Impact of consumer barriers on the adoption of innovation : the case of carsharing

Abstract

The sharing economy, which is “built on using and sharing of products and services among others” (Puschmann and Alt, 2015), is a growing technological phenomenon that deserves the attention of both managers and researchers. Although people’s motivations to join the collaborative consumption are numerous (e.g. economic gains and sustainability), it remains challenging for firms to convince customers to use access-based services. Prior studies offer limited understanding of the barriers that can block consumers’ intention to adopt a service; therefore this thesis seeks to bring more knowledge on the topic. The author, after the literature review, collected some data and performed different analyses to assess the relative importance of the barriers identified in previous studies, in a car sharing context. Following the results, managers are provided with recommendations and the findings are discussed in regards with the previous literature. We found that, according to the adoption stage, perceived barriers may differ. In a car sharing context, it appears that the scarcity risk and the difficulties associated with the self-service technology are influencing the intentions of both potential and actual users. However, only people without previous experience are impacted by the trust barrier, the proximity of the station and one’s responsibility, whereas experienced people are impacted by the performance of the car and the contamination issue. Therefore the use of a service and the experience that comes with it does not prevent consumers from perceiving barriers.