Sharing is CARing - A Multiple Case Study Into Resource Deployment Practices of Car Manufacturers in the Sharing Economy

Sammanfattning: The sharing economy is disrupting industries, with the automotive industry being one of the most affected ones. Car manufacturers are facing a future of declining car sales in which their traditional way of doing business is seemingly becoming less relevant. In an effort to adapt to this new market environment, these incumbents are increasingly starting to run their own shared mobility services which fundamentally differ from their traditional business of manufacturing and selling cars. Still, academia has recognized that firms can run their new business models by using resources from their traditional ones. However, actual practices especially in the context of the sharing economy have received little attention by researchers. The purpose of this study is therefore to investigate how car manufacturers use resources from their traditional business to run shared mobility services. For this, a multiple case study with five car manufacturers was conducted. We find that car manufacturers tap into the opportunities arising from running a portfolio of business models by deploying existing resources in their shared mobility services that go beyond a pure utilization of their own vehicles. The results of the study further indicate that it is mainly the strategic position car manufacturers take in the sharing economy that determines how resources are deployed in shared mobility businesses.