Green Crowdshipping: Critical factors from a business perspective.

Crowdshipping implies involving nonprofessional operators in transporting goods. While its financial benefits are easy to grasp, its environmental implications much depend on the transportation mode used and whether trips are dedicated or non-dedicated. One way of greening crowdshipping services is to use public transportation (less polluting) as a mode of transportation and commuters as bringers (non-dedicated trips). This, in fact, allows minimizing both pollution and congestion at the same time. While conceptually interesting and theoretically self-evident this is practically difficult to implement and much under-studied. A literature review and in-depth interviews are the methods used in sequence to tackle the issue discussed above. The added value this paper produces is a confirmation of already existing research foci, an extension of the research agenda thanks to the investigation of adjacent research fields (passenger and freight urban integration), an enlargement of the critical factors thanks to the practical knowledge deriving form crowdshipping operators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]