A Study of the Innovation Adoption Process of Car Sharing in Germany

This research aims at identifying reasons why students in Germany do not adopt car sharing. For this purpose, the term innovation is defined and adopted to the term car sharing. Innovations promise a more efficient way of producing or organising things. Car sharing is an innovation due to the fact that it sells the utilisation value of a car. Therefore it links the existing means of transportation, the car, with a new use pattern. In order to adopt an innovation each individual passes through an innovation adoption process. The non-adoption of an innovation can occur at every stage of this process. With the help of current literature, potential reasons for a non-adoption of car sharing are identified. In order to determine which reasons in fact impede students in Germany from committing to car sharing, a questionnaire is conducted.