenario Diversity Analysis (SDA), which addresses the problems of broad span vs conservatism and imbalance. From a given set of variables with associated states, SDA generates scenario sets where the scenarios are in a quantifiable sense maximally different and therefore best span the whole set of feasible scenarios.

The usefulness of the methodology is exemplified by applying it to sets of storylines of the emissions scenarios of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This ex-post analysis shows that the storylines were not maximally diverse and given the challenges ahead with regard to emissions reduction and adaptation planning, we argue that it is important to strive for diversity when developing scenario sets for climate change research.

The proposed methodology adds significant novel features to the field of systematic scenario generation, especially with regard to scenario diversity. The methodology also enables the combination of systematics with the distinct future logics of good intuitive logics scenarios.

The purpose of this paper is to present findings from a qualitative research study that was designed to examine the application of the management index (MI) to support effectiveness among management teams. Specifically, the research was twofold: to examine the usefulness of the MI as a tool to enhance effectiveness in management teams; and to identify conditions necessary for successful use of the MI.

A three-year multi-site qualitative case study was conducted with five medium- to large-scale organizations, from public and private sectors, to apply and examine the use of the MI. Data were collected from participants during a series of workshops designed to examine the ways in which the tool was used to enhance effectiveness in management teams, and conditions that were determined supportive or a hinder to using the tool.

Findings from the qualitative data demonstrate four primary uses of the in which the MI: pulse reader, navigation, systematic dialog, management team development. It is, however, not clear yet if the use of the MI contributes to improvement in efficiency and effectiveness. The degree of maturity within the organization and teams, as defined by open and transparent communication and clarity of purpose of direction, appear to be key factors for how well teams benefit from the MI. Furthermore, the tool appears to benefit from longer term usage rather than quick-fix usage, although this claim has yet to be validated by further investigations.

The MI was developed by Swedish Institute of Quality to provide a simpler performance measurement tool for management teams to support quality improvement processes in organizations in Sweden. The MI was developed to provide management teams with access to vital information that could serve as the basis for prioritizing areas of needed improvement, while reducing time and complexity associated with traditional business excellence models.

This study contributes to an ongoing dialogue about how to support quality management through the use of performance measurement tools. In particular, the study supports the need to develop understanding about the importance of dialogue and process combined with the use of measures to achieve results.

The study aims to explore how concept stores (theoretically) differ from other experience-based retail formats, and hence, how they (practically) contribute to a diversified retail store portfolio.

Case study based on semi-structured, qualitative interviews with seven IKEA retail managers, three industry experts and 26 customers of IKEA concept stores in London and Stockholm.

The concept store represents a conceptual departure from other experiential store formats. It is neither fully experiential in the sense that it is not only about marketing communications nor is it sales or profit-focused. Its aim is to be an accessible touchpoint that reduces friction on a diversified customer journey with its value to the retail portfolio being that it attracts new and latent customers, mitigates existing inhibiting factors and drives them to other touchpoints.

Ideas about the different characteristics of new store formats and their potential to shape the customer experience are extended. New formats reflect innovation in retailing and are part of a retail portfolio which generates different customer expectations and determinants from traditional store formats which provide the customers' existing reference point.

The contributions of new formats should be evaluated in light of other existing formats in the portfolio and not isolated. This is particularly true when considering format cannibalisation and the potentially extended customer journey that arises when customers use traditional format stores and new concept format stores simultaneously.

Previous research, using sales metrics and market-based results as performance determinants, suggests negative outcomes for format diversification. Our study suggests that the contributions of the concept store format should be viewed from an overall customer journey perspective and the “performance” of different format based touchpoints are not best captured through traditional sales evaluation methods.

This paper aims to examine the use of unique identities (through radio frequency identification technology, bar codes and “human‐readable” labels) on packages and load carriers in Swedish manufacturing industries. The purpose is to investigate drivers behind the adoption, the perceived improvements and visions for the coming 2‐5 years. It also covers different methods for reading the identities, locations of identification in the supply chain and how the acquired information is utilised.

The paper uses the survey method. The survey instrument was developed in co‐operation with an expert group consisting of both researchers and industry representatives. The data were analysed using multivariate techniques.

The analysis shows that there are a number of distinct clusters of companies with similar drivers for the adoption of unique identification. Characteristics of companies in these clusters are described and compared. The analysis clarifies the essential roles of integration and information sharing to obtain logistical improvements.

To provide a more robust scientific justification of the survey results, in‐depth case studies should be carried out and similar studies could be conducted in other countries and/or industries.

Managers intending to implement unique identities need to understand the importance of having the right organisational motivation to succeed. Firms already using unique identities should note that the greater the integration and information sharing, the greater the number of improvements which could be obtained.

The study shows that there are links between the drivers behind the adoption of unique identities and the level of integration and improvements achieved. It also provides the current status of different identification methods in Swedish manufacturing industries.

The purpose of this study is to elaborate on the management, sources, levels of strength and dynamics of inherent tension in coopetition between small- and medium-sized firms (SMEs).

An embedded single-case design is applied in the study. Two manufacturing SMEs in coopetition are studied. The units of analysis are their past dyadic coopetition with other competitors, their present coopetition with each other and their view of possible dyadic coopetition with other partners in the future.

This study addresses the call for more research on coopetition and tension dynamics. It gives longitudinal insight into the changes of a coopetitive relationship through the evolution of tension inherently present in the relationship. Furthermore, the results show that a partial separation of the cooperative and competitive dimensions enables entrepreneurs’ integration of a contradictory logic. The successful management of tension also relies on mechanisms for mutual value appropriation, which eventually enhances the ability to embrace contradictions.

This study contributes to the limited knowledge on tension management by showing how partners in coopetition apply different tension management principles or combinations of principles due to how the tension in the relationship evolves. Furthermore, on a practical level, it introduces a mapping or configuration scheme to identify the sources and levels of strength of inherent tension, enhancing coopetition partners’ ability to monitor their relationship over time.