Reshaping mobility through MaaS: business model archetypes, actor dynamics, and system success

This thesis examines how Mobility as a Service (MaaS) reshapes the mobility ecosystem, and which business model and ecosystem configurations are associated with successful multidimensional goal achievement. Adopting an ecosystem-level perspective, it conceptualises MaaS not as a single “app” solution but as a transformation process enacted through distributed firm-level business model adaptation and the (re)negotiation of interdependencies across services, data, interfaces, payments, and governance. Across four interrelated empirical studies, the thesis (i) maps recurring MaaS provider business model archetypes, (ii) analyses incumbents’ reconfiguration strategies in the transition to MaaS, (iii) traces role-based start-up trajectories (orchestrators, enablers, components), and (iv) links ecosystem configurations to multidimensional performance. The findings show that MaaS does not converge toward a single dominant design. Instead, heterogeneous actor logics, legacy asset positions, and contextual conditions generate multiple operational configurations characterised by distinct trade-offs in integration scope, governance, and monetisation, resulting in different viability conditions and uneven performance profiles. In particular, technical integration emerges as necessary but insufficient: outcomes depend on the alignment between business model choices, ecosystem governance arrangements, and actors’ orchestration and coordination capabilities, which helps explain why many initiatives remain pilot-bound while others evolve toward more stable configurations. From a theoretical perspective, the thesis advances MaaS and ecosystem research by shifting attention from static explanations based on barriers and enabling conditions toward a configurational view of ecosystem transformation, highlighting equifinality and fit as central explanatory mechanisms. From a practical perspective, the findings provide guidance for MaaS providers, incumbents, start-ups, and policy-makers, emphasising the need for configuration clarity, ecosystem-facing capabilities, and institutional frameworks that support coordination, interoperability, and scaling beyond pilots.