Consumer segmentation within the sharing economy: The case of Airbnb

Past literature argued that the purchase of luxury goods is driven by people's motivation to conform or fit into our economic and social system. In this study, the authors focus on a new aspect of consumption, that is, renting instead of purchasing luxury goods, backed by the emerging opportunities of sharing economy platforms. Drawing upon the analysis of spontaneous consumers' online communications(in the form of tweets), this study aims to investigate the motivations to engage with luxury garment renting within a collaborative consumption context. To this end, a series of automatic content analyses, via two studies, were conducted using the tweets posted with respect to the Run the Runway collaborative consumption platform. Results demonstrate consumers' increased willingness to show their social status through renting rather than owning luxurious apparel based on five main motivators (need to wear new clothes for a special event, inspirations created by the products/brands, possibility to explore a new way of consuming luxury goods, need to make more sustainable choices, and to increase the life cycle of each luxury product). The implications of these findings are discussed, while they pave the way for future research in collaborative consumption of luxury retailing.

Section: Conclusion Limitations and Suggestions For Future Researchsupporting

confidence: 84%

The Cinderella moment: Exploring consumers' motivations to engage with renting as collaborative luxury consumption mode

Pantano

Stylos

2020

“…The most prominent difference is whether customers rent the whole listing or share spaces with the host (rent a room). These two groups of Airbnb customers have been also found to be substantially different (Lutz & Newlands, ). Third, different average levels in the ratings across platforms might simply point at different quality levels, and not at reporting biases.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Preliminary Exploratory Findingsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Home and away: Why do consumers shy away from reporting negative experiences in the peer‐to‐peer realms?

Osman

D’Acunto

Johns

2019

This study investigates how customers use their construct of “home” in evaluating their experience in peer‐to‐peer rented accommodation, as opposed to traditional hotels. The literature has paid considerable attention to people's perceptions of destinations, but almost none to their perceptions of “home” and its complexities whilst visiting a destination. We examine the relationships between the concepts of “home” or “here” represented in peer‐to‐peer accommodation and the construct of “away” or “there” represented in traditional hotels. A mixed‐method approach determines the existence of bias in reporting behavior. Our findings indicate that there is a consistent review gap between institutional actors and peer‐to‐peer actors. Also, consumers of peer‐to‐peer accommodation prefer not to engage in negative reporting if a bond with the host is developed. This perception of a home shapes consumers' relationship with the host and leads to reporting bias. This study provides clear theoretical insights to advance our knowledge about the underlying motives behind reporting behavior of negative experiences. Furthermore, it offers practical implications for both institutional and peer‐to‐peer contexts.

“…They often seek flexible and comfortable facilities. Many families, for example, prefer to share common spaces of a house, rather than several hotel rooms, for togetherness, safety, privacy and comfort (Lutz & Newlands, 2018). The social distance in a sharing economy model between consumers (guests) and providers is closer in comparison to traditional hotels: “staying in someone's home helps reduces this distance” (Osman et al, 2019, p. 1165).…”

Section: Research Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The dark side of the sharing economy: Balancing value co‐creation and value co‐destruction

Buhalis

Andreu

Gnoth

2020

158

115

The sharing economy disrupts the marketplace and brings both benefits and disadvantages into service ecosystems. We discuss principles of the S-D logic and transformative service research and explore the processes of value co-creation and co-destruction of well-being within the ecosystem of the accommodation sharing economy. Following a brief period of euphoria, the dark side of the sharing economy emerges, defined as the socially, environmentally, or economically undesirable effects introduced by the sharing economy. Airbnb introduced new realities for visitors, neighborhoods, the accommodation industry, and city councils, whereby some stakeholders are frequently found to maximize their own value at the expense of others. Value co-destruction prevails often due to uncontrolled and rapid expansion. We seek to promote a more balanced process, and the optimization of value co-creation, while seeking to prevent value co-destruction. Using a literature review, netnography, and a case study, we investigate co-creation and co-destruction, as expressed by different stakeholders, and focus on the socio-psychological implications in the use of sharing platforms that affect the well-being of individuals and community. A conceptual framework is proposed to manage future research addressing well-being, value co-creation and co-destruction in complex ecosystem service networks.