An analysis of the willingness to adopt new mobility services

Abstract

This research has contributed to the understanding of how changing customer preferences, technological innovation, and environmental needs will shape future mobility services. Consequently, this thesis explores how the automobile industry should adapt their business models to offer mobility services as a response to these trends. To explore this concept, the study examines to what extent six independent variables of customer preferences- and characteristics affect the customer’s willingness to adopt new mobility services. In turn, the findings have identified the most significant factors for a distributor to integrate when shaping future mobility services. The six independent variables have been extracted based on a literature review on the topic of business models and mobility services, as well as the topic of customer innovativeness and environmentalism. An online survey was distributed to carusers in the greater Oslo region to collect data on the topic. To analyze the data, quantitative research has been applied by conducting a multiple regression analysis to test the hypotheses and to identify the effect of each independent variable on the willingness to adopt new mobility services. The findings show that the significant predictors of a customer’s willingness to adopt new mobility services are the customer preferences on economic flexibility and availability, and the customer characteristics on environmentalism and attitude toward new mobility services. As a result of the findings, the paper argues that the distributor should ensure a high level of economic flexibility for the customer and a high level of availability of the product when shaping new mobility services. Moreover, the distributor should brand future mobility service as environmentally friendly. Lastly, the findings indicate that there is a positive attitude toward new mobility services among the customers in the Norwegian market. Consequently, distributors should take action now by offering mobility services in order to capture economies of scale as a result of first-mover advantages and to avoid becoming industry laggards.