An Empirical Investigation of Specific Uncertainties in the Distribution of Products from Renewable Resources

The growing demand for products from renewable resources makes their efficient usage and distribution steadily important. In comparison to other raw materials, renewable resources exhibit a number of distinctive features, which also affect the design of the distribution system. The objective of this study is to analyze the specific uncertainties in the distribution of products from renewable resources. It shall be examined empirically to what extent the companies in the German forestry and wood cluster are affected by uncertainties with regard to the availability, quality, prices and origin of the used renewable resources and what problems can be caused by these uncertainties especially in the distribution of the products.

To answer the research questions, several industries within the German forestry and wood cluster were examined. This enables an analysis along the entire value chain and a comparison between various industries. In order to obtain well-reasoned answers that are as detailed as possible and to do justice to the explorative character of this study, a qualitative research design was chosen. For the factors quality, availability, price and origin, it was asked if fluctuations and/or uncertainties do exist with regard to the distributed products, how significant they are for the companies, what problems can result due to this and what the expectations are for the future. In order to analyze the relevance of the represented uncertainties for the respective industry independently of the situation of the individual companies, the survey was conducted at the level of the industrial associations. For this purpose, a structured, qualitative questionnaire was sent to the managing directors of the respective associations.

Analysis was carried out in the form of a content-structuring qualitative content analysis (Mayring 2010). Special Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) Software supports both the actual evaluation as well as the subsequent documentation and therefore increases the verifiability and thereby the quality of the results. In this study, the most commonly used QDA Software in Germany MAXQDA was used.

The results of the study show that the specific uncertainties with regard to products from renewable resources do in fact exist in the analyzed industries and are considered to be significant by the associations. In this, though, also industry-specific differences due to the different products and markets need to be considered. Further, the causes for these uncertainties were analyzed in greater detail. The cause mentioned most frequently for availability and price fluctuations was competition in material and energetic usage of renewable resources. It could also be shown that these uncertainties have a direct impact on the distribution of the products. Thus, availability uncertainty can e.g. lead to cost-intensive storage and supply problems, quality uncertainty to rejected deliveries and loss of orders, price uncertainty to greater difficulties in sales calculation and origin uncertainty to trade restrictions. Furthermore, it became clear that the importance of the represented uncertainties for the companies and the distribution of the products will continue to increase according to the associations. These findings carry important implications for marketers, practioners and public policy makers.