Research plan

MBM - MaaS Business Models in three money flow scenarios

Overview

Background

Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) is a nascent concept, which moves beyond specific transportation services (eg. private cars, car sharing, autonomous vehicles, bicycles, city bikes, public transport) and focuses on the need of the individual to move from A to B with any available means. At the core of the idea are two cornerstones: utilising multimodal existing transportation possibilities to cross the distance, and having a platform through which the journey can be planned, and the diversity of transportation services be accessed and payed for.

The current business ecosystem of mobility has evolved together with the rise of the contemporary cities. As a result, it is closely intertwined with other areas of urban development, underpinned by business models shaped to fit the current economic landscape. Therefore, understanding the economic scenarios accompanying the potential diffusion of MaaS systems is important from also from the perspective of public planning: to what extent is it possible to rely on the markets and competition to create socially and environmentally sustainable and technologically feasible mobility solutions, and to what extent are political interventions and subventions needed? In addition, there is an increasing call for understanding the business models underlying and contributing to the systemic adoption of MaaS.

While prior research has explored MaaS from the perspectives of technological possibilities and requirements (ie. electric and autonomous vehicles) and individual business applications (ie. car sharing services, city bikes and scooters), few studies have taken an ecosystem level economic perspective to focus on what the diffusion of MaaS would mean in terms of redirecting money flows. In short, there are three possible scenarios: the money flows of human mobility either remain the same, decrease or increase. In the first two scenarios the redirection of those flows means that there will be economic losers, whereas the implications of the last scenario for the environmental sustainability and societal impact need understanding.

Aim and research questions

In this research collaboration project, we explore the three money flow scenarios and their business model implications in case of Mobility-as-a-Service model adoption:

1)   The amount of money used in mobility remains the same: how do the MaaS business models look like? Who are the losers, who the winners in case of redistribution – also considering the wider business ecosystem?

2)   The amount of money increases: why would that happen? Who would be the paying parties (households, public sector), and where would that money be away from? What economic implications would this major redirection of society level money flows have? How would this trend be reflected in MaaS business models?

3)   The amount of money decreases: why would that happen? Which economic actors would remain profitable and with what types of business models? Considering the complexity of MaaS model, with diverse business actors involved, how could it be possible for all to get a slice of the diminishing margins?

The aims of this research collaboration are to create knowledge about the possible and plausible business models that would accompany the diffusion of MaaS, and to explore the systemic effects of MaaS adoption from the perspectives of business and public decision-making, as well as means to solve potential market failures.

Execution

Research methods and outcomes

Data collection builds on three elements: literature review on extant insights about MaaS, a Delphi study, and scenario workshops.

The Delphi will be carried out in three rounds with an online tool, and the expert participants of the Delphi will represent mobility start-ups, established mobility related businesses, MaaS-oriented researchers and public sector. The first set of questions will be designed in collaboration between the researchers and representatives of the city of Turku, and the participants will be enlisted starting from the CIVITAS ECCENTRIC WP3 network and from the researchers identified through scrutinizing the existing MaaS-literature. The second round builds on the insights and harvested suggestions about additional questions and participants from the first round, and the third round provides an additional analytical layer to the so far emergent discussion.

The Delphi data will be used as grounds for two scenario workshops, one organized in the fall 2019, and the other in spring 2020. The participants of the workshops represent MaaS stakeholders from both private and public sector, enlisted in collaboration between research partners.

The outcomes of the data collection and analysis processes will be presented in the form of three scenarios, including economic ecosystem implications and business model principles. The outcomes contribute to the scientific knowledge about novel mobility innovations, support for public decision making, as well as provide guidelines for further empirical and theoretical research, and practical user market studies concerning needs and acceptance of diverse novel solutions.

Deliverables

The results will contribute to the final report of the WP3 of the CIVITAS ECCENTRIC project, and will be diffused in a publication and session form in the TRA2020-conference, in addition to resulting in academic publications and popularized writings aimed at larger audiences (eg. in newspapers).

Schedule

The overall research project spans 1.6.2019-31.5.2020, with the emphasis of the execution on the year 2019.

In addition to the deliverables and other writings realized during the project, the results will be diffused in academic publications from 6/2020 onwards.

Budget

The project is a collaboration between the City of Turku and the Centre for Collaborative Research at the Turku University School of Economics, with an overall budget of 45 000€. The funding from the City of Turku is 40 000€, and the funding from UTU is 5000€.

Research team

Principal Investigator Milla Wirén (D.Sc. Econ. Bus.Adm) works currently as the research manager in the Laboratory of Business Disruption Research, Centre for Collaborative Research at Turku School of Economics. Her research expertise covers digitalization related socio-technological change on the level of firms (digital business strategy) and ecosystems (value co-creation).

Dr. Aki Koponen is an economist, who works as a research director of Centre for Collaborative Research at Turku School of Economics. He has extensive 20+ years research and development experience on market dynamics, business model innovations, regional and urban development, and data analytics.

Senior research fellow Marikka Heikkilä (PhD) is a research manager in the Centre for Collaborative Research at Turku School of Economics, with extensive experience in collaborative research projects. Her expertise fields are innovation, business models, business networks and ecosystems, and information systems.

Contact

Milla Wirén, milla.wiren@utu.fi, +358 40 5134543