Consumer-to-consumer exchanges: A goal theory approach in the timebanking context

Abstract

In recent times, consumer-to-consumer exchange networks have gained popularity. In these exchange systems members may adopt different roles as producers or as consumers of products and services. Furthermore, the participation in such systems may aim to achieve utilitarian or political and social goals. In this paper we focus on a particular type of consumer-to-consumer exchange system, timebanking. We posit that goals influence different forms of participation in these networks: political and social goals drive membership but economic goals lead to exchanges. We find confirmation for this assumption in a dataset of 255 self-administered questionnaires to members of Spanish timebanks. In particular, our contribution lies on further understanding the nature and intensity of members’ participation in consumer-to-consumer exchange systems, such as timebanking, in relation to the goals they set. We conclude that to better understand consumer-to-consumer exchange networks it is essential to, first, unbundle the membership from the carried-out transactions, and second, to separate the two roles that members perform in consumer-to-consumer markets as the goals attached to these may vary. Political goals may drive membership but not transactions.