Changing roles: From being a user to a becoming a service provider in the sharing economy

Abstract

The sharing economy such as Airbnb is an economic system facilitated by technology where assets or services are shared between individuals either free or for a fee. The sharing economy is valued at $26 billion in 2013, with growth exceeding 25 percent annually. Much research has investigated why consumers decide to become users of the sharing economy. Equally, a second stream of research mostly in the management literature has investigated why some consumers become service providers in the sharing economy. Importantly, one of the key features of the sharing economy is consumers’ ability to play multiple roles: a user (e.g. Airbnb guest) and a service provider (e.g. Airbnb host). Surprisingly, there is no research into how and why consumers decide to change roles in the sharing economy. To address these gaps, and because of a lack of literature in this area, this thesis adopts a qualitative approach. Specifically, semi-structured interviews with ten consumers who had gone through a role switch from being a user to becoming a service provider were conducted. Results showed that the role switch occurred due to two main motives; instrumental and social-hedonic motivations. Also, results unearthed outcomes about what happens after the role switch, namely transformation of self occurs. These results can be put into two overarching categories; financial transformation and personal transformation. The main academic contribution is that this study is the first to use role theory in the context of the sharing economy and to look at role switch. As this study investigates the consumer's role switch, the theory of roles is deemed most suitable and useful. This thesis proposes a new integrated model to understand the four stages of the service provider journey in the sharing economy. The model also helps to explain the various reasons why users switch roles and become service providers. Lastly, this integrated model helps discuss the outcomes of the role switch. The main managerial contributions of this thesis is that the results can help sharing economy companies tailor their marketing communications to recruit future service providers in the sharing economy ultimately improves the economy in the long run. Despite a plethora of research about the sharing economy, this is one of the first studies to focus on the key feature of the sharing economy: that consumers can play two roles; a user and a service provider. Understanding both roles of a consumer contributes towards a fuller understanding of the sharing economy and to better the future development of the phenomenon.