Understanding replication environments – a systems research approach to smart city replication of autonomous delivery robots

European policymakers chose the systematic funding of smart city initiatives to incentivize and accelerate innovation and sustainability transitions. To ensure these initiatives’ broader effectiveness, smart city replication has been incorporated in funding calls for research projects as a policy instrument for innovation diffusion, information dissemination and mutual learning. With a growing theoretical and empirical base for these replication activities, there is an increased awareness that integrating and transferring new ideas and solutions into the urban context requires a holistic perspective and includes various endogenous and exogenous influencing factors. This article proposes a systemic view by presenting a method for analysing the replication environment for autonomous delivery robots based on a causal loop diagram. The method is applied conceptually to a district in Munich. The developed approach, which is called Replication Causal Loop Diagram, serves as an analytical tool to generate and provide relevant contextual knowledge and information about the replication environment to facilitate the operational planning and implementation of replicable initiatives, solutions, and practices. In further development steps and in particular settings, the approach can also be a valuable addition to the replication portfolio for stakeholder engagement and consensus building.