Abstract
Collaborative consumption, often associated with the sharing economy, is an emerging consumption pattern that emphasizes sharing the right to use the same units of goods or services rather than owning them. This study proposed a more comprehensive definition of collaborative consumption and five distinctive characteristics of collaborative consumption, and based on that, it explored the internal mechanism of motivation about participation in collaborative consumption of users by applying self-determination theory. The empirical research was conducted using bicycle sharing users’ survey data to test the research model. Data were analyzed by structural equation model approach using partial least squares path modeling and multi-level regression model approach. The results reveal that, for extrinsic motivations, perceived economic benefit and convenience had significant positive effect on perceived usefulness, and perceived usefulness as a mediator significantly affected the user’s intention to participate. For intrinsic motivations, sustainability, sense of belonging and trust had significant positive effect on enjoyment, and enjoyment as a mediator significantly affected the intention to participate. The findings suggest the important role of perceived usefulness and enjoyment in self-determination theory. This paper offers recommendations for stakeholders based on model results to promote sustainable development of collaborative consumption.
Highlights
In recent years, related concepts such as collaborative consumption, sharing economy, peer-to-peer economy, use of economy, redistribution of market, and on-demand economy have gained increasing attention
This study tested partial least squares path modeling (PLSPM), a variance maximization technique for structural equation modeling (SEM) that makes no distributional assumptions for data
Collaborative consumption enterprises need to know more about motivation affecting consumer participation to help them to survive, and sustainable development of collaborative consumption needs to capture the real needs of users
Summary
In recent years, related concepts such as collaborative consumption, sharing economy, peer-to-peer economy, use of economy, redistribution of market, and on-demand economy have gained increasing attention. To describe the collaborative consumption completely, this paper considers aspect of collaborative consumption as comprehensively as possible based on previous papers, and defines collaborative consumption as: a kind of consumption pattern that consumers access, give, and share the right to use the same units of goods or services by sharing, exchanging, bartering, trading, and leasing using the Internet and mobile Internet platform to obtain monetary income or other compensation. Collaborative consumption as defined in this paper stresses drawing on the same units of material goods or services to share the right to use, i.e., the benefits of one material good or service unit are split among several individuals [3]. The consumption pattern of consumer to consumer is not within the definition of collaborative consumption because consumers who own the goods do not share their goods that they use themselves but offer another “unit of goods”, and they exchange the ownership of the goods instead of the right to use it. The fundamental difference between collaborative consumption and traditional consumption patterns is that collaborative consumption emphasizes the same units of goods or services and the right to use products or services rather than owning them
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