ABSTRACT
This paper explores transport purchasing among companies in Sweden and France. The purpose is to analyse shippers’ management of transport purchasing, e.g organisation and provider selection criteria. A cross-case analysis of 20 companies based in France and Sweden, identifies similarities and differences between transport purchasing management practices in these two geographical and cultural contexts. This research makes an academic contribution from a managerial point of view comparing transport solution selection criteria within European countries. It also allows to collect rich data on shipper’s perceptions regarding their providers’ environmental practices. The results suggest that environmental concerns are more influential to the carrier selection for the Swedish shippers than for the French shippers. Although French government settled a legislation (decree 2011–1336) to help carriers calculating their carbon dioxide emissions, shippers do not value the compliance of this decree and estimate more voluntary programs. We observed that an accurate and standardized method for measuring transportation carbon dioxide emissions was still lacking, making environmental comparison between carriers difficult.
