The interplay of competencies and governance settings in dealing with uncertainty

A comparison of mobility as a service in the Netherlands and Australia

Journal Article (2024)
Authors

Ruben Akse (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen)

Wijnand W. Veeneman (TU Delft - Organisation & Governance)

Vincent Marchau (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen)

Simone Ritter (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen)

Research Group
Organisation & Governance
To reference this document use:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2024.103402
More Info
expand_more
Publication Year
2024
Language
English
Research Group
Organisation & Governance
Volume number
161
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2024.103402
Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Abstract

Actors experience considerable uncertainty when developing and realizing mobility innovations that can contribute in the transition to a sustainable transport system. Although the role of uncertainty and its handling is mentioned as important in the literature on transitions and innovations, there is a lack of understanding how uncertainty affects decision-making processes and actors themselves. This paper investigates the interplay of uncertainty competencies and governance settings in four innovation cases of Mobility as a Service (MaaS). Our findings demonstrate it is difficult to sustain MaaS beyond a research trial, because actors experience too much uncertainty about governance questions of long-term responsibilities and role distribution. Although individual actors possess effective project management skills and willingness to innovate in a trial context, they are unable to bring MaaS to a next level because MaaS is not seen as a part of a larger design quest in which stakeholders experiment and play with uncertainty through different institutional configurations.