Speaker
Description
This research focuses on the urban freight sector, a critical component of city planning and operations. Despite the sector's significance, it typically receives less strategic attention compared to passenger transport. With an annual growth rate of 1.7% for light goods vehicles and 10% for e-commerce, the freight sector's complexity is underscored by diverse stakeholder goals that prioritize economic efficiency over public goods. Urban logistics innovations, such as crowd shipping, green vehicles, and ICT solutions, are widely discussed in the literature, yet coordinated efforts remain limited.
Innovation in urban freight is examined through a co-evolutionary framework involving niche radical innovations, regimes, and landscapes. This study adopts an ecosystem approach to model the innovation lifecycle, tracking firms' innovation journeys as they interact with universities, the public sector, and markets to acquire knowledge units. These knowledge components, sourced from various stakeholders, are critical but vary across different innovation phases: Concept (TRL 1-3), Prototype Development (TRL 4-6), and Prototype (TRL 7-9).
The primary aim is twofold: to replicate the innovation lifecycle in the urban freight industry using an ecosystem approach and to develop a practical tool to assist policymakers in testing policy interventions. The model was calibrated with data from the 2018 Community Innovation Survey (CIS) for NACE sector H. Two experiments, varying enterprise death rates, were conducted across Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Hungary to validate the model's ability to mimic real-world urban freight ecosystems.
Three scenarios were defined for comparison: Business as Usual (BAU), Long Term Living Lab (LTLL), and Single Project or Product-oriented Living Lab (SPLL). Results indicate that firms reach the final prototype stage within a range of 14 to 36 years under fixed rates and 14 to 21 years under distributed death rates. Distributed death rates increased the number of firms reaching the prototype phase by year 30 and lowered death rates for small firms by 7-10 points compared to fixed rates.
The LTLL scenario yielded the most promising outcomes. Enhanced actor engagement and opportunities for feedback led to the largest number of firms reaching the prototype stage. Medium-sized firms benefitted the most, achieving the highest proportion of innovators, while large firms also saw notable gains. However, small firms showed no significant difference in performance compared to the BAU scenario. Nonetheless, the LTLL scenario achieved ecosystem stability for small firms five years earlier than BAU.
These findings highlight the importance of fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange to enhance innovation and resilience in urban freight systems. By simulating interactions between firms, universities, and public stakeholders, the model demonstrates the potential for a triple helix approach to promote innovation. The use of data from NACE sector H illustrates the model's applicability to transport and storage sectors, though it can be adapted to other industries for comparative studies.
This research contributes to bridging the gap between policy appraisal and practitioner skills by offering a simple yet effective simulation tool. It underscores the role of the public sector as a coordinator and orchestrator of innovation ecosystems. The insights from this study can inform more effective policy design, support long-term innovation strategies, and facilitate the transition toward more sustainable urban freight systems.
References
Bate, A., Wachira, E. & Danka, S., 2023. The determinants of innovation performance: an income-based cross-country comparative analysis using the Global Innovation Index (GII). Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Issue https://doi.org/10.1186/s13731-023-00283-2.
Beckmann, M., McGuire, C. B. & Winsten, C. B., 1957. Studies in the Economics of Transportation. The Economic Journal, pp. 116-118.
Bruno, I. et al., 2020. Technology readiness revisited: a proposal for expending the scope of impact assessment of European public services. Athens, ICEGOV2020.
Clayton, P., Feldman, M. & Lowe, N., 2018. Behind the Scenes: Intermediary organizations that facilitate science commercialization through entrepreneurship. Academy of Management Perspectives.
Ferraris, A., Santoro, G. & Pellicelli, A. C., 2020. “Openness” of public governments in smart cities: removing the barriers for innovation and entrepreneurship. International Entrepreneurship and management Journal.
Grosso, M. et al., 2019. Innovation Capacity of the European transport sector, Ispra: JRC .
| Keywords | innovation ecosystems; urban freight; city planning; city management |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
