Growth through Product-Sharing Services
The authors argue that product-sharing services, where companies offer customers the use ofa physicalproduct on a limited basis at a lower cost, offer an overlooked opportunity for growth. The primary advantage of productsharing services is that they leverage afirm 's core product development and production capabilities to expand their portfolio of offerings and market segments. A framework is developedfor distinguishing likely candidates for product sharing from unlikely candidates based on product, customer; and company-strategy considerations. An empirical study of a new car-sharing service at Daimler-Benz is then used to illustrate the development of such a service, its strategic advantages, and the challenges involved.