M ASTER ’ S T HESIS
MS C . S UPPLY C HAIN M ANAGEMENT
An exploration of institutional pressures on urban logistics service providers and their strategies – A multiple-case study on urban
logistics service providers in Copenhagen
By
Anniken Winther
Supervised by prof. Britta Gammelgaard
Submission date:
13.09.2016
Number of pages: 79 Number of STU: 181 389
Copenhagen Business School, Fall 2016
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Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of the thesis is to explore the institutional pressures that logistics service providers operating in urban Copenhagen experience, as well as the strategic approaches they employ in managing such pressures. In addition to seeking insights about the individual cases, the study also aims at understanding the commonalities across them, which is used in a comparison with the theory on urban freight transport environmental pressures and management approaches in the US by Rose et al. (2016).
Design/Methodology/Approach – Through an exploratory, abductive approach, a multiple-case study has been conducted in order to obtain greater understanding of the phenomenon of institutional pressures on urban logistics service providers in the specific context of Copenhagen. Semi-structured interviews serve as the main source of data, which are thematically analyzed to explore the main themes of each case. These insights are supplemented with information from document sources.
Findings – Interviews with several actors in the urban freight transport sector in Copenhagen showed that logistics service providers experience pressures from both physical and social parts of their environment.
The physical pressures include restricted space, congested infrastructure, and poor access to shops. The social pressures come from authorities, competitors, customers, and citizens, who all have different objectives and interests in urban freight transport. Such pressures include regulations and requirements on environmental, safety, and CSR practices, expectations to deliver goods efficiently and at low prices, and exposure to best practice. In order to manage these pressures, urban logistics service providers choose between collaborating and influencing. The findings from the cases in Copenhagen differ from those of the US in that the focus of urban logistics service providers operating in the urban areas of Copenhagen to a greater extent lies on collaboration with other actors in order to find common solutions to challenges in the field, whereas firms in the US focus more approaches to managing physical constraints and lack of resources. Finally, the two studies differ slightly in the classification of the institutional pressures.
Implications – The findings are discussed in light of implications for business as well as implications for policy makers, two of the main actors in the field of urban freight management. Understanding which institutional pressures urban logistics service providers experience and how they manage these is a step to finding better solutions and planning transport and urban space holistically.
Keywords – Urban freight transport, institutional theory, institutional pressures, strategic management
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T ABLE OF C ONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION ... 6
1.1 Research question ... 8
1.2 Research design ... 8
1.3 Delimitations and limitations ... 10
2. LITERATURE REVIEW ... 10
2.1 Supply chain management as a discipline ... 11
2.2 Increased focus on urban freight transport ... 12
2.2.1 Urbanization ... 12
2.2.2 The role of urban freight transport in cities ... 12
2.2.3 Negative aspects of urban freight transport ... 13
2.3 Urban freight transport definitions and actors involved ... 14
2.3.1 Urban freight transport and city logistics ... 14
2.3.2 Stakeholders involved in urban freight transport ... 15
2.4 Research on urban freight transport ... 16
2.4.1 Modeling efforts to improve urban freight transport ... 16
2.4.2 Policy measures to increase sustainability ... 17
2.4.3 Local authority and stakeholder involvement ... 19
2.4.4 Freight partnerships ... 20
2.4.5 Future research ... 21
2.4.6 Summary of literature ... 23
2.5 The institutional environment and urban freight transport ... 23
3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK –INSTITUTIONAL THEORY ... 24
3.1 Institutional pressures: coercive, mimetic, normative ... 25
3.2 Institutional theory and strategy ... 27
3.3 Institutional pressures on urban logistics service providers ... 30
3.4 Exploratory model ... 31
4 METHODOLOGY ... 32
4.1 Research philosophy ... 32
4.1.1 Ontology, epistemology, and axiology ... 33
4.1.2 Approaches to logistics research ... 34
4.2 Research purpose and approach to theory development ... 35
4.3 Research strategy and methodological choice ... 36
4.3.1 Case study – definitions ... 36
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4.3.2 Case study - purpose ... 37
4.3.3 Criticism and justification of using a case study ... 38
4.3.4 Case study quality ... 39
4.4 Method choices... 40
4.4.1 Data collection ... 41
4.4.2 Data analysis... 44
5 ANALYSIS ... 47
5.1 Context: Copenhagen ... 47
5.2 Findings: Individual cases ... 49
5.2.1 Case 1: Trade association ... 50
5.2.2 Case 2: Local authority ... 54
5.2.3 Case 3: Logistics service provider ... 57
5.2.4 Case 4: Logistics service provider ... 61
5.2.5 Case 5: Logistics service company ... 64
5.3 Findings: Commonalities across cases ... 66
5.3.1 Institutional pressures ... 66
5.3.2 Strategies to manage institutional pressures ... 67
5.4 Comparison ... 68
5.4.1 Institutional pressures ... 68
5.4.2 Strategies to manage institutional pressures ... 69
5.5. Summary of findings ... 70
6 DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS ... 71
6.1 Discussion ... 71
6.2 Implications for theory ... 74
6.3 Implications for business ... 75
6.4 Implications for policy ... 75
7 CONCLUSION AND FURTHER RESEARCH ... 76
7.1 Further research ... 78
8 REFERENCES ... 80
9 APPENDICES ... 84
Appendix 1: Interview guide ... 84
Appendix 2: Interview transcripts ... 86
Appendix 2a ... 86
Appendix 2b ... 97
Appendix 2c ... 107
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Appendix 2d ... 127
Appendix 2e ... 153
Appendix 3: Notes from freight network ... 168
Appendix 3a ... 168
Appendix 3b ... 169
Appendix 3c ... 172
Appendix 3d ... 176
Appendix 4: Thematic analysis of interviews ... 181
Appendix 4a ... 181
Appendix 4b ... 186
Appendix 4c ... 191
Appendix 4d ... 198
Appendix 4e ... 204
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T ABLE OF FIGURES , TABLES AND IMAGES
Figure 1: Structure of the project. Source: Author ... 9
Table 1. Overview of studies used in literature review. Source: Author ... 22
Table 2. Strategic responses to institutional processes. Adapted from Oliver, 1991. ... 29
Table 3. Institutional antecedents and predicted strategic responses. Adapted from Oliver (1991). ... 29
Figure 2: Urban logistics institutional-theoretic framework (Rose et al., 2016, p. 167). ... 31
Figure 3: Analytical framework for the effects of institutional pressures on urban freight transport and strategic approaches. Source: Author ... 32
Figure 4. Depiction of case study purpose. Source: Author ... 37
Table 4. Quality criteria for case studies. Adapted from Pedrosa et al. (2012) ... 40
Table 5: Adapted from Yin (2003, p. 86) ... 41
Table 6. Overview of interview participants. Source: Author ... 42
Table 7. Methodological considerations. Source: Author ... 47
Image 1: Copenhagen city population, related to the Capital area. Source: Den Store Danske (2016b) .... 48
Figure 5. Overview of institutional pressures. Source: Author ... 50
Table 8. Sources and pressures summarized, Case 1. Source: Author ... 53
Table 9. Sources and pressures summarized, Case 2. Source: Author ... 55
Table 10. Sources and pressures summarized, Case 3. Source: Author ... 59
Table 11. Sources and pressures summarized, Case 4. Source: Author ... 62
Table 12. Sources and pressures summarized, Case 5. Source: Author ... 65
Figure 6. Urban institutional pressures and strategic approaches. Source: Author ... 68
Figure 7. Institutional pressures and strategic approaches for urban freight transport in Copenhagen. Source: Author ... 71
Figure 8. Interaction of institutional pressures. Source: Author... 74
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Chapter I
1. I NTRODUCTION
The world is currently seeing the largest wave of urbanization in history (UNFPA, 2008; WHO, 2016). The increase in urban population and concentration in urban centers have led to a subsequent increase in freight flows of consumer goods, construction materials, and waste (Dablanc, 2007). Technological and societal developments are changing consumer demands, and urban logistics service providers attempt to create benefits for customers through offering a range of logistics services that seek to efficiently and effectively serve their demand for goods and services (Anand, Quak, van Duin, & Tavasszy, 2012; Taylor, 2006). As such, urban freight transport has a crucial role in the economic vitality of cities. At the same time, urban freight transport systems have an impact on economic, social, and environmental levels of society, affecting congestion, air pollution, noise emission, and demand for infrastructure and land (Anderson, Allen, &
Browne, 2005; Hesse, 1995). These constraints and changing demands are creating an increasingly complex environment for urban logistics service providers to operate in as the urban environment and its inhabitants impose pressures on existing businesses and potential entrants to avoid or reduce negative externalities (Rose et al., 2016). Consequently, urban freight transport has received increased attention in the academic literature and in the wider policy context (Ballantyne, Lindholm, & Whiteing, 2013), resulting in a range of efficiency-focused models, policy frameworks, and collaboration efforts.
Despite this surge in interest for urban freight transport, there is little research on the impact of institutional pressures on logistics and supply chain decision making in general, and on the strategies of urban logistics service providers in particular (Rose et al., 2016). In a recent study, Rose et al. (2016) investigate the physical and social environmental pressures that impact urban logistics in the US, and show that logistics service providers enact three specific urban logistics management approaches in order to cope with these pressures: managing space, managing legitimacy, and managing resources. Their study resulted in a theory of how urban logistics service providers manage pressures form actors in their institutional environment, linking institutional theory to the specific challenges of urban freight transport.
While urban freight in industrialized countries share many similar features and challenges, approaches still differ on the basis of various geographical, economic, and environmental criteria, and the importance they are given. For instance, spatial constraints and the size of the urban center are considered less important in the US compared to in Europe, much due to road network grids and wide car lanes. Therefore, freight issues
7 have primarily been considered at regional, national, and international levels, as opposed to at a local level.
In contrast, the density of urban areas in Europe is much higher, which creates more challenges in terms of space and infrastructure restrictions, and a greater focus on freight in city centers and their impact on citizens’ living conditions (Ambrosini & Routhier, 2004). Another difference is related to the involvement of local authorities, and private-public relationship. Recent years has seen an increasing tendency in Europe to involve private companies in public transport planning processes through freight partnerships, whereas there is a lack of research on freight partnerships in other parts of the world, including North America.
Thus, it is not only interesting to look at the pressures that logistics service providers experience and how they adapt their strategies to these; understanding whether the institutional context that logistics service providers operate in has an effect on such pressures and strategies is of great relevance. In order to further expand the use of institutional theory in urban freight transport research, the aim of this study is to explore the environmental pressures on urban logistics service providers in a Danish context, namely urban Copenhagen, as well as the strategic behaviors of these firms in managing the pressures. The study explores the environmental pressures as they are experienced and managed by urban logistics service providers, but for a more holistic understanding of the sector, insights obtained from other actors are also included. The interest of doing such a study lies in revealing the possible differences between institutional contexts, i.e., the US and Denmark, as well as acquiring a holistic understanding of strategic decision making in the urban freight transport sector, which will be of relevance for both business and policy makers. As such, the objectives of the study are:
To understand the characteristics of the institutional pressures that affect urban logistics service providers in Copenhagen
To understand the strategic approaches employed by urban logistics service providers in managing various institutional pressures
To compare the results of the above with the middle-range theory developed by Rose et al. (2016), and discuss its applicability in a Danish context
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1.1 Research question
Given the objectives outlined above, the study sets out to answer the following research question:
How are urban logistics service providers in Copenhagen influenced by institutional pressures in their environment, and which strategic approaches do they employ in managing such pressures?
1.2 Research design
This section outlines how the paper aims to answer the research question and objectives. A more detailed description is provided in the Methodology section.
The starting point of the research process is the study on institutional pressures on urban logistics service providers by Rose et al. (2016), highlighting the need for further investigations on environmental pressures and the effects they have on the strategies of urban logistics service providers. The study is relevant because the characteristics of urban areas challenge logistics service providers on their traditional activities and strategies, and require them to employ new approaches. In order to further the research on institutional pressures in urban freight transport, this study sets out to explore the pressures that logistics service providers in the urban Copenhagen area are exposed to and the strategies they employ to manage these. It is a cross-sectional study, looking at a particular phenomenon at a particular time. It employs a multiple case study research strategy, focusing on three logistics service providers, one trade association, and one municipality administration in Copenhagen. The pressures and strategies of urban logistics service providers from the point of view of each organization are explored, as well as the commonalities between the cases in this specific context. The findings are compared with the theory by Rose et al. (2016), and discussed in light of current literature on urban freight transport, as well as the impact of institutional contexts on strategic choices. The project is founded on a qualitative research design, where the research question is mainly answered through semi-structured interviews, and substantiated with documents from a range of actors in the sector. All interviews were transcribed and analyzed thematically, and the findings are conceptualized in a model of institutional pressures and urban logistics service providers’ strategies in the context of Copenhagen.
The project begins with an overview of the literature on urban freight transport, including trends in the areas of research and policy making, and opportunities for acquiring new insights. The applied institutional theory
9 is then outlined and developed into a framework for empirical analysis and to structure the project. The following section describes the research methodology used in the study. The findings are then presented, followed by a discussion and implications for theory, business and policy. Conclusions and suggestions for further studies are then outlined. The structure of the paper is illustrated below.
Figure 1: Structure of the project. Source: Author
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1.3 Delimitations and limitations
As a multiple case study of logistics service providers in urban Copenhagen, the aim of the study is to shed light on the phenomenon of institutional pressures on urban logistics service providers in the specific context of Copenhagen. Due to the limited number of cases, the aim is not to determine the institutional pressures experienced by all urban logistics service providers or the strategies they employ. Instead, it will provide new insights on the reality of five unique cases, discuss their commonalities, and compare the findings with existing theory.
While recognizing that institutional contexts may be an important factor for variations in institutional pressures and strategies employed by urban logistics service providers, the study does not provide an in- depth analysis of the contextual differences between the US and Denmark. In addition, the literature review is not intended to outline the entirety of the research in the field. Rather, it provides an introduction to the most important topics for the understanding of the context of the study and the gap in the research. The project is written from a perspective that is oriented towards the policy and management context of urban freight.
Chapter II
2. L ITERATURE REVIEW
The following sections outline the theoretical background for the project, discussing relevant literature on urban logistics and the use of institutional theory in logistics and supply chain research and decision making.
The material used in the literature review has been sourced from journal articles via searches through the libraries of Copenhagen Business School and University of Sydney, where the author has been enrolled as a student, as well as Google Scholar. The point of departure for the literature search was the article of Rose et al. (2016), after which the literature was acquired through an unstructured approach, or ‘snowball method’, where the sources cited were used as further resources. Sources cited in these articles were subsequently browsed in a similar manner, in order to extend the set of reference publications. While the risk of this method is that new articles appear throughout the search and that the amount of material never seems to end, it was a useful way to find literature. In addition to this, search terms such as ‘urban freight transport’, ‘urban logistics’, ‘urban transport’, city logistics, as well as ‘institutional theory logistics’, and
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‘institutional theory supply chain management’ were used to find other relevant publications that had not been cited in the above-mentioned articles, but that were deemed relevant for the study.
2.1 Supply chain management as a discipline
In order to understand where urban freight transport fits into the overall field of supply chain management and logistics, the next section briefly outlines the development of supply chain management as a discipline, as well as the role of logistics.
The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) define supply chain management in the following way:
Supply chain management encompasses the planning and management of all activities involved in sourcing and procurement, conversion, and all logistics activities. Importantly it also includes coordination and collaboration with channel partners, which can be suppliers, intermediaries, third- party service providers, and customers. In essence, supply chain management integrates supply and demand management with and across companies. (Gammelgaard, 2010, p. 120)
Having evolved from a transportation and logistics function, the integrated supply chain encompasses all the activities and information flows of all parties in the chain, and encourages collaboration and the pursuit of shared goals from the chain members. As customers no longer tend to distinguish between the product supplied and the distribution system that supplies it, the quality of logistics activities is put under pressure (Hesse & Rodrigue, 2004). Thus, for a thorough understanding of logistics and freight transport, it is necessary to acknowledge that distribution is a complex and interdependent system. Anand et al. (2012) explain that while urban freight takes place primarily in urban areas, it has roots on regional, national, and international levels. As such, the “urban freight domain consists of multiple commodity flow[s], multiple supply chains and multiple transportation activities” (pp. 102-103). Urban freight transport is thus part of a larger supply chain, and the integrated nature of all the activities taking place at one place in the chain will likely impact more than one organization. Understanding the pressures that urban logistics service providers experience from their environment will therefore be of relevance for actors in their supply chains as well.
The next sections will go deeper into urban freight transport and current research on the topic.
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2.2 Increased focus on urban freight transport
The next sections will go deeper into the area of urban freight, explaining the reasons why it is a topic of increased importance both for researchers and policy makers.
2.2.1 Urbanization
Population density is used as the main differentiating factor between urban and non-urban areas (Rose et al., 2016). The OECD distinguishes between urban populations based on population density and commuting patterns, classifying urban areas in OECD countries as large metropolitan areas (population of 1.5 million or more), metropolitan areas (population between 500,000 and 1.5 million), medium-size urban areas (population between 200,000 and 500,000), or small urban areas (population between 50,000 and 200,000) (OECD, 2016).
The world is currently undergoing the largest wave of urbanization – population migration towards and demographic growth in urban areas (UNFPA, 2008; WHO, 2016). As of 2014, 54 % of the global population lived in urban areas, and this number continues to grow. It is expected that about 5 billion will live in towns and cities by 2030 and 66 % of the world’s population is projected to be urban by 2050 (United Nations, 2014). The most urbanized regions in the world are Northern America, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe, with 82 %, 80 % and 73 % living in urban areas respectively. While all regions are expected to continue to urbanize in the coming decades, Africa and Asia will experience larger urbanization rates than the other regions (UNFPA, 2016; United Nations, 2014).
2.2.2 The role of urban freight transport in cities
Historically, the process of urbanization has led to economic and social transformations, such as geographic mobility and longer life expectancy. As a place that concentrates a great amount of the national economic activity and commerce, government, and transportation, cities are seen as important drivers of development (United Nations, 2014). With the growth of urban areas in developed and developing parts of the world, the importance of cities as systems for contemporary society is increasing (Bozzo, Conca, & Marangon, 2014).
Larger urban populations and economic growth have led to increased demand for goods and services in the urban area, and subsequently, higher demand for urban freight transport services (Cherrett et al., 2012;
13 Dablanc, 2007). Urban freight transport is thus seen as essential in sustaining citizens’ existing life style, servicing and retaining industrial and trading activities, and maintaining a region’s competitiveness. There is wide agreement in the literature that urban freight transport plays a central role in the functioning of urban areas and the economic vitality of cities (Anand et al., 2012; Anderson et al., 2005; Behrends, 2016; Browne, Allen, Nemoto, Patier, & Visser, 2012; Teodor Gabriel Crainic, Ricciardi, & Storchi, 2004; Lindholm, 2012).
2.2.3 Negative aspects of urban freight transport
While freight transport is seen as necessary and important for urban areas, it is also associated with a range of undesirable aspects (Anderson et al., 2005; Ballantyne et al., 2013; Behrends, 2016). Anderson et al.
(2005) distinguish between three types of impacts caused by freight transport systems in urban areas:
economic, environmental, and social. This includes traffic congestion and resource waste, pollution and waste products, health problems related to pollutants, injuries and deaths from traffic accidents, as well as noise, visual intrusion and loss of quality of life due to transport infrastructure developments. Similarly, Allen et al. (2007) highlight issues such as traffic flow and congestion problems, regulations and restrictions on vehicles, loading and parking, as well as issues between the customer and the receiver (in Ballantyne et al., 2013). As such, urban freight transport is seen as a disturbing activity that has a negative impact on the environment and citizens’ quality of life (Behrends, 2016). In addition, operating in the limited space of urban areas challenges logistics service providers to develop new strategies and solutions that differ from those employed in non-urban settings (Rose et al., 2016). Specifically, the urban space imposes constraints on logistics service providers in terms of complex and reduced space for movement and expansion, congested infrastructure with limited alteration possibilities, and potential conflicts due to scarcity of resources and forced interactions with other actors in the social environment (Anand et al., 2012; Dablanc, 2007; Rose et al., 2016).
This increase in the movements of goods in the urban space and the related externalities have led to increased attention to the topic by both researchers and policy makers (Ballantyne et al., 2013; Behrends, 2016;
Lindholm, 2012). An overview of previous studies will be provided in a later section. The next section will provide an overview of the definitions and actors of urban freight transport.
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2.3 Urban freight transport definitions and actors involved
The following section discusses the many definitions of urban freight transport used in the literature. It ends with one definition that will guide the project.
There is currently not one single definition of urban freight transport that is consistently used in research on the topic. The terms urban freight transport, urban logistics, and urban goods movements are often used to describe the same concept of transporting goods into an urban area. Some authors use the terms urban freight transport and city logistics interchangeably (Anderson et al. 2005; Crainic et al. 2004; Anand et al. 2012), while others clearly distinguish between the two (Rose et al. 2016; Ambrosini & Routhier 2004). Many fail to explicitly state and define the concept that they are researching.
2.3.1 Urban freight transport and city logistics
Dablanc (2007) defines urban freight as “any service provision contributing to an optimised management of the movement of goods in cities” (p. 284), or as “the transport of goods carried out by or for professionals in an urban environment” (Dablanc, 2007, in Behrends, Lindholm, & Woxenius, 2008, p. 701). This is not as elaborate as the definition provided by Hicks in 1977, defining it as “all journeys into, out of, and within a designated urban area by road vehicles specifically engaged in pick-up or delivery of goods (whether the vehicle be empty or not), with the exception of shopping trips” (in Ballantyne et al., 2013, p. 94). Based on this, Ballantyne et al. (2013) have adopted a broad definition, stating that
urban freight transport is defined as all movements of goods (as distinct from people) into, out of, through or within the urban area made by light or heavy goods vehicles. Also included are service vehicle movements (refuse collection, utilities etc.) and demolition/construction traffic (p. 94).
City logistics is a related concept, mostly used about projects in Europe, that “seeks to improve the final delivery of goods to customers, whether they are individuals, retailer shops or other businesses, located in urban areas” (Muñuzuri & Cortés, 2012, p. 191). More specifically, BESTUFS (BEST Urban Freight Solutions), has adopted a definition of city logistics that describes it as “all co-ordinated measures comprising logistic collection and delivery activities of logistic service providers in urban areas that aim at the reduction or prevention of commercial traffic and its negative external effects” (BESTUFS, 2002, p.
15 85), however highlighting that the notion of city logistics differs between countries. This focus on activities that may reduce or prevent the negative external effects of urban freight transport is similar to the way city logistics is described by Rose et al. (2016), focusing “primarily on the ways urban area characteristics impact logistics operational efficiency, often addressing the reduction of negative effects of freight transportation activities associated with logistics service providers or optimizing logistics activities with regard to the traffic environment, congestion, and energy consumption” (p. 155). Contrasting city logistics with urban logistics, the latter being the focus of their research, they see urban logistics more as encompassing all goods movements in urban areas, and not solely focusing on reducing resource consumption or waste production.
Put simply, urban freight transport is the transport of goods into urban areas. Efforts to improve the sustainability of urban goods transport come in many forms, and city logistics is but one such form (Gammelgaard, 2015), involving specific activities to reduce the negative effects of urban freight transport.
Ballantyne et al. (2013), summarize it well when they say that the abundance of different definitions of urban freight transport and city logistics reflects how complex the field is and the troubles with reaching consensus on how to approach the issues. Just what is meant by urban is also not consistent, and Ambrosini and Routhier (2004) observe that different countries have different definitions of urban goods movements depending on geography, density, urban forms, economy, policy, and culture. It is the broad definition of urban freight transport by Ballantyne et al. (2013) that will guide this study. The author also emphasizes the importance of having a holistic perspective on urban freight transport as part of a larger supply chain.
2.3.2 Stakeholders involved in urban freight transport
Urban freight transport is a complex system that involves a range of stakeholders with differing objectives.
Stathopoulos et al. (2012) talk about receivers, carriers, forwarders, and policy-makers. Rose et al. (2016) briefly refer to other businesses, government, and the community. Other terms traditionally referred to in the literature include shippers, carriers, customers, and administrators (Anand et al., 2012). Ballantyne et al.
(2013) distinguish between actors and stakeholders, where actors are the four groups just mentioned, that directly impact urban freight transport through their operations or regulations, and stakeholders are other organizations or participants in the environment that have an indirect impact on urban freight transport through a range of activities. These stakeholders are trade associations, commercial organizations, land owners/property owners, citizens and visitors. Other authors again speak about two groups that are capable of changing the urban freight system: governing bodies that implement policies and measure that force
16 change upon companies, and companies that implement measures to achieve internal benefits such as economic advantages from a change in behavior (Anderson et al., 2005). Also pointed out by Lindholm and Browne (2013), there is considerable interaction between public and private actors in urban freight transport.
Traditionally, the role of the public sector has been to regulate, for instance to limit the time of operations in urban areas as well as vehicle sizes, and private companies perform freight transport in urban areas under the conditions that the public sector has set. The past few years has seen a tendency to involving private companies more in urban planning processes to freight partnerships and similar initiatives.
The number of stakeholders with differing interests and objectives makes urban freight transport planning a complex task, and how to best involve all actors in urban freight transport is one of the topics often researched, which the next section will elaborate on.
2.4 Research on urban freight transport
As previously mentioned, urban freight transport is necessary to ensure the provision of goods to firms and end consumers in urban areas, and to uphold a region’s competitiveness. At the same time, it is seen as a disturbance by many, due to the negative externalities it causes. These two factors have led to increased attention to the topic in both policy making and academia. This section provides a brief overview of the types of studies that have already been conducted in the field of urban freight transport. The focus areas can be divided into modeling efforts, policy measures for sustainability, involvement of local authorities and other stakeholders, freight partnerships, and areas for future research.
2.4.1 Modeling efforts to improve urban freight transport
Anand et al. (2012) have done a review of the modeling efforts for city logistics reported in the literature on urban freight. They claim that current frameworks for urban freight analysis tend to focus on country of origin, methods of modeling, or status of the model, which for them are not seen as clear cut factors determinative for urban freight modeling. Rather, they argue that other factors are more important for the process, such as stakeholder involvement, urban goods movement objectives, and means available for achieving these objectives. They observe four perspectives widely used in urban freight modeling, namely planner, technology, behavior, and policy, and suggest a fifth perspective for multiple actors. The planner’s perspective is concerned with efficiently using infrastructure to organize vehicle flows. The technology perspective makes use of technological innovations to avoid congestion, optimize vehicle routing, and
17 improve communication between supplier and customer. Modeling from the behavior perspective include the various stakeholders involved in urban freight movement and attempt to “understand, describe and predict the behavior under different situations” (Anand et al., 2012, p. 107) in order to improve the planning and evaluation of urban freight transport. The policy perspective is different from the planning perspective as it is concerned with the introduction of various policy measures to reduce the negative aspects of urban freight transport, as opposed to planning infrastructure and traffic movements. The last perspective, the multi-actor’s perspective reflects the focus of recent research efforts that aims at analyzing the interactions of various stakeholders to assess how they affect the whole supply chain. As stated by the authors, models to enhance the efficiency of urban goods movements are frequently found in the literature, with the planner’s perspective being the most widely used and the multi-actor’s perspective being the most recent one with the least amount of studies done.
Crainic and Laporte (1997) serve as a good example of a study from the planner’s perspective. In their article on the main issues in freight transportation planning and operations and the available models and planning tools, they classified the policies that affect transportation systems based on three levels for decision-making: strategic, tactic, and operational. Reviewing the models, they conclude that classical operations research models and algorithms have proved suitable for solving complex transportation problems at all planning levels. Additionally, they state that the need for better planning at the strategic, tactical, and operational levels will continue, as the trend towards larger, integrated and more efficient transportation systems is likely to remain.
The next set of studies are not directly related to modeling efforts, but the results may be used in future developments of new models. The topics are recognizable from those in the review by Anand et al. (2012).
2.4.2 Policy measures to increase sustainability
Focusing on the sustainability of urban freight operations, Anderson, Allen and Browne (2005) present results from a project investigating the effects of four policy measures on the freight operations of seven different companies in three urban areas in the UK. The aim of the study was to fill a gap in the literature regarding the likely impact that various policy measures have on distribution operations. Their findings show that urban freight operations do not conform to a specific system or pattern, and that the impact of policy measures on the operational and financial aspects of a company will vary. They conclude that policy
18 makers who intend to implement measures to meet certain sustainability measures will need to take these variations into account in their planning.
Muñuzuri et al. (2005) created a compilation of the solutions and initiatives available for local administrations to implement in order to improve urban freight deliveries from the point of view of urban communities. They came up with specific solutions that represent general tools that can be used by local administrations in medium-large cities, however their appropriateness and expected results will vary depending on the characteristics of the city. The solutions are classified into five groups, being related to public infrastructure, land use management, access conditions, traffic management, and enforcement and promotion.
With the objective to help decision makers and commercial actors in cities to better deal with and improve the sustainability of urban freight transport, Behrends, Lindholm and Woxenius (2008) developed a definition of sustainable urban freight transport (SUFT) based on existing theories and concepts and present a set of indicators to describe what it means to have SUFT, as well as to monitor and evaluate urban freight transport. The indicators consist of impact indicators describing how the principles of sustainability are violated by urban freight transport, and performance indicators describing categories that determine the characteristics and performance of urban freight transport actors. Having a specific definition of sustainable urban freight transport as well as the indicator matrix is believed to be “a useful start towards the work in handling the problem of freight transport impacts in the urban areas” (Behrends et al., 2008, p. 711). They observe that the SUFT definition and indicator matrix show that the impacts of freight transport cannot be solved by one actor alone, and that an integrated approach involving all actors is necessary.
Due to various city characteristics and involvement of policy makers in urban planning, measures to reduce the negative impacts of urban freight tend to vary between countries and cities, as pointed out by Muñuzuri et al. (2005). Browne et al. (2012) reviewed the various measures available to policy makers targeting the negative social, environmental, and economic impacts of urban freight transport. Features of urban freight transport that can be altered to reduce negative impacts include noise levels, air pollution, traffic congestion, and safety. They characterize the range of developments available to reduce impacts into “regulation, sharing space and time, encouraging cooperating, changing behavior, stimulating the public and private sector to work together” (Browne et al., 2012, p. 32), involving initiatives such as congestion charges, load consolidation, and loading time restrictions. The findings show that the focus on urban freight and city logistics operations is increasing, that initiatives to reduce the negative impacts of urban freight transport
19 takes place on different administrative levels but that many developments can be transferred to other cities, that timing and priorities differ between cities and political levels, and that the focus of research varies between countries. They conclude that the increasingly sophisticated discussion about the problem(s) at hand and the possible solutions that are available or required will continue to develop applicable tools and tests.
2.4.3 Local authority and stakeholder involvement
Several studies show that local authorities in Europe are starting to acknowledge the importance of including freight in their transport planning processes. A range of projects to improve city logistics and urban freight transport are in place in many European cities, with varying results.
In her article on goods transport in large European cities, Dablanc (2007) provides a synthesis of field work completed over six years combined with her own personal analysis of the state and challenges of urban goods movements in European cities. She summarizes her insights through three characteristics of urban goods movement: that it is largely independent of local urban structures due to the complex and constrained space in cities; that local governments lack knowledge on how to organize freight and that policies for freight mobility are quite inefficient; and that the provision of appropriate urban logistics services is poor and slow at catching up with customers’ new needs. While there have been initiatives to make urban freight transport more efficient both in terms of environmental impact and quality of service, she observes that none of the stakeholders involved are willing to take the first step: local authorities are waiting for business to introduce new services that fit customers’ needs and that are beneficial to the environment, and logisticians are waiting for local authorities “to initiate (and subsidize) new services before starting businesses which could prove poorly profitable and highly risky” (Dablanc, 2007, p. 285). Having transport practitioners identify how they can work closer together with the city’s planning departments on the one hand, and establishing a clear and simple process for city access provisions on the other hand are two actions that may improve the way freight transport is included in urban policies and planning.
Lindholm (2012) also frames the problem of urban freight transport planning from a local authority perspective in her investigation of urban freight transport in Swedish small- and medium sized cities.
Through a review of the literature, she divides previous measures for urban freight measures into restrictions, consolidation, infrastructure, vehicle development, and IT-solutions, of which the first three can be affected by local authorities. She presents a process planning model as a practical tool for local
20 authority decision makers when planning urban freight transport, emphasizing the importance of finding the appropriate mix of measures for different cities. The study shows that there is a lack of awareness and knowledge about the problems of urban freight transport, and that knowledge transfer and more interaction and cooperation with neighboring cities and stakeholders should be considered by local authorities in optimizing urban freight transport planning.
This is supported by Lindholm and Behrends (2012) who did a multiple-case study on urban freight transport and planning practices in the Baltic Sea region. The results from the study show that while freight transport is increasingly important for regional competitiveness, it is also threatening sustainability in urban areas.
The authors state that despite the importance of urban freight transport and an awareness of the related problems for some actors, most local authorities have no or little knowledge of what to do about it. At the same time, logistics companies are not involved in discussing and developing actions to solving the problems related to urban freight transport.
Through a synthesis of combined studies in Northern Europe, Ballantyne, Lindholm and Whiteing (2013) examine cities that differ in context with the aim to demonstrate the need for greater interaction between local authorities and freight transport stakeholders to improve urban freight transport planning. Their study shows that there is a general lack of knowledge about urban freight transport, and that urban freight is not included in tasks and development measures in transport plans. Local authorities are mostly involved through bans and regulations to minimize noise and other disturbances. This lack of knowledge and awareness of urban freight issues leads to a lack of involvement, and very little stakeholder cooperation.
The findings are similar across countries, which speaks for the value of a generic decision-making framework. The study proposes a model of the relationships between different actors and stakeholders involved in urban freight, that local authorities can use in identifying appropriate stakeholders to include in urban freight planning.
2.4.4 Freight partnerships
One initiative to include a broader range of stakeholders in urban freight planning is freight partnerships.
Not only is it seen as a way to establish collaboration between stakeholders, the interaction and community building also allows the different stakeholders to acquire a shared understanding of the stakes and objectives of the others that are part of the system, which is seen as one of the most important elements in improving the urban freight transport system (Quak, Lindholm, Tavasszy, & Browne, 2016).
21 Through a comparison of six freight partnerships in five European countries, Lindholm and Browne (2013) aim at investigating whether the partnerships have any common features that would result in valuable outcomes. They specifically look at the formation of partnerships, their management, and the effects of outcomes of the partnerships, focusing on both clear similarities and differences. Their results show that there is not one single model for urban freight partnerships, rather that cities use a range of approaches depending on their circumstances. However, some insights on what is needed in a partnership do appear.
These encompass the need for strong management of the partnership, the importance of involving a range of relevant actors from public and private sectors, the need for urban freight policies to be shaped with inputs from the private sector, and greater understanding of urban freight business operations from the public. It is also important to be clear about the objectives of the partnership and to disseminate the outcomes, both in terms of projects and knowledge sharing between participants. A last key point is that a long-term focus is important. The authors believe that the framework developed can be applied in more cities to further develop freight partnerships.
While agreeing that urban freight partnerships have led to improved mutual understanding of problems between public and private stakeholders as well as solutions to these problems, Quak et al. (2016) suggest to take the concept of freight partnerships a step further. In a recent publication they link the literature on shared situational awareness (SSA) and joint knowledge production (JKP) to freight partnerships and to the concept of living laboratories within urban freight transport. As the many stakeholders and differing objectives involved in urban freight transport systems make changes hard to implement, they suggest that transitions in the system would be made possible by increasing the shared situational awareness of the relevant stakeholders, and that joint knowledge production will improve the potential for successfully innovating and changing the system. They propose that the necessary SSA maturity level and inclusion of JKP success factors would be possible through a living lab, which could lead to more action-driven innovations and solutions.
2.4.5 Future research
Behrends (2016) recently conducted a review of the proceedings of the International Conference on City logistics for the years 2009-2013 with the purpose of analyzing urban logistics research trends and their relevance to urban logistics problems, and identifying gaps in urban logistics research. The results indicate that urban distribution problems are mainly addressed from an authority and carrier perspective in Europe
22 and Asia, whereas more research could be undertaken in a wider range of market segments, such as from the shipper and receiver perspective, and in more Asian and African cities.
With the purpose of discussing the links between urban freight transport and urban planning through an overview of current literature in the field, Cui, Dodson and Hall (2015) propose that future research in urban freight planning would benefit from looking into land-use, environmental, and institutional dimensions of urban freight. While recognizing the increased interest in urban transport planning in the past decade and the solid base of knowledge in the area, they claim that the focus has been mainly directed towards passenger and public transport. They conclude that further advances in understanding is needed to ensure that cities continue to be economically productive while meeting the sustainability goals of local communities.
The below table provides an overview of the studies mentioned and their focus areas.
Author Focus area
(Anand et al., 2012) Modelling efforts for city logistics
(T G Crainic & Laporte, 1997) Available models and planning tools for main issues in freight transportation planning and operations
(Anderson et al., 2005) Policy measures for sustainability and their effect on freight operations (Muñuzuri et al., 2005) Compilation of available solutions and initiatives for local administration to
improve urban freight
(Behrends et al., 2008) Development of a definition of sustainable urban freight transport to help decision makers and commercial actors in cities improve the sustainability of urban freight transport
(Browne et al., 2012) Policy measures available for targeting the negative social, environmental, and economic impacts of urban freight transport
(Dablanc, 2007) The current state and challenges of goods transport in large European cities (Lindholm, 2012) Local authority decision making in urban freight transport planning (Lindholm & Behrends, 2012) Planning practices for urban freight transport from a local authority
perspective
(Ballantyne et al., 2013) Local authority and stakeholder interaction to improve urban freight transport planning
(Quak et al., 2016) Improving urban freight transport through living laboratories
(Lindholm & Browne, 2013) Common features of freight partnerships that result in valuable outcomes (Behrends, 2016) Trends and relevance of urban logistics research trends in relation to
current problems
(Cui et al., 2015) Links between urban freight transport and urban planning, as well as proposals for future research
Table 1. Overview of studies used in literature review. Source: Author
23 2.4.6 Summary of literature
In summary of this section on previous studies on urban freight transport, there is a general agreement that the field has received increased attention and that there are a multitudes of studies exploring the many issues and challenges of urban freight. However, as urban freight transport is a complex subject with many stakeholders, there is still a lack of knowledge and awareness of the field, both from the point of view of local authorities and transport operators. Additionally, deeper understanding of how to best include stakeholders in the transport planning process is needed. Lastly, as Cui et al. (2015, p. 584) put it, “a number of questions about urban freight remain under-explored, including the urban context, economic circumstances and institutional environment for planning for urban freight as well as the challenges for better planning for urban freight”.
As the purpose of this study is to investigate institutional pressures in the context of urban freight transport in Copenhagen, the next section will discuss the use of institutional theory in supply chain management and logistics.
2.5 The institutional environment and urban freight transport
The following sections will provide a brief overview of the use of institutional theory in research on supply chain management, operations management, and urban logistics.
It is not uncommon to borrow theories and concepts from other fields in order to acquire new insights on a topic of interest. Logistics is a fairly new academic discipline, and research in the field is to a large extent based on theories borrowed from other, more established, disciplines (Stock, 1997). Stock (1997) explains that applying theories from other disciplines to logistics allows for learning from others’ experience, to advance in knowledge and understanding, and to create linkages between logistics and other disciplines.
Such linkages already exist with areas such as strategy, capacity, facilities, and people (Novack et al., 1992, in Stock, 1997).
In order to explain the adoption of certain strategies and practices in operations and supply chain management, Kauppi (2013) proposes the use of institutional theory as an alternative perspective to the prevailing view that organizations’ actions are driven solely by economic efficiency considerations.
Contrary to the rational decision making viewpoint that dominates in business and economics, institutional
24 theory is based on the idea that organizations adapt to pressures in their environment in order to enhance their legitimacy. While institutional theory has been widely applied in general management, strategy, and organizational behavior literature, applications in OM and SCM are relatively scarce. Reviewing the studies in which the theory has been used until now, Kauppi (2013) distinguishes between four main groups of studies: applications within quality management; applications within green supply chain management;
electronic applications; and other application areas within OM and SCM. To enrichen and broaden the discipline, she argues that institutional theory should be extended to many more perspectives of operations management and supply chain management.
Although institutional theory is used in some studies in OM and SCM, and research on urban freight transport covers a range of topics, little research has been done on how forces and pressures in the urban environment impact logistics service providers and their business practices. Attempting to narrow the gap in the literature, a recent study by Rose et al. (2016) is the first known effort to explore urban logistics through the environmental pressures, both physical and social, that impact logistics service providers.
Through a grounded theory approach and an interdisciplinary literature review, they investigate pressures from environmental actors on logistics providers in urban areas in the US and their approaches in managing these. They developed a middle-range theory, which connects general theories, such as institutional theory, to a more specific context, in this case urban freight transport. In doing this, Rose et al. (2016) provide more details to the foundations of institutional theory by connecting “urban environmental pressures with logistics service provider actions directed toward value creation” (Rose et al., 2016, p. 154). According to their study, logistics service providers make use of three management approaches to overcome societal and physical pressures from the environment: managing space, managing legitimacy, and managing resources. The study is further described in a section further down.
As this study aims at understanding the institutional pressures that logistics service providers in urban Copenhagen experience as well as the approaches they take in managing these, the study by Rose et al.
(2016) will serve as foundation for this project. Institutional theory will be the basis for the theoretical framework used throughout the study.
3. T HEORETICAL FRAMEWORK – I NSTITUTIONAL THEORY
The following sections outline institutional theory and its use, and explains how it creates the foundation for the theoretical framework of the project.
25 Institutional theory is one of several influential theories of the organization-environment relationship. The main point of such theories is that organizations are part of an organizational environment – a super system – which they relate to in one way or another. As such, the organization-environment theories put emphasis on the external aspect of management as opposed to solely looking at internal factors, and attempt to understand how organizations interact with their environment (Hatch & Cunliffe, 2013).
North (1991) explained institutions as “the humanly devised constraints that structure political, economic and social interaction” (p. 97), consisting of both informal constraints and formal rules to create order and reduce uncertainty. According to neo-institutional theory, most often just referred to as institutional theory, all organizations are embedded in a broader institutional environment, where institutions “influence organizations to conform to practices, policies, and structures that are consistent with institutional preferences” (Meyer and Rowan, 1977 in Eden & Miller, 2004, p. 13). As DiMaggio and Powell (1983) put it: “Organizations in a structured field […] respond to an environment that consists of other organizations responding to their environment, which consists of organizations responding to an environment of organizations’ responses” (p. 149). Effectively, the behavior of firms will partially be determined by factors outside their control, such as rules, heuristics, and values, and identifying behaviors that allow for adaptation to the environment may increase the chance of survival in the industrial ecology (Hoffman, 1999; Meyer and Rowan, 1977 in Rose et al., 2016). Essential in institutional theory is the idea that organizations compete for several things: resources and customers, political power and institutional legitimacy, and social and economic fitness. In doing this, they become increasingly homogeneous through a process of institutional isomorphism, explained as “a constraining process that forces one unit in a population to resemble other units that face the same set of environmental conditions” (Hawley, 1968 in DiMaggio & Powell, 1983, p.
149). Institutional isomorphic change occurs through three mechanisms: coercive, mimetic, and normative.
3.1 Institutional pressures: coercive, mimetic, normative
Coercive pressures stem from both formal and informal pressures on organizations by other organizations upon which they are dependent, as well as by cultural expectations in society (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983).
This includes pressures from governments, other firms, and stakeholders, which may present themselves as forces, persuasions, or invitations to join in collusion (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983). Examples of coercive pressures are the requirements for firms to incorporate various responsibilities of social, environmental, and
26 economic nature into their operations and practices (Kauppi, 2013), such as laws on reporting on CSR practices or companies’ requirements that the components or products they buy from their suppliers are of a certain quality. The extent and force of coercive pressures depend on power dynamics in the industry, which are seen as a push factor that imposes regulations or expectations on a social group (Beckert, 2010).
For supply chains, the physical environment plays an additional and crucial role as it can enable or hinder the efficient flow of materials between chain members. Firms are particularly pressured in areas that are characterized by scarcity of access, such as in congested areas of ports or terminals, or urban areas that create problems for goods deliveries (Hesse & Rodrigue, 2004). Thus, in the context of urban freight transport, it is not just social factors that exert pressures on organizations – physical space and infrastructure also impose constraints that parallel the coercive pressures of regulations and requirements (Rose et al., 2016).
According to DiMaggio and Powell (1983), mimetic isomorphism is a result of organizational actions that respond to uncertainty in the environment, which encourages imitation. Mimetic pressures come from uncertainty around technologies, organizational goals, or the operational environment, which often leads to organizations modeling themselves after similar organizations they perceive as more successful or legitimate. Kauppi (2013) explains that mimetic isomorphism often occurs in industry groups to maintain legitimacy and to minimize risks associated with being the first mover in a new market. Benchmarking and best practices are examples of mimetic pressures, but modeling of other organizations may also happen unintentionally or with the modeled organization being unaware of it happening (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983).
Normative pressures leading to isomorphism are associated with professionalization, which can be defined as “the collective struggle for members of an occupation to define the conditions and methods of their work, to control ‘the production of producers’ and to establish a cognitive base and legitimation for their occupational autonomy” (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983, p. 152). DiMaggio and Powell (1983) see two aspects of professionalization as important sources of normative isomorphism. The first aspect is the formal education and legitimation that is cognitively constructed by university specialists. The second aspect is the growth of professional networks across organizations that spread new models, concepts and practices.
Business schools and professional associations are examples of organizations that expose other organizations for normative pressures, while at the same time being targets of normative pressures in the form of various accreditations and endorsements (Kauppi, 2013). Additionally, Kauppi (2013) discusses the normative pressures that come from academics conducting empirical research, as their interaction with
27 managers may put forward influence on the use of strategies and practices that are believed to be adopted.
Beckert (2010) argues that institutional change may occur if other organizations are attracted by already existing organizational models, which they seek to imitate. As such, the actors imitating the models are not pushed towards a specific institutional solution, such as with coercive pressures, but rather pulled towards it. He states that the attraction factor is linked to the socialization that takes place in professional training and networks, being a normative pressure, and that it differs from imitation, which to a larger extent is caused by environmental uncertainty and complexity.
The core idea of institutional theory is that organizations seek to obtain stability and legitimacy in their environment. Stability may be obtained through reproducing or imitating the structures, activities, and routines of other organizations in response to pressures, expectations, and norms in the institutional environment (Oliver, 1991). Thus, the rewards for adapting to the environment includes “increased prestige, stability, legitimacy, social support, internal and external commitment, access to resources, attraction of personnel, fit into administrative categories, acceptance in professions, and invulnerability to questioning”
(Oliver, 1991, p. 150). However, as several authors have noted, although practices may be changed to adapt to various institutional pressures, this does not necessarily lead to greater efficiencies (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983; Kauppi, 2013).
3.2 Institutional theory and strategy
With the realization that institutions may have a direct impact on business strategy formulation and implementation, an institution-based view has emerged in strategic management (Peng, Sun, Pinkham, &
Chen, 2009). This moves institutions from merely constituting ‘background noise’ to directly contributing to a firm’s strategy and performance, together with industry-based competitive factors and firm-specific resources and capabilities. However, as noted by Oliver (1991), there is a lack of attention to the strategic responses and behaviors that organizations make use of as a result of institutional pressures. She applies insights from institutional and resource dependence theories and how they converge in a demonstration of how organizational behavior varies from passive conformance to active resistance depending on the nature and context of institutional pressures.
Both the institutional theory and the resource dependence theory acknowledge the influence that the external environment has on organizations, and that organizational survival depends on the responsiveness to
28 external demands and expectations. According to both theories, organizations aim for stability and legitimacy in their environment. Institutional theory focuses on the different pressures and constraints that the institutional environment imposes on organizations, and emphasizes the survival value that adaptation to the institutional environment and its rules and norms will lead to. Stability is achieved through reproducing structures, activities, or routines as a response to pressures, expectations, and norms from the environment. The focus of the resource dependence theory is that organizations face numerous demands from a range of external actors which are not always compatible, and the theory stresses the need for
“adapting to environmental uncertainty, coping with problematic interdependencies, and actively managing or controlling resource flows” (Oliver, 1991, p. 148). Stability is obtained through the use of power, control, or negotiations in an effort to secure vital resources or to reduce environmental uncertainty.
Under the assumption that organizations vary in their resistance, awareness, pro-activeness, influence, and self-interest, Oliver (1991) suggests that organizations can apply a range of strategic responses to the institutional environment. She posits that organizational responses “will vary from conforming to resistant, from passive to active, from preconscious to controlling, from impotent to influential, and from habitual to opportunistic” (p. 151), and proposes five types of strategic responses varying from passivity to increasing active resistance. These strategies are acquiescence, compromise, avoidance, defiance, and manipulation (Oliver, 1991).
Strategies Tactics Examples
Acquiesce Habit Following invisible, taken-for-granted norms
Imitate Mimicking institutional models Comply Obeying rules and accepting norms
Compromise
Balance Balancing the expectations of multiple constituents Pacify Placating and accommodating institutional elements Bargain Negotiating with institutional stakeholders
Avoid
Conceal Disguising nonconformity
Buffer Loosening institutional attachments Escape Changing goals, activities, or domains
Defy
Dismiss Ignoring explicit norms and values Challenge Contesting rules and requirements
Attack Assaulting the sources of institutional pressure
