3.1 Methodology and Data Collection

In this thesis, the cases of three different sustainable freight transport strategies are studied to be able to compare the acceptance of these strategies and evaluate if there are any patterns among them. As illustrated above, these three strategies are horizontal collaboration in a PI network, multimodal freight transport and LNG as an alternative fuel. This approach makes it possible to derive overarching determinants of sustainable freight transport acceptance and general policy measures which are suitable to promote sustainable freight transport. A rich data set was collected for all three cases to provide empirical evidence for this thesis. For collecting this data, a mixture of qualitative and quantitative research methods were used (Table 3.1), though the main focus was on qualitative methods (in-depth interviews, focus groups) due to the explorative nature of the research objectives. Figure 3.1 gives an overview of the empirical work conducted in the course of this thesis.

Figure 3.1
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Procedure and time frame of empirical work

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The data set was collected within the framework of several large research projects in which the author took part. These research projects are:

  • ATROPINE—Fast track to the Physical Internet, funded by the State of Upper Austria in order to design a ‘Physical Internet Innovation Chain’ for the economic region of Upper Austria. The duration of this project was from December 2015 to May 2018.

  • ChemMultimodal—Promotion of multimodal transport in the chemical industry, funded by Interreg Central Europe in order to increase the share of multimodal transport in the chemical goods industry. The duration of this project was from June 2016 to May 2019.

  • LNG Masterplan for Rhine-Main-Danube—funded by the European TEN-T programme to facilitate the implementation of LNG as an alternative fuel in line with the EU transport, energy and environmental policy goals. The duration of this project was from January 2013 to December 2015.

  • LiquID—Identifying the market potential of LNG in Austria, funded by the Austrian Ministry of Transport to assess the feasibility of introducing LNG as an alternative fuel in Austria. The duration of this project was from October 2015 to September 2016.

All four research projects are characterized by an intense involvement of the relevant stakeholders. The projects aimed to promote the specific sustainable transport strategy, be it the PI, multimodality or LNG, and therefore the main target group(s) of these strategies are addressed in the study. Table 3.1 shows which stakeholders were involved in which case study. The intense target group involvement fits with the “demand perspective” described in subchapter 1.2, which is currently neglected in sustainable freight transport studies. It is well known that whether an innovation will be accepted or rejected by its target group depends heavily on the way that user needs are integrated in the development of this innovation (Ausserer and Risser, 2005). It is recommended to involve users as early as possible in the development process to ensure their acceptance of new innovations such as sustainable freight transport strategies. This is why the target groups are deeply involved in the projects. The aim is to obtain user-centric measures which fit the needs of the target group and thereby encourage the implementation of sustainable freight transport. But who are the target groups of the sustainable freight transport strategies under study in this thesis? Three main parties in freight transport come into question (Figure 3.2). First, there are transport providers, who supply the required infrastructure (e.g. multimodal terminals or refueling stations). Logistics companies, e.g. logistics service providers (LSPs) are the transport users, because they operate transport services in their daily business. And finally, transport customers consume the transport services offered by the logistics companies. Shippers such as manufacturers and other industrial companies belong to the group of transport customers.

Figure 3.2
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Main freight transport parties

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Logistics companies are the party which realizes freight transport and in this regard they have the authority to implement sustainable practices. Transport providers are the ones that enable sustainable freight transport by supplying the required infrastructure. Transport customers are the ones that may request sustainable practices from their LSP. But in the end, the logistics company is the party which has the competence (and opportunity) to enforce sustainable freight transport (Martinsen, 2014). The logistics company has to share its resources in a PI network, and the logistics company has to operate LNG trucks. Therefore, it can be expected that logistics companies are affected the most by sustainable freight transport strategies. The focus of this thesis is therefore on logistics companies as the “users” of the transport system, and the intention is to develop user-centric policy measures which meet logistics companies’ requirements and promote their acceptance of sustainable freight transport. The three cases involve a number of Austrian logistics companies and bring in their perspectives on the PI, multimodality and LNG. The logistics companies are either involved as interview partners, focus group participants, or survey respondents. Additionally, some of them provided archival data about their business (Table 3.1).

Beside the undisputed importance of logistics companies, other stakeholders are relevant as well. For that reason, other parties are involved in the empirical investigations. As mentioned above, infrastructure providers supply the required facilities for sustainable freight transport. Shippers influence transport services with their requests. Other stakeholder groups are also relevant, as they know the market mechanisms of sustainable freight transport very well, e.g. research and development (R&D) institutions or regional development agencies. All these parties enrich the discussion of the three cases as they provide additional viewpoints and insights. Especially for the focus groups it was vital to have multifaceted discussions about the topic, therefore additional stakeholders were involved.

Table 3.1 Overview of methods and materials used in this thesis
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3.2 Theoretical Perspectives

The research process in this thesis also comprises the development of a theoretical framework to establish the theoretical background of the underlying two research objectives. The theoretical background is twofold (Figure 3.3). On the one hand, the acceptance of sustainable freight transport strategies (research objective 1 of this thesis) is explained. For that purpose, behavioral theories are used to describe logistics companies’ acceptance (Subchapter 5.1). On the other hand, theoretical support for the development of policy measures is given (research objective 2 of this thesis). A number of organizational theories are used to derive implications on how to set policy measures which encourage logistics companies to implement sustainable practices (Subchapter 6.1).

Figure 3.3
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Theoretical perspectives in the thesis

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