Does “sharing” mean “socially responsible consuming”? Exploration of the relationship between collaborative consumption and socially responsible consumption

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which collaborative consumption (CC) enthusiasts are significantly more likely to engage into specific forms of socially responsible consumption (SRC), in contrast to regular consumers. Design/methodology/approach The authors administered an online questionnaire survey to a panel of 1,006 consumers. A cluster analysis combined with analyses of variance then determined the extent to which CC enthusiasts were more likely to engage in the focal SRC behaviors as opposed to others. Findings CC enthusiasts differ positively from other consumers concerning sustainable transportation, citizen consumption and composting but negatively from other consumers concerning recycling; they do not differ significantly with regard to environmental, animal protection and local consumption. Originality/value Conflating CC and SRC remains debatable. This study provides some preliminary evidence about the complex associations that exists between the two constructs.

Saudi Retail Firms’ Attitudes Towards Social Responsibility in Advertising: A Comparison with Western Firms

“…According to Ertz, et al (2018) developing countries are characterized by a high level of poverty, hunger, disease, a high mortality rate, a low level of education, inequality in opportunities, an unhealthy environment, and a high level of corruption and other vices. There are therefore numerous challenges to implementing social responsibility in such contexts.…”

“…However, marketers who are socially responsible focus more on the provision of the goods and services required by consumers, heeding feedback from their consumers regarding areas for improvement, and subsequently providing a society with what it requires in order to grow (Porter and Kramer, 2006). The final core aspect is a sense of mission, and socially responsible adverts favour the firm's corporate mission and vision, plans, practices, and goals, over their profits, which engenders an increase in the number of consumers willing to buy their products (Ertz, et al, 2018).…”

Analysing Drivers and Barriers of Accommodation Sharing in Dubai Using the Grey-DEMATEL Approach

“…Collaborative consumption involves delegation, empowerment, and quasi-empowerment, and consumers can switch their role from those who obtain to those who provide [30]. Furthermore, combining or using interchangeably "collaborative consumption" and "socially responsible consumption" is still debatable, mainly due to the differences in consumer behaviour [31].…”

The Heart and Wallet Paradox of Collaborative Consumption

“…However popular, this conceptualization is problematic, as some of the academic literature has used the terms interchangeably without distinguishing between the diversity of firm roles and consumer behaviors. Collaborative consumption has been used to refer to practices that are not compensated monetarily, such as cases of borrowing that are non-market mediated or swapping that are free (e.g., Albinsson and Perera 2012), or practices that are not based on temporary access, such as recirculation platforms facilitating a permanent change of ownership (e.g., Ertz et al 2018aErtz et al , 2018bLindblom et al 2018), or practices that are not based on P2P exchanges or private resources, such as commercial carsharing services that enable a sequential shared utilization of a firm's cars (e.g., Hwang and Griffiths 2017), and that do not concern existing and underutilized assets but new assets on the market offered by freelancers and independent contractors who are professionals and do not only seek compensation for underutilization (cf. Acquier et al 2017;Belk 2014b;Frenken and Schor 2017).…”

“…Indeed, collaborative consumption was most often used to emphasize the P2P dimension but not the access dimension of the phenomenon (Belk 2014b;de Rivera et al 2017;Ertz et al 2018aErtz et al , 2018bHamari et al 2016;Herbert and Collin-Lachaud 2017;Lindblom et al 2018;Perren and Grauerholz 2015;Roos and Hahn 2017). For example, Perren and Grauerholz (2015) referred to the term as a new version of e-commerce for all sorts of monetary exchanges between private people mediated by the Internet (i.e.…”