The Concept of Car-sharing: Analysis of Research Design

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1: Research Proposal

· Introduction

A global trend is increased urbanization, and most countries in the world are becoming increasingly urbanized. Today, 55% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and this percentage is expected to increase to 68% by 2050. (UN, 2018) This fact, in combination with the projection of overall growth of the world’s population, this could add an estimated 2.5 billion people to urban areas by 2050. A large part of this increase is forecasted to take place in Asia and Africa, however, the trend of increased urbanization is happening all over the world, including European countries. (UN Report, 2018)

Increased urbanization creates challenges for cities, including housing, transportation, health care, and infrastructure. This means that there is an urge to develop smarter cities in order to manage the urbanization in a sustainable way. (UN Report, 2018) According to Geoffrey West (x) there is a need for constant innovation in order to sustainably manage the growth of people living in cities, and thereby avoid a collapse of cities. (Geoffrey West, TedTalk)

As mentioned, one of many challenges related to increased urbanization is transportation in cities. More individuals within cities, and hence more cars, has consequences for mobility. Consequences of more cars in cities include increased congestion, limited parking space, as well as increased pollution. This means that there is a need for smarter ways of car usage. (X) A report from McKinsey (year) about car utilization in Europe, shows that the typical European car is neither used efficiently nor in a sustainable way. The report highlights that the typical European car is parked 92% of the time, spends 1,6% looking for parking, 1% sitting in congestion, and is only 5% for actual driving. In addition, the average European car has 5 seats but only carries 1,5 people per trip. (X) Hence, there is a need and opportunity to create smarter ways of car utilization, which will benefit both individuals, cities, and the planet.

One potential solution to the problem of inefficient and unsustainable car utilization is car-sharing. The concept of car-sharing is defined by Automotive Technologies (2016) as: “a model of car rental where vehicles are rented out for shorter periods of time (usually on a per hour basis) and often intended for shorter distance trips in urban areas where personal car ownership can be challenging.” There are further several categories of car-sharing, including Peer-to-Peer Car-sharing, Business to Consumer (B2C) Car-sharing, and Not-For-Profit Car-sharing. (Automotive Technologies, 2016) In this research car-sharing refers to B2C Car-sharing.

Several automotive companies have released B2C Car-sharing and are continuing to develop the service. (X) One of them is Volvo Cars, who is the owner of Sunfleet; one of the world’s first car sharing companies that has been operated by Volvo since 1998 (Volvo Cars, 2017). Volvo has recognized that today’s notion of mobility and car ownership is changing, and “that urban consumers are rethinking traditional car ownership” (Automotive News Europe, 2018). As an answer to that, Volvo Cars has announced that they in 2019 will release a new mobility brand that provides car-sharing. (Automotive News Europe, 2018) However, even if people are starting to rethink the traditional ownership of cars, the challenge still remains for people to change their old habits as well as their traditional views on how things should be. Many people are resistant to change, and therefore it may take time for people to change their old behaviors. (X) How to make car-sharing more attractive compared to car ownership, in order for consumers to change their traditional relationship to a car, is therefore worth investigating.

· Research question and purpose

It is essential to develop a well-formulated research question, as this will serve as a guide for the remainder of the study. The decision is important as it plays a vital part in the selection of media to be analyzed but also due to the future coding schedule. A not clearly articulated research questions could result in inappropriate media being analyzed or in the coding schedule missing out on certain vital dimensions. (Bryman and Bell 2013) Furthermore, Bryman and Bell (2013) presents some tips and recommendations (in the form of six criterias), which can be used in order to evaluate the appropriateness of the research questions at hand. Firstly, the questions should be clear and understandable to everyone. Second, the questions should be researchable, (they should be possible to develop into a fitting research design). Thirdly, the questions should be connected to already established theory and research. Fourthly, the proposed questions should be linked together as it would be difficult to construct coherent arguments connected to unrelated research questions. Fifthly, the questions should exhibit potential for contributing to knowledge generation. Sixth and lastly, the questions should not be too broad but either too narrow.

Before applying the mentioned criteria the main area of interest, which within the research was going to be conducted, was identified. Due to personal interests in innovative technological solutions in combination with challenges linked to the growing urbanization, a focus on mobility within cities was selected. As the researchers started to gather more information on the topic it became clear that a focus on a shift from a buying economy towards a sharing one would be central. The researchers were eventually able to narrow down the scope and identify the car, its current usage and ways to alter these towards incorporating a sharing thinking, as the main priority for investigation. The purpose of this research was gradually developed through discussions and investigations into the area of interest. This resulted in the purpose of investigating how the concept of sharing cars can be developed in order to attract more users. This knowledge could be of value for companies working within the automotive industry but also for governments and other companies invested in the development and planning of future cities. Several potential research questions were identified during the process. However, by adhering to the criterias mentioned by Bryman and Bell (2013) the researchers were able to navigate through the various alternatives before ending up with the following one;

How should the concept of sharing cars be developed to attract users and create smarter cities?

· Research Strategy

A research strategy is the “general orientation to the conduct of business research”. It is basically an action plan that gives direction and provides guidance on how to best answer the set research question. The research strategy introduces several important considerations that need to be addressed, such as the decision between selecting a qualitative or quantitative course of action as well as the decision to apply an inductive or deductive approach. (Bryman and Bell 2013)

This study is based on a qualitative research method. The research question is exploratory as it aims to understand how the concept of sharing cars should be developed in order to attract users. This is an unobservable process and the focus of study is perceptions. Based on these circumstances, a qualitative method is viable.

Furthermore, a decision whether to apply a quantitative or a qualitative research strategy also needs to be made. When having an inductive approach and thereby aiming to generate theory, a qualitative method is most common and also to prefer (Bryman & Bell, 2013). This is because it focus on words and meanings rather than testing existing theories through quantitative generalization, an method associated with a quantitative approach. Furthermore, quantitative research is described by Bryman and Bell as being more static in comparison to the more process-oriented qualitative research. As the role of fintech startups for financial inclusion in India is likely to be changing, it is of importance to understand how and why such changes can occur. This implies that a qualitative strategy is more fitting as well.

Inductive method

Before diving deeper into the task it was essential for the researchers to decide whether the research was going to be of an inductive or deductive nature. In accordance with what is most commonly used within qualitative research, an inductive approach was applied. Unlike the deductive approach, where the researchers on the basis of what is already known creates hypothesis that are later on tested, the inductive approach, in general, generates research questions in an attempt to narrow down the scope of the research. In addition, while a deductive approach aims towards testing already existing theory, an inductive approach is more focused on generating new ones. With these requirements in mind, it became apparent that an inductive approach was considered suitable, especially as the investigated area is relatively unexplored. Also, the research question is quite open-ended and of an exploratory character, thus supporting an approach beginning in observations and later leading to theory generation.

· Research Design

The research design can be described as the strategy selected by the researchers, in order to integrate all relevant parts of the research in a logic and coherent manner. Thus ensuring that the research question is addressed in a efficient way. According to Bryman and Bell (2013) there are five different research designs namely; experimental design, cross-sectional design, longitudinal design, comparative design, and case study design.

The experimental design requires intervention, in order to create or produce change, and is commonly connected to a quantitative research strategy. Based on these criterias it was concluded that this type of research design would not be optimal. First, the research will be of a qualitative nature, which is in direct opposition to the experimental research design. Secondly, the researchers agreed that an experiment would not be suitable due to time and cost constraints. The cross-sectional design aims towards investigating more than one case at a single point in time. Similar to the experimental research design, the cross-sectional design is often associated to a quantitative strategy, however, it can be realized in the context of qualitative research. Due to the nature of the stated research question, which aims to investigate how the concept of sharing cars can be developed to attract more users, the researchers concluded that a cross-sectional design would not be optimal for the stated task. This as the goal is not to carry out an observational study in order to collect a quantifiable or quantitative body of data later used to analyze the relationship between identified variables. Furthermore, the longitudinal design is typically used to map change and requires a comparison over time on at least two separate occasions. As the purpose of this study is to investigate how the concept of sharing cars can be developed it was considered unsuitable, considering time and cost constraints, to apply this kind of research design. (Bryman & Bell, 2013) According to (Bryman and Bell 2013) the comparative design “embodies the logic of comparing as it implies that we can understand social phenomena better when they are compared in relation to two or more meaningfully contrasting cases or situations.” This type of design can be realized in both a quantitative and qualitative context, but was, however, deemed not applicable onto this particular study as the concept of sharing cars is to be considered as one entity which should not (within the scope of this study) be compared or contrasted to other situations or cases.

The remaining research design, presented by Bryman and Bell (2013), is the case study design, which is also the primary design selected for this study. The case study design involves a detailed in-depth and up-close examination of a case that can the distinguished from the other designs through its intense examination of a single system, entity or situation, which is difficult to separate from the overall context. The case study design, which is one of the more commonly used approaches within qualitative research, is considered to be an appropriate design for this study as the focus is to investigate how the concept of how the sharing economy currently is being implemented into today’s society, and how it further can be developed in order to attract more users. It is important to mention that a focus on the sharing economy within the entire transportation industry might be too broad, which is why a focus on the automotive industry has been selected for this case study.

Research Methodology

Primary and Secondary Data

Primary as well as secondary data will be collected in this research. Secondary data will be used to acquire information from already existing research within the area of urbanization, mobility in cities, sharing economy, and more specifically car-sharing. Considering the fact that companies as well as researchers have already investigated car-sharing in order to implement the service, secondary data within this area of research is accessible. Literature about urbanization as well as mobility in cities will be useful in order to gain a deeper understanding about the challenges associated with mobility in cities with an increasing population in urban areas. Literature about the concept of sharing economy will be used to create a deeper understanding of this concept, which will consequently give a deeper insight into the concept of car-sharing. More narrowly, literature about the concept of car-sharing will further be investigated and defined. Additionally, secondary data will be gathered from companies that have implemented car-sharing into their offerings. This is useful in order to understand how car-sharing has been working in practice. The secondary data gathered will be used as a base for further research into the area of car-sharing. A main benefit of secondary data as data collection includes easy and time-efficient access to good-quality data, which give the researchers more time to analyze the data (Bryman & Bell, 2013).

In order to investigate how car-sharing should be developed, it is of great importance to first understand the concept of car-sharing, as well as how it is currently used in practice. Primary data will, therefore, be gathered in order to understand what factors attract potential users of car-sharing, both from a user perspective but also from a service-provider perspective. Primary data collected by using a qualitative approach is a good way of gaining a deeper understanding of what individuals see as valuable or problematic (Bryman & Bell, 2013), which is useful in the investigation of how the concept of car-sharing should be developed in the future.

Semi-structured interviews

Bryman & Bell (2013) further mention three general ways of collecting qualitative data. The forms mentioned are data collection through ethnography and participant observation, focus groups, and qualitative interviews. The most suitable way to collect data for this research is to conduct qualitative interviews, using a semi-structured approach. The main reason for this is the flexibility, such as opportunities to follow up on the interviewee’s answers and the possibility to change direction during the interview, and thereby gain a deeper understanding of the interviewees’ perspective due to more detailed answers. The semi-structured interview is in other words a preferential approach to keep a structure while at the same time be open for unexpected directions. Before the interview, an interview guide will be created. The schedule in the interview guide can be followed, however there are also freedom to add questions or change order of the questions throughout the interview. This flexible approach enables the researchers to gain a deeper knowledge about the interviewees. The approach also reduces the risk of missing important aspects that the interviewees would not share if the questions would have been too structured and narrow. (Bryman & bell, 2013)

In qualitative interviewing, interviewers can depart significantly from any schedule or guide that is being used. They can ask new questions that follow up interviewees’ replies and can vary the order of questions and even the wording of questions.
As a result, qualitative interviewing tends to be flexible (see Research in focus 18.3 for an example), responding to the direction in which interviewees take the interview and perhaps adjusting the emphases in the research as a result of significant issues that emerge in the course of interviews
In qualitative interviewing, the researcher wants rich, detailed answers;
A semi-structured interview. The researcher has a list of questions on fairly specific topics to be covered, often referred to as an interview guide, but the interviewee has a great deal of leeway in how to reply. Questions may not follow on exactly in the way out- lined on the schedule. Questions that are not included in the guide may be asked as the interviewer picks up on things said by interviewees. But, by and large, all the questions will be asked and a similar wording will be used from interviewee to interviewee

Sampling

The aim of the qualitative interviews is to generate an in-depth analysis, which means representativeness is less important in this case compared to a quantitative research. A convenience or opportunistic sampling will therefore be used in this research. To answer the research question, both the service-provider perspective and the user perspective need to be analyzed. It is of great importance to understand how the concept of sharing-cars has been working in practice, as well as how it is being developed, in order to generate a theory of how it should be developed in the future. To analysis this, people that work in an automotive company that provides car-sharing services are chosen as interviewees. Furthermore, people that are using, or have been using, the service are potential interview objects used to analyze how car-sharing works in practice. Car-owners will, therefore, be interviewed in order to find out what value, as well as problems, owning a car gives them. This is important to analyze in order to see how these values can be transferred to car-sharing as well as how car-sharing can solve the user’s problems related to owning a car. Potential users of car-sharing, such as people who normally use public transportation, will be another segment to interview. Interviewing them can generate insights to how car-sharing should be developed in order to attract this segment and make them change to adopting car-sharing as means of transportation. Due to convenience, the sampled people will be situated in the Gothenburg area. Since Gothenburg is an urban area it can be assumed that people in Gothenburg face the same problems and have similar values as people living in other urban areas. Furthermore, Gothenburg is known for the presence of manufacturing car companies, including Volvo Cars. This increases the opportunity to interview people working in an automotive company. Interviewing people in Automotive companies can furthermore lead to snowball sampling, which is the case when the interviewee recommends other potential interviewees. (Bryman & Bell, 2013)

Data Analysis

According to Bryman & Bell (2013) there are two main strategies of qualitative data analysis; analytic induction and grounded theory. The aim of these strategies is to guide the analysis of the data. In the analytic induction an hypothetical explanation of the research question is conducted before data is collected and used to try the hypothesis. This approach is not seen as applicable in this research since the researchers do not have a hypothetical explanation prior to the data collection of how the concept of car-sharing should be developed. The grounded theory is thereby chosen as the strategy of qualitative data analysis in this research. In the grounded theory strategy a theory is, on the contrary to analytic induction, derived from data that is systematically gathered and analyzed through the research process. (Bryman & Bell, 2013) Since the aim of this research is to answer the question how the concept of sharing-cars should be developed in order to attract users and create smarter cities, the formulation of a formal theory will be the last step of the research after all data has been collected and analyzed. This approach is in line with grounded theory.

The process of the data analysis in this research begins with a general research question; How should the concept of sharing cars be developed to attract users and create smarter cities? Thereafter, relevant people are theoretically sampled. The sampled people in this research include car-owners, other potential users of car-sharing, people that are using the car-sharing service, as well as people working in a company that provides the service. Secondary data will be collected in order to generate relevant concepts. In addition, relevant primary data from the sampled people will be collected through qualitative semi-structured interviews. The collected data will be coded in order to find concepts. There are three different types of coding in grounded theory; open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. Open coding will be used in this research, which means data will be broken down, examined, compared, categorized, and lastly conceptualized. By doing so, relevant concepts will be generated. Coding may propose new data, which means there will be a movement backwards and forwards between these initial four steps in the process. Categories will be generated by comparing indicators and concepts. From relationships between categories, hypothesis will emerge. The hypothesis will be tested by collecting further data via theoretical sampling. This step in the process will generate a substantive theory, which will be explored. From that exploration a formal theory may be generated. To sum up, outcomes that will be generated from grounded theory are concepts, categories, properties (attributes or aspects of a category), hypothesis, and theory. Using grounded theory as a strategy for data analysis is useful in this research because it captures complexity and is linked with practice. (Bryman & Bell, 2013)

References

http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/theme/urbanization/index.shtml
https://www.un.org/development/desa/publications/2018-revision-of-world-urbanization-prospects.html
http://www.automotivetechnologies.com/car-sharing
https://europe.autonews.com/article/20180705/COPY/307069986/volvo-plans-car-sharing-in-2019
https://www.media.volvocars.com/global/en-gb/media/pressreleases/202338/volvo-cars-to-establish-new-shared-mobility-business-unit

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