What technology enabled services impact business models in the automotive industry? An exploratory study

Abstract

The automotive industry is experiencing a phase of rapid innovation, with emergent technologies underpinning the realisation of self-driving cars, increased use of data and data analytics, sensors to enable car components to connect to the Internet-of-Things and the use of alternative energy sources, such as electric vehicles. Such innovations enable novel services, which in turn require actors within the automotive industry to change their business models. In this paper, we aim to identify novel automotive services that impact business models within the automotive industry. We use Q-methodology to explore and analyse the opinions of researchers and experts from the automotive industry. We find that four groups of services are expected to impact the business models in the automotive industry most: (1) personalised services, (2) generic mobility services; (3) shared mobility, and (4) connected cars. These are services at the level of the end-user, while more fundamental technology-based innovations, such as electrical driving, autonomous driving and Internet-of-Things applications, are scattered over different groups of end-user services. From these results, current business models can be analysed, and possible roadmaps for business model innovation can be developed.