Factors of adoption governing the emergence of urban consolidation centres

This paper investigates adoption factors governing the emergence of urban consolidation centres (UCCs), i.e. before UCC adoption, by various stakeholders and whether a UCC is thus an Inter-organisational innovation (IOI). The paper’s objective, using a diffusion of innovations (DOI) theory is to understand antecedent factors for UCC adoption (or not). Data collection consisted of observation of the Bristol-Bath UCC operation and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders. Findings supported the proposition that a UCC represents an IOI and increases stakeholder performance in both urban and operational contexts. Contributions include combining aspects of IOI and DOI theory to broaden understanding of stakeholder expectations of adoption factors and determining seven factors that play a key role for stakeholders to adopt this form of innovation and in understanding IOI dropouts: relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, adoption risk, trialability, partner trust, and partner power/government influence.