Would you share a car? : A qualitative study on the factors affecting consumer participation in car-sharing systems.

The sharing economy is an evolving economic model that is based on collaboration and sharing access to goods with other people. A leading example of this are car-sharing services, which allow people who are strangers to each other to access a car in return of a fee. Although these services are widely spreading across the globe, there is still a short understanding of the customer motives and barriers to engage in these services. The purpose of this thesis was to explore the factors that affect customer participation in carsharing services including motives and barriers. The study was designed to test and modify an adapted conceptual framework through conducting an abductive qualitative study in the form of semi-structured in-depth interviews with a total of 18 interviewees. The empirical findings of the study suggest that there is a total of 14 relevant factors affecting consumer participation in sharing services: 3 factors were related to consumption trends, 7 factors were identified as motives and 4 as barriers. Among all of these factors, economic motivations were recognized to be the most critical factor for customers. The results of this study are highly relevant to companies which operate car-sharing services when considering customer needs and demands.