Are Young People Keen to Adopt More Sustainable Behaviour by Using Shared Services?

Abstract

The continual development of modern technologies and rising interest in their usage directly influence interest in services, which are strongly dependent on their usage, shared services. Shared services have become very popular among consumers across the world. However, the overall potential of this sector is still not sufficiently utilized in some regions. Therefore, we decided to find answers about the perception of the concept of sharing economy and its services among young consumers in Slovakia. In this context, we designed a questionnaire to determine whether and how consumers understand the concept of the sharing economy, what kind of services they use and their experience with them. We also focused on reasons why they use the services, as we assumed that young consumers, except for saving money, prefer to behave more sustainably. By analyzing respondents’ answers, we found that even though only 30 % of respondents know sharing economy concept, more than 70 % of respondents have already tried shared services. The most used services are related to shared transport: shared e-scooters, bicycles and cars, and shared accommodation. We also found that only 1 % of respondents have a negative experience with these services. Results also show that young people use this kind of service mainly to save time and money, while only 27 % of respondents do because of environmental protection. Based on our results, we can also confirm that the growth of the shared services market will continue.