Carsharing provides an alternative to private car ownership by allowing car use temporarily on an on-demand basis. Operators provide carsharing services using different business models and ownership structures. We distinguish between cooperative, business-to-consumer (B2C) roundtrip and one-way, as well as peer-topeer (P2P) carsharing. This paper characterizes these different types of business models and compares their success in terms of diffusion using a comprehensive database of all 101 German carsharing providers in 2016. The key result holds that fleet size is significantly different across business models ranging from a few cars (cooperatives in small towns), to a few hundred (B2C roundtrip in larger cities), to over a thousand (B2C one-way in largest cities), up to multiple thousands (P2P across the country). By analyzing for each operator the number of cars per capita in the city they operate in, we do not find significant differences across business models indicating the viability of each separate business model type. Hence, we conclude that business models will continue to co-exist for a while, although some of the business models may well converge in the longer run due to Internet-ofThings applications and the introduction of self-driving cars.

The forces influencing business model development are widely discussed in the literature, but so far, the effects of macro-level forces such as institutional logics have received little attention. This study describes the effects of institutional logics in the context of business model development in the German carsharing industry. We longitudinally analyze a rich qualitative dataset from the start of professional carsharing in 1988-2015 to uncover the forces influencing the business models. We find that the two main business models-the free-floating model and the station-based model-have developed along disparate trajectories because the actors in the market are committed to different institutional logics. Corporate-backed companies that operate the free-floating business model are committed to corporation logic, and the small, environmentally minded organizations that operate in a station-based model are committed to community logic. We contribute to the business model literature by presenting institutional logics as a moderating force that empower some development trajectories and inhibit others. We also argue that commitment to community logic concerns actors in many other sharing economy markets outside of German carsharing. We discuss the implications of this proposition and suggest topics for further research.

Carsharing can partially replace private ownership of vehicles with a service that allows the use of a car temporarily on an on-demand basis. In this study, we analyze the supply of shared cars across 177 cities in five Western European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, The Netherlands, United Kingdom), while distinguishing between the traditional business-to-consumer (B2C) business model and the more recent peer-to-peer (P2P) business model. The data on carsharing supply is individually collected of all operators in the respective cities, while data of city characteristics is drawn from international or national statistical databases. We explain carsharing supply using comparable data of 14 explanatory variables. The results indicate that carsharing is popular in cities with a high educational level or university presence and, in the B2C case, with many green party votes. Furthermore, carsharing is less popular in cities with many car commuters. Particularly striking are the differences between countries, with peer-to-peer carsharing being especially popular in French cities and business-to-consumer carsharing in Germany. We reflect on the findings in the light of (sustainable) mobility policy options.

Carsharing is regarded to play an important part in the transition towards a more sustainable mobility system by changing how cars are used and transportation needs are met. Carsharing adopters own less cars, ride less car kilometers and depend on multiple transportation modes for their travel needs. There has been considerable interest in understanding the characteristics and motives of carsharing adopters. Yet, studies have been mostly limited to small-scale surveys, covering only specific cities or organizations and focusing on traditional B2C carsharing, disregarding the growing popularity of P2P carsharing through online platforms. This study contributes to extant research by investigating whether characteristics and motives differ between B2C and P2P carsharing adopters, and broadening the scope of the analysis to include an entire country (The Netherlands) and different carsharing provider types. First, our findings suggest that B2C and P2P carsharing adopters are rather similar in their characteristics but differ in the frequency in which they make use of carsharing and public transport. Second, we provide novel insights into the characteristics that influence a car owner to become an adopter of P2P carsharing as a provider. We find that car owners who already shared their car informally outside an online platform are also much more likely to provide their car through an online platform. We conclude with describing policy implications of our findings. Regulation should focus on shaping favorable conditions for a connected multi-modal transportation system instead of specific regulations for each carsharing business model.

Servitisation, which occurs when products are offered with service components as product-service bundles, has increased rapidly in consumer markets during recent years because of digitalisation. Digital technologies have enabled the emergence of peer-to-peer marketplaces and made it possible for B2B lease and rental actors to push for B2C markets. Despite extensive research on servitisation, we know little of what kinds of companies can best exploit the opportunities created by it and how digitalisation affects intercompany relationships regarding these opportunities. This article addresses these research gaps by making a revelatory case study on the entry order and strategy of established B2B lease companies to enter the B2C private leasing and carsharing markets. We collect an interview-based dataset on key companies in the Dutch car lease market, that we analyse abductively. We find that knowledge of the opportunities, position in the value chain, and resources are focal elements that define which companies are pioneers, early followers, and late entrants. In contrast to former servitisation literature, manufacturing incumbent companies are not active in exploiting opportunities created by private leasing. Additionally, we discover that the leasing companies create capabilities for private leasing themselves whereas they partner to enable carsharing. We discuss the contribution of these findings to research on disruptive innovation, servitisation, and digital innovation.