Smart Mobility: Services, Platforms and Ecosystems

In this study, we provide novel insight into building and managing growth in a new emerging market: the operation and maintenance of a heterogeneous and expanding vehicle fleet in a smart city environment. There are several different types of players in this emerging market and a dominant player is still missing. Based on our empirical findings, we identified three key characteristics of a growing business and the ability to reach a leading position: 1) co-creation through resource integration and service exchange is preferable for responding to market demands; 2) a digital platform is critical to create the necessary knowledge for resource integration and service exchange; and 3) smart services glue the ecosystem and platform together and create the outcome that solves the defined business problem. Most importantly, all three elements—ecosystem, platform and smart services—create a uniform environment in which to grow the business in a new emerging market.