Background: Extensive research highlights the economic benefits of collaboration among parcel delivery service providers, yet mutually advantageous cooperative arrangements remain limited in Hungary’s online shopping sector. Service providers typically prefer to operate independently rather than cooperate with competitors. However, the COVID-19 pandemic significantly altered industry dynamics, leading to increased collaboration. Methods: Against this backdrop, this study explores two key research questions. First, it examines the role of economic narratives in shaping market dynamics. Second, it investigates the cognitive biases influencing decision-makers during the pandemic, based on an analysis of Hungary’s parcel delivery sector. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with key actors in the logistics industry, and the data were analyzed using abductive thematic analysis. Results: The findings reveal that specific economic narratives, such as those emphasizing efficiency and safety, indirectly influenced market mechanisms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, the shift in consumer demand towards contactless parcel lockers created new incentives for collaboration. Additionally, this study demonstrates that decision-makers exhibited cognitive biases such as risk aversion, which affected their willingness to cooperate. Conclusions: The research concludes that strong economic incentives can override these biases, fostering collaboration among service providers.

The parcel delivery market functions as a complex system, according to the authors of this article. By comprehending and outlining the unique characteristics of the complex system, the authors aim to substantiate their assertion. The Covid pandemic in Hungary's Courier, Express, and Parcel market in 2020 caused a previously unprecedented increase in parcel delivery demands similarly to other countries. The epidemic-related rise in e-commerce additionally resulted significant changes to the approach by which the parcel delivery industry operated. Unexpected collaboration amongst service providers started to emerge on the parcel market in 2021. These alterations are of a kind that suggests the behavioural characteristics of a complex system. Considering that the leading service providers' autonomous operations constitute the primary characteristic of the Hungarian parcel delivery market, an analysis from a scientific perspective of the events that transpired in the Hungarian parcel delivery market is imperative to understand the reasons for this shift. Two research questions have been formulated by the authors, one of which investigates whether the parcel delivery market is considered as a system (complex system), it is conceivable for collaboration to emerge spontaneously if this is the most effective form for the system. The other research question concerns whether cooperation can be established in a market without external interference. To provide an explanation for the developments that transpired between 2020 and 2022, the authors analyse the Hungarian parcel delivery market as a complex system. In complex systems, transformation and self-organization occur naturally when the system decides that a particular shape is best for it in its current environment. During the time under review, the equilibrium of the parcel delivery market in Hungary was disrupted by the unanticipated rise in e-commerce, and the increased demands of customers nearly brought the service providers to a state of chaos. Consequently, the behaviour of service providers started to shift from their previous standards. The article's uniqueness is in its classification of the parcel delivery market as a complex system, which can be used to anticipate the current and expected behaviour of the stakeholders.

The scientific community has been addressing the topic of last-mile delivery for years. To improve parcel delivery efficiency, a variety of different technologies have been created. Over the past 15 years, the focus has shifted from the operational efficiency of the individual organization to restoring sustainability and making cities more livable. As a result of the increased environmental burden, governments are enacting a growing number of restrictive measures, which will intensify economic challenges. To remain competitive, more cost-effective solutions are required. The goal of this article is to examine the significance of collaboration between CEP partners based on scientific interest, with the help of a systematic literature review. This examination is important since, despite the fact that working together with other service providers and competitors could be a favorable option for last mile suppliers looking to improve their efficiency, results show little interest in this approach. Although this strategy appears straightforward due to the potential financial and environmental benefits, there are only a few examples of collaboration in the field of last mile parcel delivery according to the results of the review. Since cooperation seems to be an inevitable operating model of the CEP market in the future, it is of utmost importance for scientific research to investigate the factors hindering the development of cooperation.

The decisions of company managers are often not guided by the regulations governing the environment but by subjective factors that exert their effects in a hidden way in the decision-making manager's behavior. Market behavior is objectively controlled by regulators, but subjective factors lead to poor decision-making in some cases. On the one hand, the principal-agent problem is revealed behind the subjective factors, and on the other, cognitive biases affect the decision-making leader as a person. Cooperation with competitors from the same sector and sustainability issues are two similar areas where there is an opportunity to examine these concerns and where the nature of companies' decision-making shows similar or identical patterns on the basis of which decision-making behavior can be explored, characterized, and understood. This thesis examines the attitude of the managers of two existing Courier, Express, and Parcel market players regarding possible market cooperation. In-depth interviews and the completion of a unique questionnaire that revealed the presence of cognitive bias were the basis for the research. During the investigation, the cognitive bias influencing the decision of the two company managers was identified, and it was also examined whether the parent company or the owner's opinion affected their decision. The two case studies demonstrate how managers' decisions to develop collaborations are influenced by their prior experiences and prejudices.

The restrictive measures during the Covid pandemic resulted in an unexpected growth in e-commerce, which growth has continued since the epidemic. The growth of e-commerce also increased the number of last mile parcel delivery transactions. The growth of last mile parcel logistics also resulted in an increasing number of cars, emissions and traffic problems. City governments introduce restrictive measures against increased environmental burdens, which imposes an additional burden on parcel logistics providers. Collaboration among last-mile service providers can assist boost productivity while at the same time lowering harmful environmental effects. However, there is little service provider cooperation in this industry. This study analyses the development of cooperation between service providers based on an examination of a Central-Eastern European Courier, Express, Parcel (CEP) market, which has market characteristics that can be referred to as typical for this area such as: a small number of dominant service providers; a large number of small service providers who are usually subcontractors of the dominant ones; individualistic operation. The market structure of the example country being presented is oligopoly, which is typical of the CEP market of the countries in the region. The analysis of the Hungarian market is supplemented by the creation of a model that simulates cooperation, which shows that the quantity of delivery vehicles, the distance travelled by the trucks, and the degree of environmental impact brought on by all of this can be decreased.