Delivery driver as boundary spanner: Dealing with conflicting stakeholder expectations in an urban logistics supply chain

Abstract En

Based on exploratory qualitative research conducted in partnership with REGA, a HoReCa beverage distributor in eastern France, this research aims to understand how specific boundary spanners of last-mile logistics in an urban context manage conflicting expectations from multiple stakeholders. By being at the crossroads of multiple urban stakeholders, mainly their employer, the customers, residents, and local and national authorities, delivery drivers act as boundary spanners. Although they are often considered as executing links without any real strategic dimension in the supply chain, the results of this work show that the delivery drivers manage conflicting stakeholders’ expectations through individual strategies (avoiding contradictions, deciding between expectations, and absorbing contradictions). In this way, they help their company to develop in a field where incompatible institutional logics coexist - logistics efficiency and customer service - with societal-specific one - employee well-being. By doing this, they enable the company to meet logistical expectations in an urban context while meeting contradictory stakeholders' expectations.