Analysing acceptability of E-rickshaw as a public transport innovation in Delhi: A responsible innovation perspective
by Rajbeer Singh, Shilpa Mishra, & Krishna Tripathi; Technological Forecasting and Social Change, volume 170, September 2021.Highlights
- Deliberation and participation process revealed the inclusion of different values for E-rickshaw as emerging transport innovation.
- Governance regulation becomes a key outcome of the innovation process to make innovation acceptable in India.
- Sustainability in forms of different values is reflected and presented through the case.
- Universal and culturally specific values are crucial to embed sustainability in making innovation responsible.
Abstract: The Electrical (E)-rickshaw as of the many emerging technologies for e-mobility has witnessed critical and challenging issues like sustainability, accountability and responsibility while it becomes one of the new transportation means in India. The responsible innovation approach is interesting to analyse for acceptance and adoption of E-rickshaw as a legal vehicle technology for India. Paper also addresses whether the case of E-rickshaw as a component of the public transport in Delhi can be a responsible innovation. The interviews, focused group discussions, non-participant observations, and survey methods used to trace deliberation and participation processes for the emerging innovation. The findings suggest that reliability, safety, ownership, solidarity, competitiveness, affordability, last-mile connectivity, accessibility, happiness, gender equity, non-polluting, employability, social equity, comfortability, healthiness, profitability as universal and culture-specific values are embedded in this innovation. These values make this product socially, economically and environmentally sustainable in the region.
