Social representations of the sharing economy - An analysis of representative surveys of German and British consumers

Beschreibung

The term “sharing economy” is often used in academia to describe a variety of consumer activities that provide consumers with access to goods, mostly without the higher costs and responsibilities which usually accompany ownership. The sharing economy covers a range of transactions in almost all business areas, including accommodation, garden area (e.g., community gardens), traffic (e.g., ride sharing), and entertainment (e.g., file sharing). Further, several different business models are associated with thesharing economy ranging from business-to-consumer models (e.g., car sharing organized by an enterprise), over peer-to-peer exchanges by individuals who provide the sharing good via an internet platform (e.g., couch surfing, i.e., staying overnight at a stranger’s house, organized over a website) to consumption within self-regulating communities without a distinct authority (e.g., community gardens). Within this maze of concepts, it is difficult to discern where actual sharing ends and commerce begins. The definition is still not clear-cut, but new organizations, most important peer-to-peer platforms, such as AirBnB and Uber, have emerged and operate under the umbrella-term “sharing economy”. While for some researchers the sharing economy includes such formssimilar to renting, others stress that these models of renting should be called ‘pseudo-sharing’, not being part of the sharing economy. The consumers’ perception on the sharing economy, i.e. their social representation of the sharing economy, as such hasnot been introduced to this discussion. Social representations can be described as systems of values, ideas or knowledge shared by a social group or society regarding phenomena relevant for the social group.To assess social representations, the free association task is a common approach. Participants are presented with a certain stimulus and are asked to write down associations that spontaneously come to their mind. A systematic analysis [...]

Zeitraum	1 Sept. 2019 → 4 Sept. 2019
Ereignistitel	IAREP-SABE Conference
Veranstaltungstyp	Keine Angaben
Bekanntheitsgrad	International