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The First Bank of Cents: Innovative Carpooling Through Social Currencies

  • Josep Lluis de la RosaEmail author
  • Andrea Bikfalvi
Chapter
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Abstract

The First Bank of Cents (FBC) provides social currencies, a type of money for social usages, to feed the behavior shift of targeted communities into more sustainable development. FBC can turn driving into a social asset by reinventing the carpooling practice through rewards for social drivers, those who share their cars, and social networks that provide trust among users and confidence on having safe round-trip transportation. FBC provides the rewards so that social drivers obtain cheaper fuel, car maintenance, and parking; hitchhikers comfortably, and with trust, ride for free most of the time; and carpooling works as a powerful loyalty marketing service for local, sustainable businesses. FBC shows how different entities (business, academia, government, and society) can add value through stronger networks that better involve and engage different actors—companies, customers, and knowledge generators, among others. FBC could therefore be viewed as putting the Quadruple Helix into practice, as it seeks to engage public administrations, users, and private enterprises around a common cause of sustainable mobility, which also has the added bonus of being socially responsible.

Keywords

Corporate Social Responsibility Social Entrepreneurship User Scenario Parking Space Sustainable Mobility 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Notes

Acknowledgments

This research is funded by the grup de recerca consolidat CSI-ref.2009SGR-1202. We also wish to acknowledge the work of Dr. Steven MacGregor in the strategic development of FBC and his insight into its fit with corporate social responsibility.

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© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.TECNIO ’ Centre EASYUniversity of Girona, Parc Científic de GironaGironaSpain
  2. 2.Department of Business Administration and Product DesignUniversity of GironaGironaSpain

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