Reducing transportation emissions : A reaction to stakeholder pressure or a strategy to increase competitive advantage

Purpose – 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. Design/methodology/approach – 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. Findings – 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,...

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