Mobility-as-a-Service: A Tentative Framework for Analysing Institutional Conditions

Paper in proceeding, 2017

A theoretical framework has been developed with the aim to generate knowledge of and policy recommendations for the promotion of integrated mobility services - or MaaS - with specific regard to institutional dimensions. These are services where a passenger’s transport needs are met by a service that not only integrates a range of mobility services, both public and private, but also provides one-stop access to all services through a common interface. These types of services are currently being developed in several cities globally, and it is essential to develop further understanding and explain how institutions can enable, but also impede, their realisation. Institutions are here defined as a relatively stable collection of rules and practices, embedded in structures that enable action. As such, the framework includes factors at the macro, meso and micro levels, thus including societal trends as well as individual's needs and behaviour. The macro level includes broader social and political factors, including both formal rules and more informal social norms and perceptions. The division between formal and informal variables recur on the meso and micro levels respectively. The meso level – which includes both public and private actors at regional and local levels – consists of both formal institutional factors such as taxation and regulations, and informal factors such as organisational culture and inherited networks between regional actors. Each actor enters the collaborative processes that signify IMS with their own ideals, interests and expectations. It is in these processes of negotiation that the framework takes its point of departure. It is also in this context that business models will be developed, another central aspect of the realisation of MaaS. Finally, the framework includes the micro level, where an individual perspective is placed at centre stage. Individuals (in their roles as citizens, customers, and users) are affected by various formal incentives and push factors, as well as more informal aspects such as self-image and social status. Findings from literature as well as different cases illuminate the framework and which institutional factors enable or constrain the development of MaaS. The findings will provide the empirical and analytical foundation for suggestions on how formal and informal rules and practices can be modified to enable new MaaS to contribute to sustainable mobility.

Full paper is available at: https://aetransport.org/past-etc-papers/conference-papers-2017?abstractId=5670&state=b