The Emergence of City Logistics: The Case of Copenhagen’s Citylogistik-kbh

Purpose: Many city logistics projects in Europe have failed. The purpose of this article is to increase understanding of how city logistics emerge. A better understanding of the complex organizational processes with many actors and stakeholders in city logistics projects may prevent further failures.
Design/methodology/approach: Theory on organizational change is applied to capture the processes leading to emergence of city logistics. The methodology is process analysis on a single longitudinal case.
Findings: The emergence of the Copenhagen city logistics project can be understood as a change process where the city is working to change paradigm from a conventional top down regulation to a sustainable mobility paradigm. This long lasting and complex process towards improved organization of goods deliveries in the Copenhagen city center can further be understood as a teleological process where the city as the change agent communicates, involves and invites actors to participate in this process. The change is, however, slow, and a sustainable change is still not created.
Research limitations: The methodology of a single context specific case study does not make prediction possible. The study aims at understanding the social processes towards reduced congestion and greenhouse gas emissions from goods transport in inner cities.
Originality/value: By better understanding the organization processes leading to implementation of city logistics, other projects in other cities may learn from the Copenhagen case. The paper contributes to the creation of a new transport planning paradigm where stakeholders are involved.