Children with intellectual disabilities living in residential services are a vulnerable group. They have significant needs for individually tailored support to function in daily life. At the same time, cognitive and communicative limitations pose challenges to their involvement in decisions about how they want to receive support and assistance. There is limited research, but the findings show that residential services consistently struggle to meet the support needs of children and young people with disabilities. It is unclear how staff support children's participation. Building staff capacity to meet the requirements for supporting children with intellectual disabilities requires organisational changes through person-centred approaches, implementing measures to assess human functioning, and ongoing quality improvement (QI) focused on personal outcomes. Process evaluations that emphasise inputs, activities, and outcomes, along with their interrelations, can enhance the understanding of how and why a programme or support initiative succeeds or fails in implementation.

The overall aim of this thesis is to explore and develop programme theory to support the development of staff working methods in residential services for children with intellectual disabilities. The empirical material was primarily collected during the implementation of a support development programme, in which residential staff tested new working methods to improve individual support for children between 2020 and 2023.

Four subsidiary studies have been carried out to gather knowledge that contributes to the overall aim. Study 1 explored staff experiences and conditions for co-producing with children in residential services, using focus groups. Data were analysed through qualitative content analysis. Realist evaluation was employed to identify barriers and enablers (Study II) and to explore programme theory (Study III) during the staging of the support development programme. Study IV examined aspects of child involvement in the support development programme, using deductive content analysis and coding of child case studies, using data from Studies II and III.

Critical realism served as the philosophical framework to synthesise and develop findings from the sub-studies in response to the overall aim. Specifically, by exploring and developing programme theory through the identification and description of the mechanisms, contextual variables, outputs, and outcomes related to the introduction of working methods that help staff plan, implement, follow-up, and involve children with intellectual disability in support interventions within residential services. The findings can assist programme managers and leaders in residences with special services to adapt implementation strategies and support mechanisms to achieve desirable outcomes in their specific operational contexts. Additionally, the findings can serve as a foundation for further knowledge development on working methods for supporting development in residential services and related practices.

The rapid expansion of e-commerce and the contraction of brick-and-mortar store networks have elevated last-mile distribution from an operational concern to a strategic priority in omni-channel retailing. Omni-channel retailers face a fundamental tension: consumers increasingly expect a wide range of delivery alternatives and free delivery options, while last-mile distribution costs constitute a substantial proportion of retail revenues. Retailers can create last-mile distribution competitive advantages by strategically influencing consumers’ delivery choices. This thesis seeks to advance understanding of strategic consumer steering in omni-channel last-mile distribution and its role in creating competitive advantage. The purpose was to develop an understanding of strategic consumer steering in omni-channel last-mile distribution and its role in creating competitive advantage.

The research presented in this thesis establishes consumer steering as a distinct research area within last-mile distribution in omni-channel retailing and demonstrates its strategic importance. The findings show that last mile is highly configurable, and a last-mile configuration framework was developed. Last-mile distribution cost minimisation and free last-mile distribution service performance are conceptualised as potential sources of last-mile distribution competitive advantage. Free last-mile distribution service performance may be achieved through either selective or widespread free last-mile delivery coverage. Last-mile consumer steering is conceptualised as comprising single, dual, and simultaneous consumer steering capabilities that orchestrate last-mile distribution resources and support last-mile distribution competitive advantages and superior financial performance. The findings further identify potential sources of last-mile distribution competitive advantage arising from consumer steering capability configurations associated with superior performance that orchestrate last-mile distribution resources across four distinct retailer groups. These findings are consistent with recent research suggesting that lower last-mile distribution costs can generate competitive advantages, for example by enabling the development of new and profitable consumer offerings. Furthermore, the findings suggest that simultaneous steering, conditionally free remote deliveries, and delivery partner steering formed part of configurations associated with superior financial performance across four distinct retailer groups characterised by different firm sizes and sales channel mixes.

The research contributes to the resource-based view by conceptualising last-mile consumer steering capabilities as capabilities that orchestrate last-mile distribution resources; by identifying last-mile distribution and consumer steering capabilities that may constitute sources of competitive advantage; by demonstrating that consumer steering is highly configurable; by identifying potential strategic fits between consumer steering capability configurations associated with superior financial performance and different retailer groups; and by showing which last-mile distribution capabilities these configurations may support. The research contributes to transaction cost economics in the last-mile context by providing insights into delivery partner governance and the minimisation of transaction costs associated with last-mile distribution. Finally, it contributes to configuration theory by demonstrating that last mile is highly configurable, by developing a last-mile configuration framework, and by identifying last-mile configurations associated with superior performance.

From a practical perspective, the research presented in this thesis offers actionable insights for managers responsible for last-mile decisions in increasingly competitive retail environments.

It should be acknowledged that the causal relationships between consumer steering capabilities, strategically aligned configurations, last-mile distribution competitive advantages, and superior financial performance have not been conclusively established. Nevertheless, the findings provide a valuable foundation for further research on strategic consumer steering and last-mile distribution in non-grocery omni-channel retailing.