Abstract:
The warehouse infrastructure in Poland has been steadily developing. The market, due to lower costs of labor and improved road infrastructure, has become very important. As a result, business analysts are now confronted with the problem of finding new, convenient locations for investment, which requires careful consideration that takes into account many factors. The term warehouse infrastructure refers to facilities that have been organized and equipped for handling goods. Among the processes that may take place at such modern facilities are: storage, production, and release of products. The research problem addressed in this article, formulated following a review of the literature on the subject, is articulated in the form of a research question, the answer to which achieves the objective of the paper. The question is: "what factors have the strongest influence on the choice of a warehouse location?". The relevance of the research problem to be verified is justified by the fact of the ever growing interest in and importance of warehouse space in Poland. What also is of increasing importance is the aspect of the spatial location of warehouse facilities, including factors that determine the location of warehouse buildings in a particular area. To impart a quantitative and statistically verifiable dimension to the specified research problem, the following two research hypotheses were formulated and tested in the study:
- the literature identifies "the availability of transport infrastructure (including transport corridors)" as the most important factor determining the location of warehouse facilities,
- developers consider "the availability of transport infrastructure (including transport corridors)" to be the most important factor determining the location of warehouse facilities.
The two research hypotheses were defined as a result of the authors' research in the field of warehouse management. Moreover, they determined the adoption of the selected research methodology (document analysis and diagnostic survey).
This article closes a certain cognitive and scientific gap. While the factors that influence the choice of warehouse location have been identified and described in the available literature, there is a lack of empirical research on the relevance of these factors from the point of view of commercial property developers.
