Assessing consumer goals in the sharing economy : Evidence from Airbnb

• This paper aims to analyze how consumers’ articulate goals associated with the sharing economy and its associated implications for consumer policy. By utilizing the methodological approach of Social Media Analytics (SMA), we track the ways in which consumers’ express goals and criticism associated to the popular accommodation sharing platform Airbnb. Based on our empirical material that covers 7,022 user-generated content published over a 12-month period, we illustrate a spectrum of eight distinct goals as well as associated dimensions of criticism that consumers demonstrate. While goals associated towards financial and efficiency gains are dominating, consumers’ criticism tends to be centered on macro environmental consequences of the sharing economy. In view of previous studies suggesting that utilitarian goals almost entirely dominate consumers’ goals associated with the sharing economy, this paper therefore contributes to extant literature on the phenomenon by illustrating the multitude of ways in which consumers relate to the sharing economy and the associated consequences for the scope, scale and speed of future ways in which the sharing economy can be regulated.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

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