Tatjana Mirosnicenko won the 2018 KPMG-RSM Sustainability Master Thesis Award for her thesis entitled E-grocery: the effectiveness of content sharing on social media in promoting green slot choice behavior. The MSc graduate was presented the award at the RSM Sustainability Forum 2018, hosted by the Dutch Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM).
The jury consisted of Jerwin Tholen, director sustainability at KPMG Advisory; Jan Bom, editor P+; and Henriëtte Davelaar, Programme manager Sustainability at PGGM. “Tatjana provides e-commerce professionals with a win-win-win-win solution,” said Tholen. “Her thesis provides social media opportunities for consumers to show off their choice for ‘green slots’ for online grocery deliveries. The applicability to business makes this thesis very interesting.”
Four clear wins
Mirosnicenko, who graduated from RSM’s MSc Supply Chain Management in 2017, described four clear wins for retailers in her thesis:
- Transport efficiency and a reduced footprint of traffic, not only through the delivery vehicle itself but also the reduction of emissions from cars that have to wait when streets are blocked. By promoting ‘green-slots’, consumers are incentivised to pick similar time-frames that will lead to consolidation of shipments.
- Increased brand loyalty: consumers like the solution and feel good about it.
- Increased brand awareness: every post on social media contributes to a green image of the retailer.
- Cost reductions for the retailer and transporter. Green slot choices stimulate customer to have their orders delivered around the same time. In this way, shipments can be consolidated and transportation can be reduced.
Source: RSM