What Drives the Shift Towards Sharing Economy? A Holistic Approach

Abstract

The advances in information technology and the increasing digitalization of the general public favored the growth of the sharing economy, which indicates multisided web-based platforms for online transactions between individuals to share idle resources. Recent studies started investigating what drives the satisfaction of sharing economy-based products, and defining the boundaries and taxonomies of the phenomenon. However, so far, the drivers of the customer shift towards this new model of economy have been overlooked. With the aim of filling this gap, we contend that a holistic approach, which comprehends the three parts involved in sharing economy transactions, namely user motivations, web-based platforms and the type of asset exchanged, is needed. Analyzing survey responses from European citizens about sharing economy, our findings provide empirical evidence of the positive effects on the shift towards sharing economy brought about by individuals’ intrinsic motivations, quality of the platform, and human-asset based typology of outcomes provided. In doing so, we advance the overall scientific understanding of what drives the adoption of sharing economy and we provide managers and policymakers indications about the factors they may be leveraged to further favor the spread of this phenomenon.