Is the Sharing Economy About Sharing at All? A Linguistic Analysis of Airbnb Reviews

Abstract

The sharing economy manifesto emphasises sharing underused resources as a means to build stronger communities. This manifesto has however received strong critiques that claim these markets are all about access as opposed to sharing, and that consumers are after utilitarian, as opposed to social, value. Being able to assess whether an economy is about access or sharing has important implications for how companies operate, and compete, in this space. To help shed light onto this, we perform a linguistic analysis of the reviews that peers in sharing economy markets leave to one another. We take the case of Airbnb as an example, and U.S. in particular, and identify the main themes that peers discuss in their reviews. Our findings reveal that utilitarian values (e.g., properties' facilities, convenience of location, business conduct) are discussed much more frequently than social values (e.g., guest/host interactions) and that this gap substantially increases over time.