The Rise of Crowd Logistics: A New Way to Co‐Create Logistics Value

Valentina Carbone, Aurélien Rouquet and Christine Roussat ()
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Valentina Carbone: ESCP Europe - Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris
Aurélien Rouquet: NEOMA - Neoma Business School
Christine Roussat: UCA [2017-2020] - Université Clermont Auvergne [2017-2020], CRET-LOG - Centre de Recherche sur le Transport et la Logistique - AMU - Aix Marseille Université

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Abstract: Patterned on crowdsourcing and crowdfunding, a new crowd practice has emerged in recent years: crowd logistics. In this paper, we propose a first conceptualization of this growing phenomenon. Crowd logistics is a novel way of providing logistics services that taps into the dormant logistics resources and capabilities of individuals, using mobile applications and web‐based platforms. Although crowd logistics has been widely discussed in the business world, it has not yet been the subject of any academic publication. Following an exploratory case study approach, we review the websites of 57 crowd logistics initiatives around the world and highlight the main distinctive characteristics of crowd logistics, as compared to traditional business logistics. We introduce a segmented analysis in which crowd logistics solutions are classified according to four types of service offered. Finally, we introduce six theoretical propositions on the future development of crowd logistics. At a theoretical level, our findings contribute to enriching the service‐dominant logic perspective in the logistics field by conceptualizing the crowd as a co‐creator of logistics value. At a managerial level, our findings contribute to identifying which types of crowd logistics services are more likely to threaten or disrupt traditional business.

Keywords: crowd practices; consumer logistics; sharing economy; logistics service providers; value co‐creation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-08-28
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://uca.hal.science/hal-03118967
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (33)

Published in Journal of Business Logistics, 2017, 38 (4), pp.238-252. ⟨10.1111/jbl.12164⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03118967

DOI: 10.1111/jbl.12164

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