Airbnb – exploring triple bottom line impacts on community

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to purposely place community and its stakeholders at the forefront of an investigation of positive and negative social, economic and environmental impacts of the sharing economy in the specific context of Airbnb by drawing upon the triple bottom line (TBL) framework of sustainability. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative enquiry through a “scoping approach” with the search of relevant electronic databases identified a range of conceptual and empirical studies in the period from 2008 to 2018 informing a profile focussed on the triple bottom line impacts. Findings The criteria limited search yielded 23 focal articles, which investigated or discussed Airbnb impacts on local communities. Analysis of these articles informed a three-pillar tabulation of positive and negative impacts, which are presented against four key stakeholder groupings. Research limitations/implications The study is exploratory, and further research, especially confirmatory research, is recommended. Practical implications The study’s value extends to praxis. Guided by findings, real-time planning and policy-making are already underway within the authors’ community. Additionally, an extension project, as requested by the community, is now investigating direct traditional accommodation provider impacts. Social implications Understanding of the social issues concerning Airbnb and indeed, the wider sharing economy, is broadened through identified need for further social impact research. Originality/value To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to apply a “scoping approach” to holistically illuminate the positive and negative impacts of Airbnb at the micro-level in each of the three domains of sustainability. The research methodology is shown to be effective, with positive community impact, and will easily adapt to other destinations grappling with policy decisions.

Systematic framework to assess social impacts of sharing platforms: Synthesising literature and stakeholder perspectives to arrive at a framework and practice-oriented tool

“…The framework is rather general, which could be improved by: 1) increasing the level of granularity and decomposition of social impacts; and 2) taking into account the perspective of the main actors involved in the practice of sharing-platforms, resource owners, resource users, and society. While some studies have explored stakeholders' views on social sustainability of sharing [11], assessment of social impact from their perspective has rarely been addressed.…”

“…The latest studies on accommodation sharing draw attention to over-tourism, touristification, and tourism-phobia in cities where conflicts are growing between tourists and the local population [ 61 – 65 ]. More specifically, the following negative impacts have been identified for Airbnb: non-civic behaviour, such as noise, vandalism, and violence [ 66 , 67 ]; crowding-out of the long-term rental market, resulting in conflicts between resident Airbnb hosts and non-hosts [ 11 ]; increasing housing prices driven by short-term rentals [ 19 , 68 ]; and overcrowding of cities with mass tourists [ 62 ]. As such, gentrification has been identified as a negative impact of accommodation sharing [ 58 ].…”

“…Growing empirical evidence and user experiences suggest negative social impacts as a result of the activities of sharing platforms, e.g. Airbnb [ 11 – 13 ], Uber [ 14 – 16 ], and other shared mobility platforms [ 17 ]. There is concern that sharing platforms are simply exploiting time and resources of their users to their detriment [ 18 ].…”

“…However, knowledge about social impacts in the sharing economy remains scarce and fragmented [ 19 ]. Most studies tend to advocate specific perspectives, for example, trust [ 20 , 21 ] and discrimination [ 22 , 23 ], while other studies focus on discussing a range of social impacts emanating from a single sharing platform such as Airbnb [ 11 ] and Uber [ 14 ]. This narrow focus results in relatively limited conceptual transferability across the diversity of sharing economy business models and related consumption practices.…”

Triple Bottom Line E Vantagem Competitiva Nas Pousadas De Charme Em Fernando De Noronha

“…Compreender como o TBL ocorre nas pousadas da ilha de Fernando de Noronha, que é Patrimônio Mundial da Humanidade e possui uma ampla diversidade ecológica, assim como perceber o quanto a sustentabilidade ambiental e a responsabilidade social influenciam na hora da decisão de um usuário por reservar ou não uma pousada na ilha, mostra-se importante no sentido de incentivar empresários, órgãos fiscalizadores, governo e usuários para a preservação e manutenção da diversidade ecológica local. Caldicott et al (2020) ressaltam quando trazem a importância da compreensão do olhar do usuário em relação aos benefícios e à criação de valor proporcionados pelo turismo quando trata-se de sustentabilidade. Coerentemente, a Ilha de Fernando de Noronha é um importante Arquipélago com 500 anos de história, sendo, além de um Patrimônio Natural, um verdadeiro Patrimônio Histórico que merece ser estudado e, sobretudo, preservado, que carece de estudos específicos nestas áreas de conhecimento pesquisadas.…”