The aim of the article is to present car sharing, with particular emphasis on electric car sharing, as an interdisciplinary research area. This applies not only to social sciences – management (strategy or marketing), sociology, economics (including the sharing economy), consumer psychology, but also to urban planning, engineering sciences (electrical engineering or energy) and, finally, ecology. Only the use of a broader perspective allows the understanding of the importance of car sharing, including electric vehicles, in contemporary social and economic processes. The diagnosis of factors that may affect the widespread use of car sharing, which we treat as an element of cities’ response to congestion and smog, requires a reference to the knowledge of the previously mentioned scientific disciplines. The core value of this article is that it provides a multi-faceted perspective on the consumer and prosumer, urban mobility and the energy ecosystem from the point of view of the sharing economy and zero/low carbon cars. In recent years, the number of research articles on car sharing has been growing (Ferrero, Perboli, Rosano, & Vesco, 2018); however, studies written from the point of view of a single, less often two scientific disciplines dominate. We propose to extend this perspective. Although, in research terms, this work is preliminary and exploratory, adopting a broad observation perspective should allow for establishing a dialogue between disciplines to ensure better formulation of research problems and solve socio economic dilemmas not only in the field of the sharing economy, and to better introduce the issue of car sharing to the area of management sciences.
Early adopters of new transportation technologies: Attitudes of Russia’s population towards car sharing, the electric car and autonomous driving
