Niklas Arvidsson har fått NECTAR PhD Award 2015 för sin avhandling ”Essays on Operational Freight Transport Efficiency and Sustainability”.
I juni fick Niklas ta emot priset på 2015 NECTAR Conference på University of Michigan i USA och i samband med detta fick han även presentera sin forskning för konferensdeltagarna.
Juryns motivering:
The author introduces the new concept of operational freight transport efficiency, in particular in relation to transport-related emissions from the perspective of the transport operator. Much attention is also given to interfaces with other actors such as transport providers/forwarders and buyers. It is noteworthy that the author reflects a critical spirit to highlight his key concepts, coined ‘phronetic social science’, which he uses to test the operational freight transport efficiency concept. This also leads to interesting lessons and findings, for instance, in relation to decarburization. A particularly challenging conclusion is that – although most operational freight transport efficiency improvement measures are likely to reduce emissions – it is probable that more cost-reduction measures will not lead to reduced emissions in the long term. Sustainable logistics is indeed a concept freight with many uncertainties and complexities. The author has published his results inter alia in leading journals, such as Transport Reviews, European Transport, and Transportation Research A.
Reading this thesis was a real delight. The thesis did not only address practical logistic issues in modern network systems and cities, but provided also interesting insights into philosophical-methodological issues, e.g., on context-dependent findings in the spirit of an Aristotelian phronetic interpretation. This PhD thesis addresses a variety of relevant and hotly disputed issues in transportation economics and freight management. It offers a series of well-articulated research questions, an operational methodology as well as a critical review of the extant literature explaining, motivating and weaving together five advanced studies in one dissertation.
The theoretical framework in his work is persuasive and the attempt of introducing a new and original approach in the transport & logistics field is successful. The Jury highly appreciated the deep thinking and the theoretical questioning in this elegant work. Both the approach and the empirical findings and lessons are no doubt challenging, although the arguments used are realistic and well documented.