Exploring the transport system under technological change: Market, business ecosystem and business model viewpoints: Dissertation

Transport systems are continuously evolving. A modern transport system needs to be sustainable socially, economically and environmentally. In recent decades, technological development, especially in information and communication technology, has affected today's transport systems. Three different cases are explored in this dissertation: intelligent transport systems in general, electromobility systems, and road weather and maintenance systems. Intelligent transport systems encompass a broad range of information and communication technologies that improve the safety, efficiency and performance of the transportation system. In addition to intelligent transport systems, electric vehicle systems have emerged because of increasing environmental concerns as well as oil depletion issues. Furthermore, the road weather and maintenance system is an interesting case especially in latitudes with severe weather. Despite vast amounts of recent research on the aforementioned topics, most previous studies have focused on the technical side, such as developing, prototyping and testing the technologies, whereas only a few studies have focused on the business aspects. Therefore, this dissertation aims to enrich the analysis of the emerging transportation sector under technological change from the business perspective and to provide new insights for future research. The purpose of this study is to explore the emerging transportation sector from several viewpoints by conducting empirical case studies. The cases covered are analysed through the perspectives of markets, business ecosystems and business models. The geographical scope of the research is mainly limited to Finland, especially its intelligent transport systems and road weather maintenance infrastructure. The global perspective is adopted in the case of electric vehicles. The nature of this research is qualitative, and inductive reasoning is applied. The research examines the characteristics of the market, business ecosystem, and business models that emerge transport systems under technological change. Furthermore, based on the findings of the case studies, a holistic framework model is developed to understand the technological system by integrating the viewpoints of markets, business ecosystems and business models.