Informating Transport Transparency

This paper reports on an ongoing design-driven action research effort using information systems to promote transparency in the European freight transport industry. The current lack of transparency is linked to a growth of unsustainable business practices. This can be countered by reducing information asymmetry. However, access to reliable information is hampered by the severely fragmented organizational landscape of the transport industry coupled with the ephemeral nature of services and the inherently mobile and easily reconfigured resources of the trade.
The research presented here utilizes mobile crowdsourcing techniques as a means to overcome these challenges and to reduce information asymmetry in the focal transport seller-transport buyer relation. The findings point to the positive impact of a crowdsourcing approach, yet highlight the importance of a balanced holistic network approach empowering all participants — end customers, authorities, NGOs, buyers, intermediaries and sellers — by reflecting their diverse incentives for information sharing.