As peer-to-peer coordinated products and services increasingly constitute competition for traditional businesses in many areas, understanding the underlying user motives of provision and consumption is key -- not only for business operators, but also for researchers investigating such markets. In this article, we develop a questionnaire for assessing motives for and against participating in what is casually referred to as the "Sharing Economy." More specifically, we focus on peer-to-peer rental services and investigate drivers and impediments for user activity in such markets by means of an online survey with over 600 participants.

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Understanding the Sharing Economy -- Drivers and Impediments for Participation in Peer-to-Peer Rental

Purpose




This study aims to provide a taxonomy of relational benefits that drive customer loyalty in sharing-economy services, assess the relative strengths of these relational benefits in influencing customer loyalty and examine whether commitment mediates the influence of relational benefits on customer loyalty in this context.




Design/methodology/approach




Relational benefits of sharing-economy services were explored through a focus group interview, followed by an online survey completed by 440 respondents in China. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses.




Findings




This study shows that confidence and social benefits have significant and positive effects on commitment in sharing-economy services. In addition, safety benefits, a new type of relational benefits, also significantly affect commitment in this context. Furthermore, the findings suggest that commitment acts as a mediator between confidence, social and safety benefits and customer loyalty. Special treatment benefits had no effect on commitment and loyalty in the sharing-economy context.




Practical implications




This paper provides sharing-economy service providers with insight on how to better create and sustain loyal relationships with customers through the provision of relational benefits.




Originality/value




This study offers initial insight into why customers would stay in peer-to-peer relationships in the sharing economy, and suggests how to strengthen relationships between customers and peer service providers.

Why are customers loyal in sharing-economy services? A relational benefits perspective

Purpose – This study seeks to:(1) introduce a systematic taxonomy of relational benefits that drive consumers to select a service provider and then to maintain the relationship with them in sharing-economy businesses; (2) assess the relative strengths of these relational benefits in influencing consumers’ behavioral intentions on sharing-economy services; and (3) examine how commitment mediates the influence of relational benefits on customer loyalty in this context.Design/methodology/approach – This study first conducted a focus group discussion and then collected data from online surveys completed by 440 respondents in China. The study employed structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses.Findings – The findings of the study show that confidence and social benefits, as previous studies indicate, have significant and positive effects on commitment in sharing-economy services. Moreover, safety benefits, a new type of relational benefits discovered in sharing-economy services, also have significant effects on commitment. Furthermore, this study finds that commitment acts as the mediating mechanism, through which confidence, social, and safety benefits operate with respect to their effects on customer loyalty. Interestingly, special treatment benefits were found to have insignificant effects on commitment and loyalty in this context.Practical implications – This paper provides sharing-economy managers with insight on how to better create and sustain loyal relationships through the provision of relational benefits.Originality/value – First, this study provides a framework for incorporating relationship marketing and sharing-economy services. Second, this study takes the initial step to offer a clear view of why customers would like to be involved in the peer-to-peer relationship in the sharing economy and to explain how to strengthen the relationships between customers and the peer service providers.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2831317_code2271975.pdf?abstractid=2831317&mirid=1

Why are Customers Loyal in Sharing-Economy Services? A Relational Benefits Perspective

The world's leading economies are facing not just one but many crises. The financial meltdown may not be over, climate change threatens major global disruption, economic inequality has reached extremes not seen for a century, and government and business are widely distrusted. At the same time, many people regret the consumerism and social corrosion of modern life. What these crises have in common, Diane Coyle argues, is a reckless disregard for the future--especially in the way the economy is run. How can we achieve the financial growth we need today without sacrificing a decent future for our children, our societies, and our planet? How can we realize what Coyle calls "the Economics of Enough"? Running the economy for tomorrow as well as today will require a wide range of policy changes. The top priority must be ensuring that we get a true picture of long-term economic prospects, with the development of official statistics on national wealth in its broadest sense, including natural and human resources. Saving and investment will need to be encouraged over current consumption. Above all, governments will need to engage citizens in a process of debate about the difficult choices that lie ahead and rebuild a shared commitment to the future of our societies. Creating a sustainable economy--having enough to be happy without cheating the future--won't be easy. But The Economics of Enough starts a profoundly important conversation about how we can begin--and the first steps we need to take.

The economics of enough: How to run the economy as if the future matters: How to run the economy as if the future matters

Assessing the impact of knowledge and perceived economic benefits on sustainable consumption through the sharing economy: A sociotechnical approach

The search for strategies to mitigate undesirable economic, ecological, and social effects of harmful resource consumption has become an important, socially relevant topic. An obvious starting point for businesses that wish to make value creation more sustainable is to increase the utilization rates of existing resources. Modern social Internet technology is an effective means by which to achieve IT-enabled sharing services, which make idle resource capacity owned by one entity accessible to others who need them but do not want to own them. Successful sharing services require synchronized participation of providers and users of resources. The antecedents of the participation behavior of providers and users has not been systematically addressed by the extant literature. This article therefore proposes a model that explains and predicts the participation behavior in sharing services. Our search for a theoretical foundation revealed the Theory of Planned Behavior as most appropriate lens, because this theory enables us to integrate provider behavior and user behavior as constituents of participation behavior. The model is novel for that it is the first attempt to study the interdependencies between the behavior types in sharing service participation and for that it includes both general and specific determinants of the participation behavior.

Lydia Todenhöfer

Papers

To Share or Not to Share: Towards Understanding the Antecedents of Participation in IT-Enabled Sharing Services

Crowdsourcing-Ladedienste durch Kleinanbieter als innovatives Geschäftsmodell (CrowdStrom)