The sharing economy and collaborative consumption are attracting a great deal of interest due to their business, legal and civic implications. The consequences of the spreading of practices of ...sharing in urban environments and under daily dynamics are underexplored.
This Special Issue aims to address if and how sharing shapes cities, the way that spaces are designed and lived in if social interactions are escalated, and the ways that habits and routines take place in post-individualistic society.
In particular, the following key questions are of primary interest:
Urban fabric: How is ‘sharing’ shaping cities? Does it represent a paradigm shift with tangible and physical reverberations on urban form? How are shared mobility, work, inhabiting reconfiguring the urban and social fabric?
Social practices: Are new lifestyles and practices related to sharing changing the use and design of spaces? To what extent is sharing triggering a production and consumption paradigm shift to be reflected in urban arrangements and infrastructures?
Sustainability: Does sharing increase the intensity of use of space and assets, or, rather, does it increase them to meet the expectations of convenience for urban lifestyles? To what extent are these phenomena fostering more economically-, socially-, and environmentally-sustainable practices and cities?
Policy: How can policy makers and municipalities interact with these bottom-up and phenomena and grassroots innovation to create more sustainable cities?
Scholars responded to the above questions from the fields of urban studies, urban planning and design, sociology, geography, theoretically-grounded and informed by the results of fieldwork activities.
Research on Airbnb has provided significant evidence that it has an adverse impact on hotel performance. However, the impact of a more recent Airbnb-related phenomenon that remains under-explored is ...the increasing professionalization of Airbnb and the prevalence of multi-unit hosts who offer more than one listing on the platform and are typically more dynamic in terms of issues like managing inventory and providing more standardized experiences. This professionalization begs the question of whether Airbnb should be considered a sharing economy platform or a lodging corporation (Airbnb 2.0). To answer this question, the present study identifies which types of Airbnb properties (entire homes, private rooms, or shared rooms) and host structures (single- or multi-unit hosts) are the biggest threats to traditional lodging companies in the U.S., and which states are most affected by the presence of Airbnb. The findings have significant implications for researchers and many practitioners associated with the phenomenon.
•Multi-unit hosts and hosts offering entire home listings generate the majority of Airbnb's revenues.•Airbnb's market share of supply, demand, and revenues have reached 13.1%, 6.9%, and 10.5%, respectively.•Professional host-driven services allowed Airbnb to capture a higher market share in the lodging industry in recent years.•Airbnb's growth is spurred by its concentration in 12 states in the U.S., which generate 74% of the company's revenues.•State-level supply of Airbnb listings should be considered an important variable in future research.
The home-sharing platform, Airbnb, is disrupting the social and spatial dynamics of cities. While there is a growing body of literature examining the effects of Airbnb on housing supply in ...first-world, urban environments, impacts on dwellings and dwelling typologies remain underexplored. This research paper investigates the implications of “on-demand domesticity” in Australia’s second largest city, Melbourne, where the uptake of Airbnb has been enthusiastic, rapid, and unregulated. In contrast to Airbnb’s opportunistic use of existing housing stock in other global cities, the rise of short-term holiday rentals and the construction of new homes in Melbourne has been more symbiotic, perpetuating, and even driving housing models—with some confronting results. This paper highlights the challenges and opportunities that Airbnb presents for the domestic landscape of Melbourne, exposing loopholes and grey areas in the planning and building codes which have enabled peculiar domestic mutations to spring up in the city’s suburbs, catering exclusively to the sharing economy. Through an analysis of publically available spatial data, including GIS, architectural drawings, planning documents, and building and planning codes, this paper explores the spatial and ethical implications of this urban phenomenon. Ultimately arguing that the sharing economy may benefit from a spatial response if it presents a spatial problem, this paper proposes that strategic planning could assist in recalibrating and subverting the effects of global disruption in favor of local interests. Such a framework could limit the pernicious effects of Airbnb, while stimulating activity in areas in need of rejuvenation, representing a more nuanced, context-specific approach to policy and governance.
•Both perceived usefulness and trust of the Airbnb website affect user attitudes toward it.•Perceived ease of use does not influence user attitudes toward the Airbnb website.•Personal innovativeness ...is an antecedent of the perceived Airbnb website attributes.•The Airbnb amenities and the host-guest relationship affect customers’ satisfaction.•Attitudes and satisfaction positively affect customers’ intention to use Airbnb again.
Despite Airbnb's popularity as a sharing economy platform, few studies have simultaneously examined its customers’ attitudes toward its website and satisfaction with their Airbnb stay. Adopting the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT), this study attempts to examine Airbnb customers’ psychological behavior toward the entire Airbnb experience. Researchers conduct a self-administered online survey and obtain 212 valid responses. The results indicate that personal innovativeness is a significant antecedent of perceived ease of use, usefulness, and trust. Customers’ attitudes toward the Airbnb website are determined by perceived usefulness and trust, and their satisfaction with the Airbnb stay is affected by amenities and host-guest relationship, leading to loyal customers and repeat business. The findings extend extant literature in sharing economy and provide practical implications for Airbnb website developers and Airbnb hosts to increase customers’ intentions to choose Airbnb again as an accommodation option.
•Asymmetry of algorithmic information can increase Airbnb’s power to influence and control Airbnb hosts’ practices.•Airbnb hosts develop their “algorithmic competency”.•Concern as to how the sharing ...economy platforms can raise their accountability.
Algorithmic management is rapidly emerging as a strategic management tool in the digital economy; however, little is known of the outcomes of algorithmic management for users of the sharing economy platforms. With a focus on one of the most rapidly growing peer-to-peer platforms, this research investigates how Airbnb hosts have responded to and adapted to the algorithmic management strategies employed by Airbnb. Findings suggest that asymmetry of algorithmic information can increase Airbnb’s power to influence and control Airbnb hosts’ practices. Further, such information asymmetry can significantly hinder Airbnb hosts’ sense of control. This study contributes to the emerging academic dialogue on the algorithmic management in tourism and hospitality and advances the academic research on the human resources aspect of the sharing economy.
•The impact of Airbnb experience, authenticity, and service attractiveness perceived by consumers.•The main drivers of Airbnb likability were examined.•The moderating effect of country image and ...perceived value on authenticity, experience and likability were examined.•Istanbul, Turkey has been selected as the empirical context.
As a result of the growth of the notions of collaborative consumption and sharing economy in the tourism industry, this paper applies social exchange theory to investigate how the Airbnb platform influences the Airbnb experience and authenticity, which might lead consumers to like Airbnb and influence their behavioural patterns. By recruiting 466 tourists who had stayed in Airbnb accommodation in Istanbul, Turkey via travel-related Telegram, Twitter, travel blogs, and Facebook groups, this study revealed the importance of the platform and its features in enhancing service attractiveness, perceived authenticity and experience. Furthermore, the results revealed that visitors’ experiences have an influence on Airbnb likability, where Airbnb likability influences their intention to re-visit and to recommend. Significant implications for tourism planning, management and researchers are highlighted.
Sharing economy businesses require extensive trust-based communication between users and service providers to facilitate users' positive persuasion processes. Based on Aristotle's rhetorical theory, ...this study identifies three key persuasive cues (credibility, emotional bonding, and accommodation characteristics) and validates their roles in establishing users' trust in an Airbnb setting. The moderating role of interactivity is further analyzed. Research findings from a survey sample of 171 Airbnb users indicate that persuasive cues are positively associated with trust in Airbnb hosts, which significantly leads to Airbnb brand trust. Interestingly, the moderating role of interactivity is only found in the relationship between emotional bonding and trust in Airbnb hosts. This study contributes to a better understanding of the factors that affect users' trust building in the sharing economy context, and it offers guidance for platform providers to better operate their businesses by highlighting the important roles of persuasive cues and interactivity in users' trust-building processes.
The sharing economy is a global phenomenon with rapid growth potential. While research has begun to explore segmentation between users and non-users, only limited research has looked at consumer ...segmentation within sharing economy services. In this paper, we build on this research gap by investigating consumer segmentation within a single sharing economy platform: Airbnb. Utilizing a mixed methods approach, with both a quantitative survey and a qualitative content analysis of Airbnb listings, we compare two different types of accommodation offered on Airbnb: shared room and entire home. Our findings indicate that within a single platform, the variety between offerings can create distinct consumer segments based on both demographics and behavioral criteria. We also find that Airbnb hosts use marketing logic to target their listings towards specific consumer segments. However, there is not, in all cases, strong alignment between consumer segmentation and host targeting, leading to potentially reduced matching efficiency.
•Users of shared rooms and entire homes on Airbnb are substantially different.•Income, education, gender, and travel modality predict accommodation choice.•Airbnb hosts strongly target listings for customer segments, such as for age.•Guest choice and host targeting do not align, leading to potential inefficiency.
This study examines the role of cultural values on individuals' intention to rent out and rent products in peer-to-peer exchanges. We collected survey data from participants in eleven countries - ...China, India, Jamaica, Namibia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Our findings provide evidence that, while both collectivism and masculinism positively affect individuals' intention to rent out and rent products, uncertainty avoidance significantly discourages individuals from renting out their products to others. We also find that the product category significantly affects renting out and renting intentions of individuals using peer-to-peer exchanges.
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