Abstract:

This study examines how incumbent logistics firms in the United Kingdom interpret and respond to Autonomous Delivery Robots (ADRs) within last-mile delivery. Although ADRs are expanding globally, adoption in the UK remains limited and uneven. Drawing on the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) with a regime-level focus, the study explores how landscape pressures and niche innovations shape organisational behaviour and strategic decision-making. The Technology Readiness Index (TRI) is adapted as a micro-level interpretive framework, conceptualised through managerial dispositions of optimism, innovativeness, discomfort, and insecurity toward ADR integration. Using semi-structured interviews with logistics managers, the research investigates how organisations interpret structural pressures and how experiences from ADR pilots influence subsequent strategic choices. The study aims to identify enabling and constraining factors affecting progression from experimentation to broader deployment and to refine MLP by embedding readiness-orientated managerial interpretations within regime-level transition analysis in UK last-mile delivery.

Please choose your submission type: Developmental Paper

Primary Track: Sustainable and Responsible Business

Keywords: responsible business;technology/digital business);case study;interviews

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Mr. Ibrahim Abacha