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Case Study

Mobility car sharing (cartoon case)

By Stefan Michel and Sarah Von Blumenthal

4 pages

December 2014

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Reference: IMD-7-1553

The “Mobility Car Sharing” cartoon case describes the success of a cooperative in Switzerland from its inception in 1987 to the latest innovation in 2014. It shows the differences between car sharing and car rental, and how car sharing is embedded in a wider mobility ecosystem. While car sharing now exists in many countries, the growth in Switzerland has been exceptional due to several factors: excellent public transportation, high ecological awareness since the mid-eighties, highly commited users who are members of the cooperative, etc. The case also describes different segments, and shows that Mobility is attractive for some segments and very unattractive for other segments, who depend on a private car.

Learning Objective

This case be used to achieve several learning objectives: 1) How to keep innovating a service business over several decades; 2) How to create a business model that is embedded in a value constellation (users, public transportation, employers, etc.); 3) How to compare two similar yet very different business models (rental cars versus car sharing); 4) How to segment a market and focus on certain segments, while accepting than many segments don’t like or use the service.

Keywords

Innovation, Business Model, Strategy, Customer Insight, Segmentation, Value Constellation, Car Rental

Settings

Europe, Switzerland
Mobility Car Sharing, Logistics and Supply Chain, Transportation
1987-2014

Type

Published Sources

Available Languages

English

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