Collaborative Consumption
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Collaborative Consumption Understanding Young Consumers’ Orientations Through Means-End Chain Analysis in the Context of Airbnb Student: Sybille Preiss Student Number: 11087919 Date: 24 June, 2016 Education: MSc Business Administration, Marketing Track Institution: University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics and Business Supervisor: Tom Paffen Final Version Collaborative Consumption 1 Statement of originality This document is written by Student Sybille Preiss who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document. I declare that the text and the work presented in this document is original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it. The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision of completion of the work, not for the contents. Collaborative Consumption 2 Abstract Collaborative consumption, which is defined as an emerging trend of renting, lending, swapping, sharing, bartering, and gifting, has been observed to be increasingly popular in recent years. While its media coverage is on the rise, the topic appears to be under-theorized in academic research at this point. This study examines collaborative consumption from the viewpoint of young consumers in the context of the accommodation sharing platform Airbnb. Their innovation adoption behavior is argued to be influenced by the following aspects: perceived attributes of innovation, personal values, social influence and critical market forces. In order to understand the critical market forces, a literature review is conducted by the researcher. For the other elements, the study employs the means-end chain analysis and laddering technique in order to uncover the underlying decision-relevant knowledge organized in the respondents’ minds. The discrimination between users and non-users (or adopters and non-adopters) uncovered motivational differences and allowed for a concrete explanation of their behavior. As the laddering technique involves some practice, 4 pilot interviews have been conducted. Based on those interviews, an interview guide has been developed. Afterwards, 26 in-depth interviews, including 13 interviews with users and 13 with non-users, were conducted. Users predominantly internalized a number of values, namely being broadminded, having freedom of choice, having an exciting life, and enjoying life. These values are primarily pursued in the private setting of the accommodation chosen, which offers a personal, unique, and local experience. For non-users, the value of safety represents the most impending barrier to adoption. The concerns are based on the attributes of renting from a stranger, negative Word of Mouth (WOM), and unusual booking process. The empirical findings contribute to the recent stream of research that investigates collaborative consumption. Moreover, the results indicate various managerial implications for the design and management of sharing platforms as well as suggest directions for future research. Keywords: Collaborative Consumption; Sharing; Accommodation Sharing; Airbnb; Means- End Chain; Laddering; Values Table of Contents List of Abbreviations ......................................................................................................... i List of Figures and Tables ................................................................................................ ii 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Problem Definition and Research Gap ............................................................................ 2 1.2 Research Question and Objectives .................................................................................. 3 1.3 Course of Investigation ................................................................................................... 5 2 Definitions and Background of Collaborative Consumption ..................................... 6 2.1 Defining Collaborative Consumption ............................................................................. 6 2.2 The Rise of Collaborative Consumption ......................................................................... 8 2.2.1 Collaborative Consumption as Technological Phenomenon ................................... 8 2.2.2 Collaborative Consumption as Socio-Economic Phenomenon ................................ 9 2.3 Forms of Collaborative Consumption ........................................................................... 11 2.4 Spheres of Collaborative Consumption ........................................................................ 13 2.5 Innovation Adoption and Collaborative Consumption ................................................. 15 3 Methodological Background .................................................................................... 16 3.1 Role of Values in Theory and Practice ......................................................................... 16 3.2 Conceptualizing Values ................................................................................................ 17 3.3 Means-End Chain Analysis ........................................................................................... 20 3.3.1 The Underlying Means-End Model ....................................................................... 22 3.3.2 Laddering Interviews ............................................................................................. 22 3.3.3 Hierarchical Value Map ......................................................................................... 25 5 Methodology ............................................................................................................ 27 5.1 Sampling ....................................................................................................................... 27 5.2 Data Collection .............................................................................................................. 28 5.3 Data Analysis ................................................................................................................ 30 6 Findings .................................................................................................................... 31 6.1 Outline Hierarchical Value Map ................................................................................... 31 6.2 Exploring Users: Mapping Motivational Drivers ......................................................... 32 6.3 Exploring Non-Users: Mapping Barriers ...................................................................... 38 7 Discussion of Findings ............................................................................................. 43 8 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 48 8.1 Theoretical Implications ................................................................................................ 48 Collaborative Consumption ii 8.2 Managerial Implications ................................................................................................ 50 8.3 Limitations and Future Research .................................................................................. 53 8.4 Concluding Remarks ..................................................................................................... 56 Reference List ................................................................................................................. 58 Appendix 1: Interview Guide ......................................................................................... 68 Appendix 2: Transcripts ................................................................................................. 70 Collaborative Consumption i List of Abbreviations C2C – Consumer-to-Consumer B2C – Business-to-Consumer WOM – Word of Mouth Collaborative Consumption ii List of Figures and Tables Figures Figure 1. Overview of market forces ......................................................................................... 8 Figure 2. Value creation spheres .............................................................................................. 13 Figure 3. Outline of important aspects to be analyzed in this thesis ....................................... 15 Figure 4. Theoretical model of Schwartz’s value conceptualization ....................................... 20 Figure 5. Illustrative ladder ...................................................................................................... 24 Figure 6. Legend of symbols used in hierarchical value map ................................................. 31 Figure 7. Hierarchical value map of users .............................................................................. 37 Figure 8. Hierarchical value map of non-users ....................................................................... 42 Tables Table 1. Forms of collaborative consumption .......................................................................... 12 Table 2. Motivational types of values ...................................................................................... 19 Table 3. Attributes, consequences, and values of users ........................................................... 32 Table 4. Attributes, consequences, and values of non-users .................................................... 38 Collaborative Consumption 1 1 Introduction “We see changes in consumer behavior and we see significant opportunity as that