Original title: Sharing for people, planet or profit? Analysing motivations for intended sharing economy participation
The study asks why people say they would take part in peer-to-peer sharingSharing between people, such as one person providing something for another person to use., where people share goods or services with one another. It surveys 1330 people in Amsterdam about economic, social, and environmental reasons. The researchers compare different sharing sectors and groups, including people who use a service and people who provide goods. Users seem more motivated by money than providers, and motivations vary between sectors.
Imagine neighbors deciding whether to lend or borrow tools. Some may care most about saving money, while others may care about helping people or reducing waste; the reasons can also differ depending on what is being shared. In this paper, those different reasons are the motivations, and the neighbors stand in for people who use or provide items through sharing services.
People who design or take part in sharing services should not assume everyone joins for the same reason. In a survey of Amsterdam residents, motivations differed across sharing sectors, and users were more economically motivated than providers.
The abstract reports stated intentions from respondents in Amsterdam, not observed participation. It does not establish whether these motivations predict actual behavior or apply to people outside the surveyed group. The results are described as patterns and do not show that any one motivation causes participation.
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Sharing for people, planet or profit? Analysing motivations for intended sharing economy participation — Lars Böcker, Toon Meelen — Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions — doi:10.1016/j.eist.2016.09.004
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.