Service Traffic: an entrepreneurial view on travel behaviour

Abstract

Services become more and more important in industrialized countries. Yet, very little is known about the traffic initiated by the provision of these services. Particularly, the role of firms is an unexplored field of research. However, to know how firms influence travel behaviour is crucial for practitioners and modelling commercial transport as a whole. The paper provides new perspectives on how companies affect travel behaviour, covering the field of service traffic. We use two different empirical datasets (two German surveys) to reveal crucial predictors which allow insight into the entrepreneurial impact on travel characteristics and patterns. Applying cluster analysis and logistic regression modelling it is shown that internal structure, internal process and external structure factors have a significant impact on travel patterns and behaviour.