From Data to Practice: Understanding Digital Services in Bus Operations

Abstract

Digital services are increasingly becoming part of everyday bus operations, offering new possibilities for operational follow-up, driver feedback, eco-driving, safety, and performance improvement. However, the value of these services does not arise automatically from technological availability. Instead, it depends on how digital services are introduced, interpreted, trusted, and used in practice. This thesis explores how digital services are embedded in everyday bus operations, how their value is created, mediated, and constrained through use, and how monitoring and feedback functions shape perceptions of trust, fairness, legitimacy, and control. This study adopts an abductive approach and is based on a qualitative, single embedded case study design. The empirical material was collected through semi-structured interviews with bus drivers, operator-side actors, and representatives from a commercial vehicle manufacturer in Europe. In cases where interviews were not feasible, written responses were also collected from participants within the same participant groups. The material was analyzed through thematic analysis, allowing patterns to be developed across different organizational levels and operational contexts. The findings show that digital services are enacted within a fragmented digital ecosystem, where multiple systems, actors, and operational requirements shape everyday use. Implementation is therefore not merely a matter of technical introduction, but a process of translation, communication, training, and local adaptation. The study further shows that value is created when data and system outputs are transformed into actionable insights, learning, and behavioral change. At the same time, monitoring and feedback functions may be perceived both as support and as control, depending on transparency, contextual sensitivity, data reliability, and how feedback is communicated. The thesis contributes to research on digital servitization and technology-in-use by showing that digital service value is not embedded in the technology itself, but emerges through the interaction between technology, users, and organizational practice.