Behavioral Design in Online Supermarkets: How Virtual Shopping Cart Functions Impact Sustainable Consumption

In recent years, the negative environmental impact of consumers\u27 dietary habits has become more visible. Accordingly, in-store interventions to promote more sustainable (e.g., organic) food choices have received increased scholarly attention. Thereby, online grocery shopping is gaining momentum as web-applications provide decision support tools such as real-time spending feedback (RSF). Building on budgeting and spending literature, this study provides initial insights on the impact of RSF on consumers’ organic food choices in online supermarkets. Using a free simulation experimental approach, we were able to track participants’ real grocery shopping behavior within a realistic online shopping environment. Within a baseline (no RSF) and an intervention (RSF) condition (between subject design), we show that RSF facilitated participants to stay within their budget and significantly reduced underspending. Somewhat surprisingly in response to the RSF, participants who usually buy fewer organic products purchased significantly more organic food items, both in absolute and relative terms

Increasing the Business Value Of Free-Floating Carsharing Fleets By Applying Machine-Learning Based Relocations

Free-floating carsharing (CS) services provide customers with a fleet of vehicles distributed within an operation area. These services gained popularity because of their positive impact on societal and personal mobility. Understanding determinants of customer demand is a key challenge for developing and applying vehicle relocation strategies to prevent the formation of undersupply areas. In this study, we merge possible features from publicly available data sources with historical demand from CS services situated in three different-sized cities. We train and test a Random Forest (RF) regressor estimating demand based on the enhanced dataset. Building on this demand prediction, we developed a relocation strategy that optimizes vehicle availability at anticipated demand points. Our strategy improved the reservation acceptance ratio in all three reference systems between 7.1 % and 15.6 %. Furthermore, the number of relocations compared to a deterministic relocation strategy could be reduced by 82.3 % and 20.6 % in two cities

CASSI: Designing a Simulation Environment for Vehicle Relocation in Carsharing

Simulations offer an efficient solution to comprehensive represent operational services and to track the impact of changing systematic factors and business constraints. Carsharing services provide users with mobility services on demand. Although research has introduced strategies to optimize efforts to set up and operate such a system, they lack reusable and flexible simulation environments. For instance, carsharing research applies simulations to better understand and solve the problem of balancing vehicle supply and demand, which operators need to solve to prevent operational inefficiencies and ensure customer satisfaction. Hence, one cannot feasibly test new balancing mechanisms directly in a real-world environment. As for now, researchers have implemented simulations from scratch, which results in high development efforts and a limited ability to compare results. In this paper, we address this gap by designing a versatile carsharing simulation tool that researchers can easily use and adapt. The tool simplifies the process of modeling a carsharing system and developing operation strategies. Furthermore, we propose various system performance measures to increase the developed solutions’ comparability

Digital Map Complexity and Behavioral Consistency in Mobility Information Systems

Digitally enabled mobility services and their associated information systems (IS) have spread rapidly in recent times, for example in the form of smartphone and in-vehicle applications. Such services often enable users to achieve more environmentally friendly, equitable, and safe individual mobility. User interfaces typically feature digital maps to facilitate spatial orientation and choice. This study pioneers an investigation of digital maps for low-stake decision making as prevalent in mobility IS. To this end, we blend previous theoretical research on task and map complexity from other disciplines. By analyzing data from a discrete choice experiment, we confirm the hypothesized relationship between visual map intricacy, choice complexity, and informational performance, measured as behavioral consistency. We propose an IS research agenda to initiate a discussion about design of and human interaction with digital maps, their role for mobility IS, and for our field beyond

CASSI: Design of a Simulation Environment for Vehicle Relocation in Carsharing

Simulations offer a cheap solution to get a comprehensive representation of operational service and to track the impact of changing systematic factors and business constraints. Carsharing services provide users with mobility services on demand. Although research has introduced strategies to optimize the setup and operation of such a system, they lack reusable and flexible simulation environments. For instance, carsharing research applies simulations to understand better and solve the problem of balancing vehicle supply and demand, which is essential to prevent operational inefficiencies and ensure customer satisfaction. Hence, testing new balancing mechanisms directly in a real-world environment is not feasible. As for now, researchers are implementing simulations from scratch again, which results in high development efforts and limited comparability of results. In this paper, we address this gap by designing a versatile, easy to use and to adapt, carsharing simulation tool. The tool simplifies the process of modelling a carsharing system and developing operation strategies. We furthermore propose a set of system performance measures, aiming to increase the comparability of developed solutions

Secondary Use of a Smart Electric Container Terminal: Scenario Analysis on relevant Cost Drivers

Increasing the sustainability of the transportation sector yields great potential in the fight against climate change. Container terminal logistics is one of the main potential areas to focus on, as the heavy-duty vehicles involved in container transportation can be operated electrically. Incorporating information systems into this setting, this is a promising area for smart grid applications. Free battery capacities of vehicles, that are currently unused, can serve as frequency stabilizing flexibilities in the energy grid. Against this background, this paper provides insight into the configuration of costs drivers that arise in the context of the implementation of a virtual power plant in a container terminal by means of a structured scenario analysis approach

Digital Shared Mobility Services - A Literature Analysis and Avenues for IS-Related Future Research

Climate change is among the most important challenges faced by mankind. Individual transportation plays a significant role as a major contribution to greenhouse gases. In this context, Digital Shared Mobility Services (DSMS) can increase the efficiency of the existing means of transportation, for example by pooling individual rides. Despite increasing adaptation of different DSMS, a holistic appraisal is still missing. This article aims to provide a unified view of the DSMS landscape. By carrying out a pivotal literature analysis and post-hoc cluster analysis, five research areas are derived. These clusters lead to the formulation of a future research agenda, such as suggesting scholars to pay more attention to real-world behavior changes and upcoming mobility innovations like autonomous driving. In sum, this article supports both research and practice, eventually supporting information systems (IS) research as well as improving DSMS offers

Driving Future Mobility by Shared Mobility: A Taxonomy of Ridesharing Business Models

Recently, shared mobility has notably contributed to the discourse of the sharing economy. Ridesharing, with its diverse business model components, remains a prime example within this area. This paper introduces a taxonomy for business models in ridesharing, providing a classification scheme for the vast number of different business logic. This classification scheme allows existing providers as well as potential market entrants a strategic perspective on present structures and provides a basis for the systematic discovery of new and innovative business models. The applicability of the developed taxonomy for business model innovation is demonstrated by forming three novel business model archetypes for ridesharing as a means of corporate mobility management. Eventually, we discuss the implications for other areas of the sharing economy and potential future developments, such as shared autonomous mobility

How Far are You Gonna Go? Understanding Pedestrian Catchment Areas in Shared Mobility Systems

Bikesharing systems constitute a pivotal pillar to foster sustainable urban mobility. To leverage this potential, information systems (IS) research addresses both (a) decision support systems for operators to increase access to vehicles and (b) mobile app designs for end-users. However, the salient question of situational factors determining when users utilize bikesharing or decide for alternative modes has received limited attention. We present results of a large-scale stated choice experiment analyzing the shape and size of situational catchment areas, the role of vehicle pickup detours, and the perception of spatial versus time-dimensional visualizations. Our results challenge established assumptions of uniform circular catchment areas. Moreover, while map visualizations of detours lower the willingness to engage in bikesharing, they do not significantly increase the perceived information quality. We conclude with theoretical and practical implications for both decision support and user engagement to promote sustainable shared mobility

Mobility Need-Adaptive Housing Platforms: The Benefit of a Commute Time Search Feature

The growing influx of people to urban areas has resulted in a tense housing market in many places, making the search for a suitable residence an increased challenge. Dedicated online platforms facilitate this process and offer two distinct approaches to find suitable accommodations concerning its location. Traditionally, users can search for a general area like a city to narrow down the results displayed. Additionally, some platforms offer searches based on the maximum commute time between apartments and points of interest. This paper investigates the benefit such approaches yield concerning technology acceptance and the fit of the task and information representation. Thus, a prototypically implemented online platform with and without a commute time search feature was evaluated in an online experiment. The treatment specification achieved significantly better results in terms of information quality and technology acceptance, implicating that such a design should be preferred for websites that facilitate the search for apartments. These insights can contribute to an enhanced understanding of visual system design to reduce the negative sustainability impacts of traffic induced by a divergence of residential and workplaces