Building trust and collaboration among MaaS stakeholders

The concept of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) has grown in popularity, resulting in a number of MaaS trials and solutions in recent years. The question of how to develop sustainable business models in the long run, while generating shareholder gains, remains a key concern that MaaS schemes still need to address.

Previous studies identify a lack of trust and collaboration among the key stakeholders in MaaS eco-systems as one of the key factors that hamper the formation of sustainable MaaS business models.

This PhD project is investigating the factors that would build and improve trust and collaboration among stakeholders. The methodology involves two key phases

• Phase I uses the Constructivist Grounded Theory Method (CGTM) applied to the cases of Whim in Helsinki, Finland and Tripi in Sydney, Australia.
• Phase II uses Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) building on the constructs and themes explored through phase I.

Participants

• University of Sydney
• Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies

Project background

MaaS aims to improve customer experience and promote sustainable travel choices, and can be described as:

A service that is delivered by integrating different forms of mobility services (buses, trains, taxis, carpooling, car-sharing, ride-sourcing, bike sharing and other micromobility options) through a single platform that allows the users to search, plan, book and pay for the transport services.

The development of MaaS involves multiple stakeholders, with a typical ecosystem consisting of users, transport operators, regulatory authorities, data integrators and analysts, technology, and platform providers and the MaaS broker/aggregator; however, this can be extended to include non-mobility service providers such as:

• ICT infrastructure providers
• Researchers
• Insurers
• Investors and media
• Passenger institutions
• Marketing and advertising firms.

Types of regulatory authorities may differ based on the governance structures that exist in different settings but usually include:

• Ministry of Transport
• Public transport authorities (PTAs)
• Local authorities; and
• Municipal councils / authorities.

The coalescence of this spectrum of stakeholders implies the need for joint decision making to generate an effective MaaS solution that addresses diverse stakeholder interests.

This necessitates MaaS business models that consider different stakeholder motives and interactions in the process of building a collaborative environment within the MaaS ecosystem. The development of sustainable business models in terms of continuity in the long run while generating shareholder gains, is one of the key concerns that MaaS schemes still need to address.

An investigation of extant academic and grey literature confirms trust and collaboration among the key stakeholders in MaaS eco-systems as one of the key factors which facilitate the formation of sustainable MaaS business models. We propose to investigate the factors that would build and improve the trust and collaboration among stakeholders in a MaaS ecosystem.

The methodology of this study involves two key phases. Phase I uses the Constructivist Grounded Theory Method (CGTM) based on the cases of Whim in Helsinki, Finland (operated by MaaS Global) and Tripi in Sydney, Australia (building on the outcome of iMOVE project 3-003, MaaS Trial in Sydney: User Behaviour Analytics).

The data will be collected through semi-structured interviews. Phase II uses Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) building on the constructs and themes explored through phase I. Both phases will be aimed at establishing the importance of trust and collaboration among MaaS stakeholders while investigating the underlying factors that would build such collaborative relationships among the stakeholders.

Project objectives

1. Understand how trust and collaboration affect the development and progression of a MaaS scheme.
2. Identify the factors that would facilitate the building of a conducive environment for a MaaS scheme.
3. Explore, by means of case study investigation, how the factors identified in (2) would interact to build trust and collaboration among the stakeholders.
4. Demonstrate how the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders’ impact building a collaborative environment.

Please note …

This page will be a living record of this project. As it matures, hits milestones, etc., we’ll continue to add information, links, images, interviews and more. Watch this space!