Sharing Yet Caring

Abstract

Abstract The quest for creating smart and sustainable cities entails various substantial challenges, such as environmental degradation and a shortage of space. To negotiate these hurdles, innovative approaches must be implemented. A key aspect in this regard is the shared use of resources via forms of access-based consumption. Owing to advances in the digitalization of contemporary societies, these concepts have recently attracted both consumer and scholarly interest. However, the digitally enabled separation of ownership and use brings along the risk of moral hazard by consumers using resources in careless or wasteful ways, which is detrimental to the sustainability of the overall system. In this study, the authors conceptualize and empirically investigate how these adverse effects can be mitigated by applying the potentials of connectivity and digital data to enable users to participate economically while acting favorably from a collective perspective. The results of the quasi-experimental research design, situated in a carsharing context and comprising data records of 2,983 bookings, indicate that this form of value co-capturing with consumers can significantly motivate users to alter their behavior. From these findings, the authors derive important implications for research on the sustainability of digital business eco-systems in the specific context of smart cities.