Sustainable Innovation in the Digital Age: Analyzing the Motivations of the Young Generation in Joining the Sharing Economy

Abstract

The main goal of the article is to identify the most important motives of young consumers in Georgia to participate in business models of the sharing economy (car-, ride-, accommodation-, tool-, meal-, tech-, and fashion-sharing), as well as to justify the dominant form of participation (as users or as providers of sharing services). The study is based on a survey conducted in Georgia in 2023 of 60 young people aged 18 to 27 who identify as potential participants in the sharing economy. The study is structured as follows: in the first stage, participants were given specific scenarios for various categories of shared goods and services using digital platforms (relevant for the younger generation), in which they had to estimate the probability of their interest; at the second stage, it was determined which motives (financial, social, or environmental) are decisive in choosing the scenarios that aroused the most significant interest. The study showed that for all types of serial business models, the desire to be a user of e-services significantly outweighs the desire to be their provider: this gap is the largest for car-, accommodation-, and fashion-sharіng services, and the smallest for ride-, tool-, and meal-sharing services. Economic motives turned out to be dominant for those who see themselves as consumers of sharing services and those who are ready to be their providers. They have the biggest influence on tech-sharing sector. Social motives (peer influence and community involvement) appeared to be more critical for providers than consumers, with their influence being the strongest in the ride-, accommodation-, and fashion-sharing sectors. For young consumers in Georgia, environmental awareness turned out to be the most significant motive to participate in the sharing economy mainly in the car-sharing industry. For users of sharing services, the impact of the environmental factor appeared to be greater than for their potential providers. The constructed correlation matrices proved that for consumers of sharing services the following pairwise correlations are the most significant: car- and accommodation-sharing, car- and fashion-sharing, accommodation- and fashion-sharіng; while for providers the most significant are: car- and tech-sharіng, accommodation- and meal-sharing, tool- and meal-sharing, fashion- and tech-sharing.