Disembedding air from e-commerce parcels: A joint challenge for supply chain actors

Journal article, 2022

The increasing use of e-commerce has brought attention to the problem of excessive air in e-commerce parcels. Within this context, the paper sets out to illustrate how e-commerce parcels are embedded in a network of resources controlled by various actors, each with their own perspective on how to tackle the problem of excessive air in e-commerce parcels and its associated challenges. The findings are derived from a single case study relying on 33 interviews, field visits, a workshop and secondary data. The article is grounded in Industrial Network Theory and particularly the Resource Interaction Approach, which enables an analysis of how air as a resource can be disembedded from e-commerce parcels. The results offer insights for firms involved in e-commerce supply chains into various actors' perspectives on air in e-commerce parcels and how firms can start tackling the challenge of reducing it. The paper concludes that even though excessive air in parcels has received much attention lately, this problem is not always highly prioritised and only one of many considerations for firms.