Stakeholder management theory as an opportunity for synchromodal market expansion

Synchromodality is a new transportation strategy introduced in 2010 by the Strategisch Platform Logistiek and was part of the advice given to the government of the Netherlands regarding the development of the Dutch logistics industry. It offers an advantage over intermodal hinterland transportation in its use of dynamic planning and real-time switching. By doing so, it promises to deliver lower negative externalities, improved utilization of all hinterland modality assets, increased transportation reliability, and lower transportation cost. While pricing has been raised as a consideration in positioning this concept in the market and the difficult task of aligning stakeholders’ interests is acknowledged, there is a gap in the research with respect to commercial aspects, specifically the challenge for synchromodal transport operators to identify how to generate the volumes necessary to create ‘high corridor’ lanes in which the concept will thrive. The process is complex and there are many stakeholders who all need to be aligned, or synchronized, for the process to work. Stakeholder management theory highlights the existence of multiple stakeholders having an influence on or being affected by the outcome of another stakeholder’s actions, having varying interests and who are motivated to protect their interests and improve the results of their objectives. They do this by aligning with other stakeholders to pool resources, capitalize on complementary capabilities, achieve economies of scale, innovate, mitigate problems, reduce costs, and improve the efficiency of executing formal and informal contractual arrangements. This thesis seeks to answer the question, “What is the opportunity for stakeholder management theory to be applied to further develop the market for synchromodal transportation?” This is done by investigating the following sub-questions: What is stakeholder theory? What is synchromodality? Who are the stakeholders in synchromodal transportation? What evidence of stakeholder management theory principles is present thus far in the development of synchromodal transport? What opportunities remain to further integrate stakeholders in the process? The hypothesis is that concepts from stakeholder management theory can be applied to the synchromodal transport concept to understand the stakeholders and identify ways in which stakeholder relationship strengths can be capitalized to unlock the market for synchromodal transportation. The objective of this study is to apply the knowledge related to successful collaborative stakeholder relationships with the extensive list of stakeholders in the business of international containerized transportation to the hinterland to identify where there are opportunities to generate the necessary volume to make a synchromodal strategy feasible. After an extensive review of the literature on stakeholder management theory, hinterland transportation and synchromodal transportation, the Delphi technique was applied in two rounds to analyze stakeholders with respect to their role in synchromodal transportation. The conclusion from this research confirms the hypothesis that concepts from stakeholder management theory can be applied to the synchromodal transport concept to understand stakeholders in the process and identify ways in which stakeholder relationship strengths can be capitalized to unlock the market for synchromodal transportation. From this, several recommendations are offered as to how synchromodal transportation stakeholders should engage in the process. Lastly, several recommendations for additional research are suggested.