Get What You Want - a Qualitative Study to Elicit Renters' Participation Motives in Peer-to-Peer Carsharing
The global carsharing market is facing rapid growth – both, in terms of users and service offerings. Service offerings can be categorized into Business-to-Consumer (B2C) (e.g., Car2Go) and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) (e.g, Drivy, RelayRides) services. The latter allow consumers to share privately owned vehicles via an online marketplace. Globally, 21% of consumers would rent another person’s car (Nielsen, 2014). Targeting this segment, several automotive manufacturers announced plans to enter the P2P carsharing market by building marketplaces that allow car-owners (i.e., rentees) to rent and car-renters (i.e., renters) to borrow vehicles.
Existing research mainly explores users of B2C carsharing (e.g., Schaefers, Wittkowski, Benoit, & Ferraro, 2015; Schaefers, 2013). Insights into P2P renters’ participation motives remain scarce, with a notable exception of Dill, Mathez, McNeil, & Howland (2015), who quantitatively investigated renters of P2P carsharing. However, several researchers (e.g., Bardhi & Eckhardt, 2012; Lamberton & Rose, 2012) have formulated calls for further investigation of the sharing economy in general and P2P carsharing in particular (e.g., Ballus-Armet, Shaheen, Clonts, & Weinzimmer, 2014; Dill et al., 2015; Shaheen, Mallery, & Kingsley, 2012).
To further enhance academia’s understanding of the P2P carsharing phenomenon, our research identifies the motives of individuals to participate as renters in P2P carsharing. Managers will benefit from an enhanced understanding of renters’ participation motives, enabling them to develop segment specific marketing activities to foster participation rates.
Research Methodology
To explore the P2P carsharing phenomenon, this paper employs means-end chain (MEC) analysis, a qualitative research method, suitable to investigate consumers’ motivational patterns (Reynolds & Gutman, 1988). The MEC technique allows for a detailed analysis of a consumer’s usage motives and cognitive motive structures, by linking participation relevant attributes (i.e., means), the resulting utility components, and underlying individual values (i.e., ends) (Reppel & Szmigin, 2010; Wagner, 2007). Moreover, it allows for the derivation of overarching motivational patterns and depiction of those in a hierarchical value map. Results are quantifiable and of great managerial relevance (Voss, Gruber, & Szmigin, 2007). In detail, managers benefit from the ability to identify various customer segments, based on core values, and understand the functional as well as psychosocial consequences the customers strive for (Reppel & Szmigin, 2010; Wagner, 2007). Lastly, MEC analysis has been applied to a variety of marketing areas, such as consumer behavior (e.g., Bagozzi & Dabholkar, 1994; Schaefers, 2013) and strategic marketing (e.g., Herrmann & Huber, 2000) and is therefore adequate to elicit renters’ participation motives in P2P carsharing.
A series of eleven in-depth-interviews with German P2P carsharing renters was conducted in cooperation with a P2P carsharing organization. Participants were recruited by a P2P carsharing organization and matched the criteria of typical renter. These criteria were: place of residence (urban area with more than 100 thousand inhabitants), rental frequency (less than daily), rental length (more than four hours per rental), membership duration (at least one year). Interviews lasted 29 minutes on average and were conducted until the the point of theoretical saturation was reached (Glaser & Strauss, 1967).
Results
This research set out to identify the overarching participation motives of P2P carsharing renters. We find that renters differentiate between product and service attributes in P2P carsharing participation. This is characteristic for product-service systems (Mont, 2002), defined as a combination of an asset (a car) and a service, which ultimately grants renters access to the asset instead of ownership. We identified four overarching participation motives: (1) economic interests, (2) convenience, (3) quality of life, (4) certitude: In accordance with current B2C carsharing research, we find that (1) economic interests, (2) convenience, and (3) quality of life are important to P2P carsharing renters. Previously unexplored, we find that the motive (4) certitude is important in the decision to rent vehicles via P2P marketplaces.
Economic interest is mainly associated with the benefit of saving money. Results show that the convenience motive extends beyond the sole usage phase to the pre- and post usage phases. The motive quality of life related to both (1) the benefit being able to invest saved funds into other activities, enhancing overall quality of life and (2) satisfying status related goals. Renters strive for certitude as they want to get the mobility solution they booked. Moreover, certitude also encompasses to getting to know the rentee and the expected interaction with him. Concluding, certitude is renters’ desire to be aware of all relevant product and service features – prior to the first usage. While sustainability has been identified in conceptual research papers as a participation motive, we could not validate this finding. Instead, we find that sustainability is a desired side-effect of P2P carsharing – but not a main participation motive.
Contributions to Academia
We offer several contributions to an extended knowledge of the sharing economy and P2P carsharing. First, by analyzing a P2P context, we answer calls to investigate sharing practices in P2P marketplaces (Belk, 2014; Botsman & Rogers, 2010), thus extending academia’s prevailing focus beyond B2C ventures in the sharing economy. Second, by placing renters of P2P carsharing systems at the center of attention, we extend academia’s knowledge of P2P carsharing (Ballus-Armet et al., 2014; Dill et al., 2015; Shaheen et al., 2012), about renters’ motivational patterns in the sharing economy. The developed framework allows for a concerted further quantitative investigation of participation drivers. Third, employing QRMs facilitates investigating consumer-relevant economic and non-economic motivational factors in the participation decision, allowing fellow researchers to concertedly juxtapose these across various sharing economy practices.