I. The Problem: Lack of Understanding for Consumer Acceptance of Ownership Substituting Services

The majority of succusseful examples for services which substitute product ownership come from the business-to-business-sector. The substitution of eco-efficient services for consumer products seems to be much more difficult. To overcome the special challenges of the consumer market, the knowledge of the conditions for consumer acceptance is crucial. In this paper, I will propose and apply a generalizable approach to analyse the functional aspects of consumer acceptance of the product-service-shift. The example of application is the new car-sharing service MIETERMOBIL (tenant's mobile) by Volkswagen, for which we (Department of Marketing and Consumer Research, University of Hanover) are doing consumer research and consultancy.

II. The Theoretical Approach: Property Rights and Duties

In the paper, I will introduce the structure of property rights and - often neglected - property duties as a tool to analyse and understand consumer acceptance of services which substitute product ownership.

III. The Example of Application: Volkswagen MIETERMOBIL

As a project in which we applied the property-rights-and-duties approach, I will present Volkswagen MIETERMOBIL. MIETERMOBIL is a fully automated, spontaneously usable car sharing service which Volkswagen is testing in cooperation with housing companies. Several differences to "classical" car-sharing will be mentioned.

IV. The Empirical Evidence and Practical Implications

In the final section of the paper, I will present the results of a consumer survey on acceptance of MIETERMOBIL. The results show the viability and practical value of the property-rights-and-duties-approach. We confirmed expected positive acceptance effects of certain MIETERMOBIL features and gained additional ideas to improve the costumer-oriented service design.

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Last updated: 25 May, 2001