This paper presents the results of a ranking-type Delphi study on the critical risk factors for the adoption of an electric road system (e-road) for trucks on the main motorways in Sweden. The investment cost of such a system is high, necessitating an upfront evaluation of the adoption risk factors to reduce the likelihood of budget overruns and project delays. Participating Swedish e-road experts (N = 52) from the public sector, private sector, and academia identified 32 unique risk factors, which were divided into five categories. The three most critical risk factors, as ranked by the experts, were ‘low expansion rate,’ ‘low utilization rate,’ and ‘lengthy public-sector evaluation.’ Overall, market and financial risks were ranked as more important than institutional, technological, and sustainability risks. This study has important implications for policymakers in countries considering e-road adoption.

This study investigates the effect of three key firm characteristics (diversification, size, and age) on road freight companies’ early adoption of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs). While previous studies have identified the determinants of the adoption intention of AFVs, a gap in the literature is research into firm characteristics and the early adopters of AFVs. Because early adopters play an important role in the diffusion of innovation, it is imperative to fill this gap. Based on a survey of 156 Swedish road freight companies and logistic regression analyses, we report that firm size and diversification affect the early adoption of AFVs. In addition, the partial impact of the importance of driver comfort and payload capacity on early adoption of AFVs has been reported. Other factors, including purchase price, fuel cost, and truck refueling efficiency, were not found to discriminate early adopters of AFVs from those who had not yet adopted AFVs. These findings imply to policymakers that the current instruments in use in Sweden, including the greenhouse gas mandate and the relatively high taxation on diesel fuel, have led to the adoption of AFVs by larger road freight companies. For vehicle producers aiming to scale up the production and sales of AFV, the findings suggest the benefit of targeting diversified and larger road freight companies in the first place. © 2024 The Author(s)

Mobile app ratings and reviews are important due to their influence on consumer behavior and the financial consequences for app developers and app platform providers. This paper contributes to prior work by analyzing how rating and review information in combination impact mobile app downloads. To achieve these ends, we utilize daily panel data of 341 gaming (hedonic consumption value-oriented) and productivity (utilitarian consumption value-oriented) apps tracked for almost two years from their release in the Apple App Store. Hence, we contribute to how ratings and reviews matter for the larger majority of apps, whereas previous research has mainly focused on either ratings' or reviews' impact on app performance for top-ranked apps. Results of fixed-effects regression analysis reveal different combinatory impacts of text review information (polarity, subjectivity, and review length) and rating information (average rating score, volume of ratings, and dispersion of ratings) on gaming versus productivity app downloads. Important implications of the findings for app developers and platform providers, and for future research into online ratings and reviews, are discussed.

This paper explores key drivers and their underlying rationales for infrastructure Public-Private Partnership (PPP) adoption in Sweden. A related aim is to compare the identified key drivers for Sweden in relation to what is known for other countries. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews with 16 Swedish private sector and public sector stakeholder PPP experts. The results reveal risk transfer to the private sector, reduction of total project costs, and increase in investment alternatives as particularly important key drivers in the case of Sweden. In a country comparison of key drivers Sweden was not found to mirror any specific country or group of countries, calling for deeper analysis. Moreover a few underlying rationales put forth for key drivers were in addition to those reported in the literature. This study contributes to the literature by identifying conducive factors for PPP adoption given sparse and infrequent past country use. Hence, the findings should be considered for Sweden and countries similar to it.

When launching a new app in one of the major app stores, the developer must decide how to generate revenues from that app. The decision includes whether to charge an upfront payment from the customer or make it free to download and whether to include in-app payments. In this study, we analysed the effect of these decisions on the amount of revenue an app generates and if it differs for gaming (hedonic value-orientation) and productivity (utilitarian value-orientation) apps. To analyse this effect, we used approximately two years of mobile app panel data from 330 newly launched US Apple App Store gaming and productivity apps. Based on random effects regression analysis, we report that free downloads combined with in-app payments are superior in revenue generation for gaming apps. By contrast, for productivity apps, relying only on either upfront payment for the app or on in-app payments generates the highest revenues. For gaming app developers, offering free to download apps is thus recommended. For productivity app developers, charging for either downloading or in-app features is more successful. This study complements existing literature by investigating revenue generation of new apps and the performance effect of specific revenue model options that developers must make in app store settings.

While offshore software development is frequently looked at in simple economic terms, assumed benefits are not always achieved. This can be attributed to unexpectedly high transition costs and a number of extra costs for maintaining a sourcing strategy. When offshoring fails, companies need to revisit their decision. In this paper, an analytical model is proposed to support evaluation of offshoring strategies and decision options. The model focuses on value comparison, and treats outcomes of offshoring relationships more fairly and realistically than a naïve salary comparison. The model is a development of models with extensions motivated by lessons learned from two empirical cases. The model is designed to consider more decision outcomes than previously suggested. In contrast to current practice focusing on economic profits from the salary differences between onshore and offshore, we focus on the differences between expected and realised outcomes by analysing strategic benefits created by options and measuring the same time-value. Finally, consequent decision situations provide a dynamic view on supporting chains of decisions. Copyright © 2019 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Consumers tend to rely more on peer information than seller information for their online product choices. Online rating systems have therefore become popular whereby consumers evaluate a product’s quality on a numerical scale. Previous studies have mainly investigated sales effects of online ratings, reporting mixed findings. How online ratings impact free app downloads is important to better understand for multiple and related reasons. Specifically, the vast majority of apps are free to download, price cannot be used by potential consumers to infer app quality, and providers may offer free apps as a means to gain market share. In this paper we analyse how average rating score, volume of ratings, and dispersion of ratings impact free app downloads. Signaling theory is used to derive hypotheses on how online rating variables impact in this regard. Data on online ratings and downloads of apps was collected for 720 apps available on Apple App Store and Google Play. Apps from the productivity and game categories were sampled to capture utilitarian and hedonic apps respectively. This choice was made to enable analysing the impact of online ratings across app type. For free app downloads, regression analyses revealed: (1) volume of ratings to have positive significant effect; (2) average rating score to have positive but insignificant effect; and (3) dispersion of ratings to have positive significant effect contingent on app type. Findings are partially consistent with signaling theory and suggest that app rating providers should attempt to attract large volume of ratings. Providing incentives for rating apps, or using a pledge in the app asking consumers to rate it, could be such means. Future research is needed on whether average rating scores are too similar for competing app alternatives to guide app choice. Further research is also needed on why dispersion of ratings positively impacts free app downloads.

A variety of new forms of business are enabled through globalization and practiced by software organizations today. While companies go global to reduce their development costs, access a larger pool of resources and explore new markets, it is often assumed that the level of delivered services shall remain the same after implementing the sourcing decisions. In contrast, critical studies identified that global software development is associated with unique challenges, and a lot of global projects fail to mitigate the implications of a particular global setting. In this paper we explore offshore insourcing decisions on the basis of empirical research literature and an empirical field study conducted at Ericsson. By analyzing decisions in two different cases we found that each offshore insourcing decision consisted of deciding what, where, when, how and why to insource. Related empirical research and field observations suggest that not all combinations are successful and alignment between different decision points has thus a prominent role. To address these concerns we built an empirically-based insourcing decision structure, which outlines a logical path through the decision options and helps selecting an offshore insourcing strategy that targets creation of the necessary alignment. The key element of the proposed approach is a structured and well-defined decision-making process, which is intended to support managers in their decision-making. The usefulness of the proposed approach is evaluated in an additional empirical case of a new offshore insourcing decision.