A Business Model Assessment and Evaluation Framework for City Logistics Collaborative Strategic Decision Support

Giovanni Zenezini,Jesus Gonzalez-Feliu,Laura Palacios-Arguello,Giulio Mangano

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-28464-0_48

Abstract

Several City Logistics (CL) initiatives have emerged in the last two decades with the aim to reduce the negative externalities of freight distribution in urban areas. Such initiatives can be public and/or private but need to not break or impeach current operations efficiency so to not hinder their profitability. In order to provide business value to CL initiatives and thus fostering their long-term success, it is necessary to understand the decision-making of private companies operating in the urban freight ecosystem. This paper proposes an ex-ante assessment and evaluation framework built around the concept of an ecosystem business modelling that includes the decision-making by CL stakeholders. A theoretical framework previously developed is extended to evaluate a collaborative business model of an Urban Consolidation Centre (UCC). Cost-Benefit analysis (CBA is used estimate the impact of the business model configuration. Finally, research and practice implications are also addressed.

Highlights

Collaboration among various stakeholders is a crucial subject in operations, business and logistics management
This paper proposes an ex-ante assessment and evaluation framework built around the concept of an ecosystem business modelling that includes the decisionmaking by CL stakeholders
The proposed methodology aims to provide a framework for designing, assessing and validating the business model of a CL innovation from a multi-stakeholder’s perspective

Summary

Introduction

Collaboration among various stakeholders is a crucial subject in operations, business and logistics management. The issue of identifying stakeholders and examining the most suitable ways of collaboration among them has started to be addressed, mainly in the form of optimization models or in a qualitative way. The key of success of such collaboration is strongly related to reaching a solid business model. Designing and assessing a solid long-term collaborative business model is of vital importance for closing this gap and turn CL innovative solutions into sustainable, large-scale endeavors. When dealing with cutting-edge innovations business models need to be assessed, both qualitatively (to identify levers and limits) and quantitatively (to examine their economic viability). Business model deployment is popular in logistics and starts being applied to CL [1, 2], they are far to propose a systematic, unified approach that would address the collaboration issues. Its assessment remains little done as existing works make it either on a qualitative or quantitative way only, without combining both approaches [3, 4]

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Conclusion