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Tailoring Transportation Planning Decisions to Diverse Urban Environments
Author(s) -
Rose William J.,
Mollenkopf Diane A.,
Autry Chad W.,
Williams Brent D.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
decision sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.238
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1540-5915
pISSN - 0011-7315
DOI - 10.1111/deci.12397
Subject(s) - task (project management) , city logistics , routing (electronic design automation) , vehicle routing problem , construct (python library) , service (business) , business , computer science , population , urban planning , operations research , transport engineering , process management , environmental planning , marketing , geography , systems engineering , engineering , civil engineering , computer network , demography , sociology , programming language
As the world's population continues to urbanize, providing efficient and effective logistics service to customers in urban areas has become an increasingly important, but difficult task. Recent vehicle routing studies suggest that logistics planners face numerous difficulties during decision‐making due to certain complexities associated with the urban environment, but to date, specific challenges have remained unidentified. Using a multiple case study methodology, this research examines several environmental characteristics that influence vehicle routing decisions across eight U.S. urban centers, and contrasts decisions firms make when creating solutions to address these factors. Cross‐case synthesis uncovered patterns connecting specific environmental characteristics with variations on traditional vehicle routing decisions. Results allow us to construct a theoretical framework and propositions to guide managers when tailoring urban logistics strategies to urban environments having different combinations of structural characteristics.