IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i24p16651-d1296023.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Persuading Reluctant Customers: The Online Marketing Communications of Car Sharing Firms

Author

Listed:
  • Pengen Mai

    (Sheffield University Management School, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 1FL, UK)

  • Steven James Day

    (School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China)

Abstract

Circular economy offers face significant difficulties when competing with traditional offers in the market. A particular challenge is the lack of consumer interest and adoption, which hinders the success of business-to-consumer (B2C) sharing business models. The study introduces an online communications framework, based on rhetoric theory, to explore how B2C car-sharing firms persuade potential customers. The framework is tested and refined through a qualitative content analysis of six major car-sharing providers in the USA and the UK. The results reveal that firms use evidence- and reason-based appeals focused on utility but have difficulty addressing consumer concerns about sharing business models, particularly regarding ownership. Interestingly, the potentially large environmental sustainability benefits of car sharing and commensurate branding are not emphasised as much as the literature on the subject would indicate; it rather appears that car-sharing firms struggle to leverage this factor in their communications. This study contributes to the literature on consumer behaviour and marketing in the circular and sharing economy by providing a theoretical perspective for understanding how firms view their offers and consumers and seek to communicate benefits and assuage worries.

Suggested Citation

  • Pengen Mai & Steven James Day, 2023. "Persuading Reluctant Customers: The Online Marketing Communications of Car Sharing Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-18, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:24:p:16651-:d:1296023
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/24/16651/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/24/16651/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dongmin Kim & Izak Benbasat, 2006. "The Effects of Trust-Assuring Arguments on Consumer Trust in Internet Stores: Application of Toulmin's Model of Argumentation," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 17(3), pages 286-300, September.
    2. Godek, John & Murray, Kyle B., 2008. "Willingness to pay for advice: The role of rational and experiential processing," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 106(1), pages 77-87, May.
    3. Rodney Duffett & Dana-Mihaela Petroșanu & Iliuta-Costel Negricea & Tudor Edu, 2019. "Effect of YouTube Marketing Communication on Converting Brand Liking into Preference among Millennials Regarding Brands in General and Sustainable Offers in Particular. Evidence from South Africa and ," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-24, January.
    4. Steven Day & Janet Godsell & Donato Masi & Wanrong Zhang, 2020. "Predicting consumer adoption of branded subscription services: A prospect theory perspective," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 1310-1330, March.
    5. Weinberg, Bruce D. & Parise, Salvatore & Guinan, Patricia J., 2007. "Multichannel marketing: Mindset and program development," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 50(5), pages 385-394.
    6. Catherine E. Cherry & Nick F. Pidgeon, 2018. "Why Is Ownership an Issue? Exploring Factors That Determine Public Acceptance of Product-Service Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-15, July.
    7. Alan Murray & Keith Skene & Kathryn Haynes, 2017. "The Circular Economy: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of the Concept and Application in a Global Context," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 140(3), pages 369-380, February.
    8. Angel L Meroño-Cerdan & Pedro Soto-Acosta, 2007. "External Web content and its influence on organizational performance," European Journal of Information Systems, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(1), pages 66-80, February.
    9. Marie Briguglio & Glenn Formosa, 2023. "Sharing Is Caring: An Economic Analysis of Consumer Engagement in an Electric Vehicle Sharing Service," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-15, March.
    10. Rüdiger Hahn & Felix Ostertag & Adrian Lehr & Marion Büttgen & Sabine Benoit, 2020. "“I like it, but I don't use it”: Impact of carsharing business models on usage intentions in the sharing economy," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 1404-1418, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marcos Ferasso & Tatiana Beliaeva & Sascha Kraus & Thomas Clauss & Domingo Ribeiro‐Soriano, 2020. "Circular economy business models: The state of research and avenues ahead," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3006-3024, December.
    2. Daniel Borg & Oksana Mont & Heather Schoonover, 2020. "Consumer Acceptance and Value in Use-Oriented Product-Service Systems: Lessons from Swedish Consumer Goods Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-19, September.
    3. Joseph A. Cazier & Benjamin B. M. Shao & Robert D. St. Louis, 2007. "Sharing information and building trust through value congruence," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 9(5), pages 515-529, November.
    4. Tina Wiegand & Martin Wynn, 2023. "Sustainability, the Circular Economy and Digitalisation in the German Textile and Clothing Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-30, June.
    5. Mechthild Donner & Anne Verniquet & Jan Broeze & Katrin Kayser & Hugo de Vries, 2021. "Critical success and risk factors for circular business models valorising agricultural waste and by-products," Post-Print hal-03004851, HAL.
    6. Durán-Romero, Gemma & López, Ana M. & Beliaeva, Tatiana & Ferasso, Marcos & Garonne, Christophe & Jones, Paul, 2020. "Bridging the gap between circular economy and climate change mitigation policies through eco-innovations and Quintuple Helix Model," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    7. Patricia van Loon & Luk N. Van Wassenhove & Ales Mihelic, 2022. "Designing a circular business strategy: 7 years of evolution at a large washing machine manufacturer," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 1030-1041, March.
    8. Pies, Ingo & Hielscher, Stefan & Everding, Sebastian, 2020. "Do hybrids impede sustainability? How semantic reorientations and governance reforms can produce and preserve sustainability in sharing business models," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 174-185.
    9. Millar, Neal & McLaughlin, Eoin & Börger, Tobias, 2019. "The Circular Economy: Swings and Roundabouts?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 11-19.
    10. Meents, S. & Verhagen, T. & Vlaar, P.W.L., 2011. "How sellers can stimulate purchasing in electronic marketplaces: Using information as a risk reduction signal," Serie Research Memoranda 0014, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics.
    11. L. Rocchi & L. Paolotti & C. Cortina & F. F. Fagioli & A. Boggia, 2021. "Measuring circularity: an application of modified Material Circularity Indicator to agricultural systems," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 9(1), pages 1-13, December.
    12. Benedetta Cotta, 0. "What goes around, comes around? Access and allocation problems in Global North–South waste trade," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-15.
    13. Mutu Tantrige Osada Vishvajith Peiris & Gileemalege Lalithri Navodya Dayarathne, 2023. "Application of Life Cycle Framework for Municipal Solid Waste Management: a Circular Economy Perspective from Developing Countries," Circular Economy and Sustainability,, Springer.
    14. Kirchherr, Julian & Piscicelli, Laura & Bour, Ruben & Kostense-Smit, Erica & Muller, Jennifer & Huibrechtse-Truijens, Anne & Hekkert, Marko, 2018. "Barriers to the Circular Economy: Evidence From the European Union (EU)," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 264-272.
    15. Rachel Greer & Timo Wirth & Derk Loorbach, 2023. "The Circular Decision-Making Tree: an Operational Framework," Circular Economy and Sustainability,, Springer.
    16. Jeff Mangers & Meysam Minoufekr & Peter Plapper & Sri Kolla, 2021. "An Innovative Strategy Allowing a Holistic System Change towards Circular Economy within Supply-Chains," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-17, July.
    17. Un-Kon Lee, 2017. "International Tourism Advertisements on Social Media: Impact of Argument Quality and Source," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-18, August.
    18. Magdalena Rusch & Josef‐Peter Schöggl & Rupert J. Baumgartner, 2023. "Application of digital technologies for sustainable product management in a circular economy: A review," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 1159-1174, March.
    19. repec:aud:audfin:v:20:y:2018:i:48:p:373 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Leslier Valenzuela-Fernández & Manuel Escobar-Farfán, 2022. "Zero-Waste Management and Sustainable Consumption: A Comprehensive Bibliometric Mapping Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-24, December.
    21. Claudia Marcela Betancourt Morales & Jhon Wilder Zartha Sossa, 2020. "Circular economy in Latin America: A systematic literature review," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2479-2497, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:24:p:16651-:d:1296023. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.