The influence of the sharing economy on changing consumer behaviour

The paper explores the background and context of the sharing economy, looking at the historical development of the recurrent sharing society and the importance of changing values within it for the reciprocal relationship between companies and society. The trend behind the sharing economy can be identified as collaborative consumption, which contributes to the current structure of the sharing economy through various causes and drivers and creates a new species of consumer. Based on this, characteristics are defined under the term "Customers 4.0", which subsume and illustrate identified changes in their consumption patterns. Furthermore, modifications of these developments on the capital in economic, social as well as cultural respects can be recognised. These developments are closely related to the strongly affected sector of the automotive industry, which has to react to new usage motives and the changed relationship of society to each other and to the automobile.