Exploring retailers’ sensitivity to local sustainability policies
研究了西欧城市时间准入法规对零售商物流概念及财务与环境绩效的影响，基于14家荷兰零售商的案例，发现受影响的城市场景增多时成本与排放显著上升，而城市间时间窗协调可缓解负面效应。
Abstract Local governments in Western Europe increasingly use city time‐access regulations to improve social sustainability. These regulations significantly influence the distribution process of retail chain organizations. This paper studies the impact of governmental time‐window pressure on retailers’ logistical concepts and the consequential financial and environmental distribution performance. We determine which dimensions in the retailer's logistical concept determine its cost and emission sensitivity to increasing time‐window pressure. Our research is based on a multiple case study of fourteen Dutch retail cases in different sectors and with different store formulas. The retailers provided all organizational, flow and cost data of their secondary distribution (between distribution center and stores). We use these data to calculate the impacts of different time‐window pressure scenarios, including the current situation, using vehicle routing software. It appears that cost and emissions increases are moderate, when few cities are affected. However, as more cities are affected, costs and emissions increase considerably, particularly if time‐window lengths become shorter. Time‐windows harmonized between cities lead to fewer negative effects. We find various dimensions that contribute to reducing a retailer's sensitivity to time‐window pressure. We formulate conclusions hypothesizing the links between time‐window pressure, its effects, and the dimensions that determine these effects.