Guest post by Kelli Pippin of Tuck’s Center for Digital Strategies.
The Center for Digital Strategies at Tuck focuses on enabling business strategy. Digital strategies and information technology that harness a company's unique competencies can push business strategy to a new level. At the center, we foster intellectual leadership by forging a learning community of scholars, executives, and students focused on the role of digital strategies in creating competitive advantage in corporations and value chains. We accomplish this mission by conducting high-impact research; creating a dialog between CIOs and their functional executive colleagues; and driving an understanding of digital strategies into the MBA curriculum.
The first time I heard someone speak about the sharing economy was in 2013. One of our MBA Fellows did his research project on how the underutilization of owned physical goods is one of the many forces shaping the sharing economy. Since that time, I've contributed to this new economy by renting a carriage house in Martha's Vineyard and a cottage on Lake Placid using homeaway.com, a condo in the White Mountains using airbnb.com and I've also explored alternatives to dog kennels on DogVakay.com. Most of us are familiar with the "sharing" of rides using Lyft or Uber and the fashion options such as Rent the Runway and Poshmark.
In researching the topic for this year's Tech@Tuck—which will be held Tuesday, February 17—I've come to two conclusions: a lot of good can come from this new approach to ownership and one of the first "sharing" companies is just now, this year, celebrating 15 years in business—so I was behind the times!
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with an executive at Zipcar and the stories I heard were invigorating. When Zipcar first launched, some called this concept "socialism" and exclaimed that no one would want to share a car. Today, the Cambridge, MA founded company has over 700 employees and is subsidiary of Avis Budget Group. (Did you know there are four Zipcars available here on the Dartmouth campus?) Membership rates can be as low as $6/month and this is the company that's turning 15 this year! Truly, the massive cost of buying a car and the headache of maintenance can be avoided if your lifestyle and driving needs can be met by Zipcar.
But there's so much more to share!
I believe "sharing" is green when compared to the old way of purchasing and discarding when you move or grow tired of your items. I believe making money off items you rarely use is just smart business and now tech makes it simple and cheap to execute. I also agree with many people who say that the sharing economy will breed new companies designed to enable even greater numbers of customers to take advantage of peer-to-peer moneymaking opportunities.
You can find this original post on the Center for Digital Strategies blog.