Acceptance of Mobility-as-a-Service: Insights from empirical studies on influential factors

Abstract

Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) has emerged as a promising concept in the mobility landscape. Researchers are increasingly interested in understanding this digital service's potential acceptance and uptake. Despite this interest, the extant literature lacks a comprehensive overview of various factors that play a role in its acceptance by target users. In this study, we aim to establish a current state of the art of MaaS user acceptance to inform practice in the effective design of related services, and to support the scientific community by offering future directions for their research. To achieve this, we performed a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) of relevant empirical studies and analyzed the factors considered significant in MaaS acceptance by target users. Our in-depth analyses of these works resulted in several factors, which we grouped into three categories: traveler and trip characteristics, service and technology characteristics, and urban environment characteristics. Certain factors, such as age, trip frequency, MaaS bundle price, and transportation facility, were found to be consistent in their influence on MaaS acceptance. However, empirical works conflict regarding the influence of a number of factors, such as income and public transport card ownership. This study serves as a comprehensive source of the factors investigated in the literature to the moment and a basis for future research to improve our understanding of factors that require further investigation.