  Citation: Alharbi, A.; Cantarelli, C.; Brint, A. Crowd Models for Last Mile Delivery in an Emerging Economy. Sustainability 2022, 14, 1401. https:// doi.org/10.3390/su14031401 Academic Editors: Guido Perboli, Stefano Musso and Mariangela Rosano Received: 31 December 2021 Accepted: 18 January 2022 Published: 26 January 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). sustainability Article Crowd Models for Last Mile Delivery in an Emerging Economy Ahmad Alharbi * , Chantal Cantarelli and Andrew Brint Management School, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 1FL, UK; c.c.cantarelli@sheffield.ac.uk (C.C.); a.brint@sheffield.ac.uk (A.B.) * Correspondence: aalharbi5@sheffield.ac.uk Abstract: The dramatic rise in online shopping means that the last mile delivery (LMD) task is becoming extremely important. However, last mile delivery faces many economic, social, and envi- ronmental challenges. A fast-growing innovative solution is Crowd Logistics Delivery (CLD). This study investigates how CLD is meeting these challenges in a rapidly emerging economy (Saudi Arabia). It uses semi-structured interviews to analyse CLD from the perspectives of multiple stake- holders, focusing on its implementation, benefits to different stakeholders, and its limitations. While the findings of this study broadly support the work of other studies in this area, it provides several new insights. It observed three different business models being used for CLD: B2B, B2C, and C2C. It identified the internal success factors of each business model, including registration, assigning orders, compensation, and the payment model. It revealed the motivations for stakeholders to use CLD as a last mile delivery solution, such as LMD-related benefits and the social impact on society. In addition, the study highlighted the four main challenges these CLD implementations face that impede their success: legislation, availability of supply/drivers, trust, and culture. These results add to the rapidly expanding field of CLD. Keywords: last mile delivery; crowd logistics; business model; stakeholder analysis 1. Introduction Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the relentless rise in online ordering meant that last mile delivery (LMD) was a key element of city logistics. Since the advent of COVID-19, it has become even more crucial. Recently there has been increasing interest in using Crowd Logistics Delivery (CLD) for this key stage in the delivery chain. In CLD, retailers let individuals cover the last mile for other shoppers [1] with the crowd being defined as individuals who choose to undertake the last mile delivery task [2–6]. Buldeo Rai et al. define crowd logistics as: “an information connectivity enabled marketplace concept that matches supply and demand for logistics services with an undefined and external crowd that has free capacity with regards to time and/or space, participates on a voluntary basis, and is compensated accordingly” ([5], page 1) (also quoted in [7]). Therefore, the growing interest in CLD is expected to continue to rise as the move to smart cities improves the information and communications technology (ICT), providing the ‘crowd’ with better knowledge of the real time marketplace and reducing the knowledge imbalance with large logistics providers [7,8]. Although the use of CLD has been increasing, a number of implementations have not been viable, for instance some start-ups, such as WebVan and Kozmo.com, failed due to an absence of critical volume. Similarly, Myways is no longer available [9], and Metro Post (a USPS service) has been phased out [2]. Therefore, a deeper understanding of the CLD models and their strengths and weaknesses is needed. While a number of analyses of LMD have been published in advanced economies [10–12], there have been relatively few Sustainability 2022, 14, 1401. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031401 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability