You Are What You Share: Understanding Participation Motives in Peer-to-Peer Carsharing

Abstract

Carsharing is changing the automotive industry. Although existing offers fail to fully meet expectations, researchers and mangers agree that these access-based services will strongly affect the industry’s existing business model. Employing means-end chain analysis, we provide first insights in car owners’ and renters’ participation motives to understand the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) carsharing trend. Users are not only concerned about cost savings and altruism but also about expressing their personality through the car they offer or rent. While renters realize particular lifestyle expectations, car owners participate to express their interest in enabling others’ mobility. P2P carsharing provides users with sharable life-enriching stories. The 2010s are all about sharing—one’s pictures, rooms, and cars.