Navigating Paradoxes for Strategic Business Models: Toward Shared Automated Vehicles in Europe

ABSTRACT How can paradoxical tensions in the integration of shared automated vehicles in Europe be navigated to build sustainable business models? Prior research often separates economic, social, and environmental dimensions, overlooking how their interdependencies generate tensions across organizational levels. Using a multi‐method design, this study combines three expert interviews analyzed using natural language processing as an exploratory structuring tool with a review of relevant literature to examine these tensions. Based on these insights, the study develops a paradox‐based SWOT framework to interpret how such tensions shape sustainable business model development. Its central theoretical contribution is orchestrated scaling, a context‐specific dynamic capability for managing scale and legitimacy tensions through sequenced expansion, transparency by design, and equity‐oriented safeguards. The study contributes to emerging theory on sustainable mobility transitions and offers practical guidance for organizations developing shared automated vehicle services by linking scaling decisions to business model development and environmental safeguards.