Consumer motivation to collaborate in last mile logistics

The growth of online shopping has significantly elevated the role of consumers as essential supply chain collaborators. Many theories and conceptual frameworks have been used, primarily in the marketing literature, to explain consumers’ motivation to collaborate with retailers in various initiatives. This study aims to develop and test a framework for the antecedents of consumer motivation to collaborate with retailer supply chains. The framework is grounded in the existing supply chain collaboration literature with additional insights from the consumer cocreation literature. The framework is tested using data gathered from consumers who actively collaborate in last mile logistics. Data analysis using partial least squared structural equation modelling reveals that existing supply chain collaboration theories only partially explain consumer motivation to collaborate. We find that while both businesses and consumers are motivated by value, consumers – unlike businesses – perceive value across multiple dimensions. We also find that systems and processes that facilitate collaboration have a direct influence on the motivation of both consumers and businesses to engage, yet the motivational triggers differ. Finally, and somewhat surprisingly, we find that the relationships that influence collaboration between businesses have no direct effect on motivating collaboration between consumers and retailers in last mile logistics. We conclude that retail practitioners need to manage consumer collaboration differently from the way they manage collaboration with other businesses.