Published on FEB 10 2025 by James Smith

Why People Share in The Digital Age

A 2015 study investigates the motivations behind people’s participation in collaborative consumption (CC), which is defined as the peer-to-peer activity of obtaining, giving, or sharing access to goods and services coordinated through online communities. The sharing economy, an emerging economic-technological phenomenon fueled by information and communications technology, consumer awareness, and collaborative web communities, encompasses CC. The study uses survey data from 168 users registered on a CC site to explore these motivations.

Key Concepts and Definitions:

• Collaborative Consumption (CC): Peer-to-peer activity of obtaining, giving, or sharing access to goods and services coordinated through online communities. It involves activities like renting, swapping, or trading.
• Sharing Economy: An umbrella concept encompassing ICT developments and technologies, including CC, that endorses sharing the consumption of goods and services through online platforms. It’s a technology-driven phenomenon that simplifies sharing physical and nonphysical goods and services through the internet. It includes open source, online collaboration, file sharing, and peer-to-peer financing.
• Access over Ownership: A mode of exchange where users offer and share goods/services for a limited time through activities like renting and lending.
• Transfer of Ownership: A mode of exchange where ownership passes from one user to another through swapping, donating, and purchasing second-hand goods.

Motivations for Participation in CC: The study identifies several factors motivating participation in CC, including sustainability, enjoyment, and economic gains. These motivations can be categorized as intrinsic (enjoyment, sustainability) and extrinsic (economic benefits, reputation).

• Sustainability: The perceived ecological sustainability of CC positively influences attitudes.
• Enjoyment: Enjoyment from participating in CC positively influences both attitude and behavioral intentions.
• Reputation: Gaining reputation has been shown to be an important external motivation factor in determining participation in communities and other online collaboration activities such as information sharing.
• Economic Benefits: The anticipation of economic benefits has a positive influence on intention to participate in CC.

The Sharing Economy as a Technological Phenomenon: The sharing economy is viewed primarily through the lens of information technology, with CC positioned as a category within this technology-driven landscape. CC activities are mainly mediated by information systems. The sharing economy relies on online platforms that promote user-generated content, sharing, and collaboration.

Aspects of the Sharing Economy:

• Online Collaboration: Information technologies have increased user-generated content and changed how information is created and consumed online.
• Social Commerce: Social commerce relies on peer-to-peer interaction and is mediated by social media to support buying and selling activities.
• Sharing Online: The concept of sharing has evolved with online services, especially in social network settings, facilitating the sharing of goods and services through IT.
• Ideological Considerations: Information technology is used to further collective action in support of an ideology or idea, with green consumption and sustainable behavior as important drivers in CC.

Research Findings:

• Intrinsic motivations (sustainability, enjoyment) are strong determinants of attitude.
• Extrinsic motivations (economic benefits) are prominent predictors of continuous use intentions.
• A discrepancy between reported attitudes and actual behavior may exist in the context of CC.
• Economic benefits are a stronger motivator for intentions to participate in CC than perceived sustainability.

Potential Issues and Mitigation Strategies:

• The Attitude-Behavior Gap: Although people may have positive attitudes toward CC and sustainability, these may not always translate into action.
• Economic Rationalizations: CC might not always be economical due to increased search and coordination costs.
• Crowding-Out Effect: Extrinsic motivations may overshadow intrinsic motivations over time. Strategies to prevent this include increasing intrinsic motivations by making participation more pleasurable and communal, or curbing extrinsic motivations through trust systems and gamification.
• Free-Riding: Some users might primarily enjoy benefits from others’ sharing, affecting the sustainability of CC services. Coordination mechanisms and resource allocation systems could alleviate this.

Implications for CC Platform Providers:

• Make the service pleasurable to use, as enjoyment is a key motivator.
• Alleviate free-riding using trust systems, gamification, or resource allocation mechanisms.
• Consider how to promote and signal community norms to boost internalized motivations to participate.

Future Research Directions:

• Measure actual use to investigate usage patterns more accurately.
• Investigate practical issues in designing CC systems to alleviate potential problems of one-sided gain-seeking.
• Understand what types of goods and services are particularly amenable to CC.
• Longitudinally follow the shifts in motivations for participating in the sharing economy.
• Examine the legal repercussions of the technological and economic developments around sharing economies.

Read the original study

Written by James Smith