Van Duin, Ploos van Amstel and Quak (2022) wrote a chapter in Innovations in Transport explaining the growth in light electric freight vehicles. However, literature on ex-post analysis based on real cases with LEFV usage is limited. The application of the Technological Innovation System (TIS) framework can provide insight into the cumulative systematic change toward more LEFVs being used in city logistics processes.
While the processes are essential from a business perspective, the policy perspective is also critical, given that the negative externalities also influence the living environments in cities. Therefore, the TIS framework has an active policy dimension and engages in developing targeted tools and policy mixes that can help to remove barriers. The system elements consist of actors (individuals, organizations, and networks), institutions (habits, routines, norms, and strategies), interactions (cooperative relationships), and infrastructures (physical, financial, and knowledge).
The main system functions in the TIS framework are entrepreneurial activities, knowledge development and diffusion, influence on the direction of search, market formation, resource mobilization, legitimacy, and development of positive externalities. The framework is elaborated on LEFV research experiences in Dutch cities and, where practical, extended to foreign experiences to find the success and failure factors and the future perspectives on LEFVs.
Source: Explaining the Growth in Light Electric Freight Vehicles