Introduction to special issue: new directions in shared-mobility research

Abstract

Shared-mobility sits within the broader phenomenon that has been termed the ‘Sharing Economy’, in which widespread usage of emerging information and communications technology (ICT), particularly smartphones, enables new forms of market interactions that can enable both new services and improved efficiency in asset utilisation. Rather than individual physical items being purchased, owned, controlled, maintained and used solely by their owner, in shared-mobility systems the physical assets (bicycles, automobiles, small aircraft, etc.) are accessed sequentially by multiple users on a pay-per-use basis. This implies higher utilisation rates of assets with relatively high fixed costs; in the case of automobiles the classical high fixed cost/low marginal cost paradigm of private car ownership is reversed. Whereas shared-mobility was a niche market a decade ago, today the phenomenon has entered the mainstream, with a broad array of major automakers (BMW, Citroen, Daimler, Ford, Renault, Toyota, etc.) investing in shared-mobility services. Terminology in this area is a vexed subject, with innovation in business models greatly outpacing the speed at which researchers, let alone the general public, have proven able to converge around a common lexicon. Indeed, it is arguable whether the term ‘sharing’ itself is an accurate descriptor for the interactions that take place in ‘shared-mobility’ markets. There is also a lack of consensus regarding where to draw the boundaries of sharedmobility—one view of the term is broad enough to encompass traditional car rental, whereas a contrasting perspective would emphasise the importance of intermediation via contemporary ICT, thereby excluding car rental from a storefront or airport counter. The issue is not merely a pedantic one; definitional ambiguity has led, for instance, to the