Innovation adoption in rail freight transport: Drivers, barriers and mechanisms – A qualitative study from Germany

Although innovation is an important lever for strengthening competitiveness in freight transport, rail freight transport continues to show low innovation intensity. While individual innovations and their potential benefits have been widely discussed, the conditions under which innovations are adopted have received little attention. Understanding the drivers and barriers of innovation adoption is therefore critical. This study provides a systematic , empirical analysis of innovation adoption in rail freight transport. Using a grounded theory approach based on interviews with industry actors from the German rail freight sector, we identify ten categories struc-tured within the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework influencing innovation adoption. Building on these insights, the study develops seven adoption mechanisms that describe the dynamics of innovation adoption and the interrelationships between these categories. The findings reveal that financial aspects, sectoral complexity, and firm size are key barriers, while collaboration among actors and public funding represent important drivers. The adoption mechanisms further show that drivers and barriers are interrelated, indicating that addressing them separately is unlikely to improve innovation adoption. Fostering innovation adoption requires integrated strategies that combine financial, regulatory, and organizational measures, jointly developed by industry actors and policymakers. By offering an empirically grounded understanding of innovation adoption in rail freight transport, this study provides guidance for both policy and practice by showing how financial, regulatory, organizational, and collaborative measures can be aligned to foster innovation adoption.