Motivating change in commuters’ mobility behaviour: Digital nudging for public transportation use

ABSTRACT

The urgency of climate change is evident worldwide, but current mobility patterns still cause severe environmental damage . The largest share of these mobility-related problems is caused by everyday private car use, such as commuting. One way to change mobility patterns is through digital nudging in the form of trip recommendations to increase commuters’ public transportation use. To examine the effects of the recommendations, we undertake a choice-based conjoint analysis and determine whether participants choose the recommended trip option more frequently and whether the recommendations influence participants’ public transportation preferences. Our results show differences based on commuters’ travel times and mobility app use. Significant positive effects were observed among commuters with a short travel time who do not usually use mobility apps. This study contributes to the digital nudging and transportation literature, and has practical implications in terms of using recommendations to encourage switching from private cars to public transportation.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital nudging
• mobility behavior
• recommendations
• conjoint analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Sina Zimmermann and Thomas Schulz received partial financial support by the BayWISS Consortium Digitization. Thomas Schulz is funded by the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts. The authors retain full responsibility for the content of this publication.

Notes on contributors

Sina Zimmermann

Sina Zimmermann ([email protected]) is a PhD student at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Munich, Germany, and works as a research associate at the Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences. She graduated in Management and Economics from Ulm University, Germany. Her research focus is on digital nudging, sustainability and digital transformation in the mobility sector. Her work has appeared in the proceedings of the Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), and in Technological Forecasting & Social Change.

Thomas Schulz

Thomas Schulz ([email protected]) holds a PhD of the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany in Information Systems, and worked as a research associate at the Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences until 2022. He graduated in Management from University of Hohenheim, Germany. His research focus is on service ecosystems, service platforms, and value co-creation in the mobility industry. His work has appeared, among others, in Business & Information Systems Engineering, Electronic Markets, Information Systems Frontiers, Technological Forecasting & Social Change, the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), and the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS).

Andreas Hein

Andreas Hein ([email protected]) is a postdoctoral researcher and leader of the research group digital platforms & e-government at the Krcmar Lab, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Munich, Germany. He holds a PhD of TUM in Information Systems and has three years of experience as a Senior Strategy Consultant at IBM. His work has appeared in the European Journal of Information Systems, Electronic Markets (paper of the year 2020), and Wirtschaft und Management, as well as in refereed conference proceedings such as the ICIS, ECIS, HICSS, PACIS, AMCIS, and WI.

Heiko Gewald

Heiko Gewald ([email protected]) is a research professor of Information Management at Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences in Germany and Director of the Center for Research on Service Sciences (CROSS). He holds a Master degree in Business Administration from University of Bamberg, Germany, a European Master of Business Science from Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh, UK and a PhD in Information Systems from Goethe University Frankfurt. His research focuses on the use of digital resources by the aging generation IT, Health, and IT Management. He is a frequent speaker on conferences contributing to these matters. His work has been published in the European Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Economic Commerce Research, Health Systems, Communications of the ACM, Information & Management and many other journals.

Helmut Krcmar

Helmut Krcmar ([email protected]) leads the Krcmar Lab at the Faculty of Informatics at Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany. From 2002 to 2020 he held the Chair for Information Systems at the Faculty of Informatics at TUM. Before 2002, he was Chair for Information Systems, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart. Helmut is an AIS Fellow and has served the IS community in many roles, including as President of the Association for Information Systems. His research interests include information and knowledge management, service management, business process management, and business information systems. His work has appeared in Management Information Systems Quarterly, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, Journal of Management Accounting Research, Journal of Information Technology, Information Systems Journal, and Business & Information Systems Engineering.