On the Road to Sustainability: The Emergence of a Smart Mobility Ecosystem

Emerging technologies are transforming mobility into smart mobility, significantly enhancing sustainability efforts. Existing studies explore a wide range of topics and imply the importance of adopting an ecosystem perspective on smart mobility. However, we know little about how a smart mobility ecosystem (SMoE) emerges. Using an inductive grounded theory approach and data from representative actors in a SMoE, we conceptualize a process model on the emergence of a SMoE. Our results reveal that the emergence of a SMoE starts with habitat diversification led by new actors, especially established technology firms, followed by genetic diversification with the entry of automakers, and finally reaches a stable stage of co-opetition enhancement, in which all kinds of actors interact to co-create value. Our study enriches smart mobility and ecosystem literature, as well as provides existing and new actors in the mobility sector and policymakers with guidance for developing a SMoE.