Zoekresultaten

Reputation Effects in Socially Driven Sharing Economy Transactions

Reputation has often been proposed as the central mechanism that creates trust in the sharing economy. However, some sharing platforms that focus primarily on social rather than economically driven exchanges have managed to facilitate exchanges between users without the use of a reputation system. This could indicate that socially driven exchanges are in less need of reputation systems and that having sufficient trust is less problematic. We examine the effect of seller reputation on sales and price as proxies for trust, using a large dataset from a Dutch meal-sharing platform. This platform aims to stimulate social interactions between people via meal sharing. Multilevel regression analyses were used to test the association of reputation with trust. Our main empirical results are that reputation affects both sales and price positively, consistent with the existing reputation literature. We also found evidence of the presence of an information effect, i.e., the influence of reputation on sharing decreases when additional profile information is provided (e.g., a profile photo, a product description). Our results thus confirm the effectiveness of reputation in more socially driven exchanges also. Consequently, platform owners are advised to use reputation on their platform to increase sharing between its users.

How Linguistic Features of Seller Profiles in the Sharing Economy Predict Trustworthiness

The sharing economy holds promise for the way we consume, work, and interact. However, consuming in the sharing economy is not without risk, as institutional trust measures (e.g. contracts, regulations, guarantees) are often absent. Trust between sellers and buyers is therefore crucial to complete transactions successfully. From a buyer ́s perspective, a seller ́s profile is an important source of information for judging trustworthiness, because it contains multiple trust cues such as a reputation score, a profile picture, and a textual self-description. The effect of a seller’s self-description on perceived trustworthiness is still poorly understood. We examine how the linguistic features of a seller’s self-description predict perceived trustworthiness. To determine the perceived trustworthiness of 259 profiles, 189 real buyers on a Dutch sharing platform rated their trustworthiness. The results show that profiles were perceived as more trustworthy if they contained more words (which could be an indicator of uncertainty reduction), more words related to cooking (indicator of expertise), and more words related to positive emotions (indicator of enthusiasm). Also, a profile’s perceived trustworthiness score correlated positively with the seller’s actual sales performance. These findings indicate that a seller’s self-description is a relevant signal to buyers, eventhough it is cheap talk (i.e. easy to produce). The results can guide sellers on how to self-present themselves on sharing platforms and inform platform owners on how to design their platform so that it enhances trust between platform users.

Sense of Community and Trust in the Sharing Economy

Property sharing is one of the most prominent examples of the rapidly expanding sharing economy. Travelers around the world often opt to stay at a stranger's apartment instead of any other tourism accommodation. Trust is essential in this choice, because staying with, or taking in, strangers can entail great risks. To create trust between users, sharing platforms often promote a sense of community. However, the relation between sense of community and trust in the sharing economy is still largely unknown. To investigate this relation, both hosts and guests of two sharing platforms, namely Airbnb and SabbaticalHomes, were surveyed. The findings indicate that sense of community indeed enhances trust between users. Moreover, the evidence suggests that hosts have a stronger sense of community than guests. Also, a significantly higher sense of community was found on the platform where identification between users is higher. This study shows that affect for the community contributes to the understanding of trust in the sharing economy.

Platform co-operativism

The Sharing Economy in the Netherlands: Grounding Public Values in Shared Mobility and Gig Work Platforms

Introduction: The Netherlands has been known as one of the pioneers in the sharing economy. At the beginning of the 2010s, many local initiatives such as Peerby (borrow tools and other things from your neighbours), SnappCar (p2p car-sharing), and Thuisafgehaald (cook for your neighbours) launched that enabled consumers to share underused resources or provide services to each other. This was accompanied by a wide interest from the Dutch media, zooming in on the perceived social and environmental benefits of these platforms. Commercial platforms such as Uber, UberPop and Airbnb followed soon after. After their entrance to the market, the societal debate about the impact of these platforms also started to include the negative consequences. Early on, universities and national research and policy institutes took part in these discussions by providing definitions, frameworks, and analyses. In the last few years, the attention has shifted from the sharing economy to the much broader defined platform economy.

From a sharing economy to a platform economy

This chapter discusses the sharing economy in the Netherlands, focussing on shared mobility and gig work platforms. The Netherlands has been known as one of the pioneers in the sharing economy. Local initiatives emerged at the beginning of the 2010s. International players such as Uber, UberPop, and Airbnb followed soon after. Initially, the sharing economy was greeted with a sense of optimism, as it was thought to contribute to social cohesion and sustainability. Over the last few years, the debate has shifted to the question of how public values can be safeguarded or stimulated. In this regard, shared mobility is hoped to contribute to more sustainable transport. In the gig economy, scholars and labour representatives fear a further flexibilisation of labour; others see opportunities for economic growth.