Leading People into a Better Future through Information System Interaction and Engagement. Digital Nudging Research in the Context of Business Trip Ridesharing

Climate change has become one of the most significant challenges humanity faces. As greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, not only will natural disasters strike considerably more frequently and severely, but whole swaths of land will become uninhabitable and infertile as farmland. It is apparent that long-term approaches like reaching net-zero with new technologies are important, but so are short-term measures to avoid tipping points and passing points of no return. The transport sector accounts for nearly a quarter (23%) of energy related-emissions, and 40-60% of these transport-related emissions stem from commuting and business traveling. One short-term approach to lower transport emissions is ridesharing: When two or more commuters team up, significant emissions can be saved. As a result, business trip ridesharing (BTRS), the sharing of individual vehicles for commuting and business trips among employees, has gained increased attention from organizations and academia alike. BTRS shares similar adoption challenges like ridesharing and shared-mobility overall: From individuals' prevalence to solving the matching and allocation problem of shared resources. This thesis investigates the role that Green Information Systems (Green IS) can play to support BTRS adoption.