Emergence of Carsharing Business Models and Sustainability Impacts in Swedish Cities

Abstract

The sharing economy has become prominent in the policy, business and academic discourse as a way to achieve greater levels of resource efficiency in sustainability transitions. An example is carsharing, which is regarded as a potential lever for change in sustainable mobility transitions. In this article we, apply the "ecologies of business models" perspective to investigate how carsharing initiatives have coevolved in Sweden. We focus on the city context as a useful unit of analysis to investigate carsharing in four Swedish cities: Gothenburg, Malmö, Stockholm and Umeå. Through qualitative case research, we investigate the following: How did carsharing business models coevolve in the studied cities? It was found that early notions of carsharing date back to the 1970s, but the concept has changed significantly over time, particularly with the emergence of (Internet) technology-based platforms. The findings suggest that carsharing is complementary to existing private car usage in cities, rather than a replacement. Based on this, we suggest pathways for local policymakers to consider when implementing sustainable carsharing solutions. The contributions are threefold: providing an empirical study on the theoretical ecologies of business models concept; understanding how carsharing coevolved in Swedish cities and in relation to wider sustainability and mobility trends; and giving novel insight into the role of local governments.

Carsharing: a systematic literature review and research agenda

“…This model is typically characterized by a communal interest in sharing cars rather than any profit motive (Cohen and Kietzmann, 2014; Münzel et al , 2018). Members of cooperative carsharing schemes usually pay an annual membership deposit or monthly mileage fees, with contractual obligations governing car maintenance and other administrative responsibilities (Bocken et al , 2020). As nonprofit organizations, cooperative carsharing schemes can often secure funding from government agencies and foundations.…”

“…P2P carsharing customers often pay a fee per use, and the platform provider takes a percentage of the rental fee paid by the customer. Under the P2P arrangement, the car owner assumes responsibility for maintaining and cleaning the car (Hartl et al , 2018) and determines the rental duration (Bocken et al , 2020). As P2P platform providers do not incur fleet investment costs, this form of carsharing has higher scalability potential than the access-based model (Hampshire and Gaites, 2011; Meelen et al , 2019).…”

“…Achieving economic viability has proved challenging, and many projects are in retreat, for example, most of ShareNow's international operations have been closed down since 2019 (Miller, 2019). Nevertheless, industry and public research centers continue to invest heavily in new initiatives (Bocken et al , 2020), and many carsharing service providers see long-term market potential. In 2019, the global carsharing market exceeded US$2.5 billion, with predicted growth of over 24% by 2026 (Global Growth Trends, 2021).…”

A Systematic Literature Review. Relationships between the Sharing Economy, Sustainability and Sustainable Development Goals

“…In general, the sharing economy allows the use of under-utilised resources and, therefore, has an environmental benefit by reducing consumption [20]. Regarding shared mobility, it is stated that it reduces the negative impact on the environment and reduces polluting emissions and energy expenditure [21], being a transport element that should not be substituted by a particular car, but be complementary [22]. The reduction of a vehicle in the family unit implies a 23% increase in the probability of shared car use in cities with high population density [23].…”

Integration of Free Floating Car Sharing Systems in Rail Stations: A Web Based Data Analysis

“…In European cities, the first findings in the literature suggest that carsharing is complementary to existing private car usage in cities, rather than a replacement [21,22]. As a consequence, it is important to promote FFCS as a chain of intermodal routes totally covered by public transport.…”