Development of Service Innovation – a Transition to Electromobility in Urban but Rural Structured Regions in Germany.

Urban mobility solutions changed and new mobility in case of electromobility is intended with a huge potential of sustainable innovation. According to Sheller and Urri (2006), the dominant role of automobile path-dependency results in a development deadlock. Development towards new mobility is a transformation of values and a social change by introducing new social and economic structure that change mobility habits, practices and values and are strongly socially influenced. Urban mobility solutions are changing.

Development is considered as the expanding of possibilities and capabilities (Sen 2003). Younger generations currently undergo a transformation towards a sharing and collaborative economy that includes a mobility change to share automobiles.

This paper presents a research project with the goal to promote the framework of service innovation for electromobility in an urban and rural structured area with a high automobile- dependency. We work with the contextual-relational approach by integrating all actors in this process. This is a networked innovation cooperation with regional companies and the city council. Changing the mobility culture takes time and is unlikely. But it becomes possible by recreating the context and framework of mobility.

The major results of our field study focus on two factors: the mental approach to mobility options and the infrastructural conditions. User acceptance of electromobility is indicated to play a key role in terms of new mobility. The probability of rational justified changes is lower than raising the emotional perception by using and testing electromobility that has positive effects on its social acceptance. Users share positive contagious emotions that we know from crowd research. We call it the “coolness resp. flow factor” of electromobility. Future mobility isn´t about less mobility, but rather a different way of being mobile and using different types of mobility solutions.