Systematization of the factors of consumer participation in the sharing economy

Abstract

Goal: to systematize the factors of consumer participation in collaborative consumption at different levels of the sharing economy. Methodology: a systematic review of the literature on the topic of the factors of consumer participation in collaborative consumption was used as the main research method. For the analysis, the authors selected studies that were published between January 2012 and May 2022 in foreign scientific journals indexed in the scientific citation databases WoS, Scopus, and Google Scholar. As part of the primary selection, the authors analyzed more than 2 thousand publications on the topic. The most relevant papers for the systematic review of the literature were included in the final sample of 151 publications. Findings: as a result of the analysis, the factors of consumer participation in collaborative consumption are systematized into the following groups: economic, technological, political, legal, social, environmental, demographic, psychological, and hedonistic; in addition, the features of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic as a separate macro factor are revealed. Each group of factors is described at five levels of the sharing economy: personal, organizational, industry, state, and global. Originality and contributions: from a theoretical point of view, the systematization provides comprehensive information about the factors of consumer participation in sharing at each level of the sharing economy, summarizing a number of existing approaches to interpreting participation factors. Concerning application in practice, the results of the survey may be of interest to companies in the sharing economy sector, since additional information about the interaction of exchange participants at different levels will allow companies to better understand their motives, which will contribute to the development of effective marketing and market strategies, increase sales, strengthen the company’s position in the market and the development of an effective response to the challenges of the external economic environment in conditions of economic instability.