Service exchange activities in the sharing economy: Professional versus amateur peer providers

Abstract

Motivated by the need to enhance customer relationship management in the sharing economy, this paper identifies and explains heterogeneity in the service activities of different peer providers. Drawing on social exchange theory and using data gathered from 3027 properties on a Chinese online home-sharing platform, we compare different peer providers' use of economic and social exchange activities and explore the differential impacts of these exchange activities on customers' response behaviors. The results demonstrate that professional hosts place more emphasis on economic exchange activities (i.e., pricing and service response), while amateur hosts focus on social exchange activities (i.e., social interaction and customer-perceived social belonging) more strongly. Both economic exchange and social exchange activities have significant effects on customers' purchasing behaviors, but only social exchange activities have significant effects on customers' cleaning behaviors. Furthermore, collaborative rule depth has significant moderating effects on relationships between these exchange activities and customers' response behaviors. This paper contributes theoretically to discussions of peer-provider heterogeneity, service exchange activities, and governance in the sharing economy. We discuss the implications of our findings for sharing economy platforms and peer providers—for example, specifying when rule customization might be used most effectively.