The sustainability of urban transport is becoming one of the biggest concerns in the field of mobility. Transport behaviour of urban citizens is highly car-dependent. New mobility solutions such as car-sharing services are seen as a potential innovative way to improve the environmental challenges in cities. Despite the availability of mobility solutions in the market, there seem to be hindrances why people would adopt this type of services and change their behaviour towards more sustainable urban living. To address this challenge, it is important to identify the factors influencing an individual’s decisions to adopt mobility innovations and change his or her behaviour. However, there is no coherent framework to study innovation adoption in transport.

The master thesis study by Chuzhanova[1] provides a fresh perspective on an innovation adoption and a behaviour change in modern urban transport with the focus on new mobility solutions. The thesis includes a synthesis of three theories and introduces a framework including factors, which should be taken into account when developing interventions in the transport sector. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the problem area, particular attention was paid to theoretical concepts related to alternative mobility service factors. Especially, factors that assist in the behaviour change process when mobility services are introduced. These factors of the proposed framework were tested and validated by doing a multiple case study by interviewing transport experts (N=8) in Finland.

The findings of this thesis demonstrate the importance of understanding critical elements in an ecosystem that affect innovation adoption. These elements include the involvement of every stakeholder in addressing individual behaviour change, particularly peers that individuals trust and the government policies. As a part of Chuzhanova’s study, the innovation characteristics are especially highlighted as factors having an important role in transport innovation adoption decisions. For instance, minimum complexity, an opportunity to try an innovation before making the adoption decision, competitive pricing, and the compatibility to prior experiences were listed as the most influential characteristics. The results of her study serve as a basis for the research on the design and development of interventions in the transport sector with a particular focus on new mobility solutions.

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[1] Tatyana Chuzhanova (2016) Behavior Change through Innovation Adoption: A Case Study of Alternative Mobility Solutions. Master’s thesis in the International Design Business Management master’s programme in Aalto University. http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-201604201835