From Parking to Mobility: a qualitative study of mobility transitions among Swedish parking companies

Abstract: The Swedish Parking industry is undergoing a significant transformation. The sector can be viewed as a strategic action field, which comprises four (4) large actors in a moderately competitive market. This thesis contends that the dynamics of the Swedish parking field gives rise to an important question: What role are technological innovation systems playing among Swedish parking companies during organizational mobility transition? Previous research related to parking has focused on the economics of industry-aspects such as pricing, demand issues, and the problems of having cars in motion. Therefore, a research gap concerning management and adoption of technologies has emerged. We have aimed to answer the research gap by first gaining insight into the perspectives of managers at the respective firms and then utilizing a theoretical framework to analyze how the transformational change from parking to mobility can be managed. The secondary contribution of this thesis concerns a theory of field analysis which yields generalizable findings that can be applied to other fields with a similar composition of players, forces, rules, and economics. The findings suggest that the firms optimistically embrace the field transformation, which is evident in their increasingly wide adoption of new technological innovation systems and positive outlooks on the future. We hope that this study can serve as a point of departure for further studies once the field of the Swedish parking sector has reached "settlement", during which a new social order has prevailed, and the parking firms have adapted to the transformation "From Parking to Mobility".