Sharing as a form of anti‐consumption? An examination of toy library users

Abstract

While the literature on anti‐consumption is rich and growing, there is still a lack of understanding among consumer researchers regarding why consumers choose to avoid consumption. This study seeks to extend the literature by exploring whether a group of consumers who reduce consumption through choosing to share rather than own are motivated by anti‐consumption reasons. The authors use quantitative data from 397 toy library members to explore why members choose to participate in this form of sharing. The study reveals four groups – Socialites, Market Avoiders, Quiet Anti‐Consumers and Passive Members. The Socialites enjoy the social benefits of active participation in their library. The Market Avoiders also perceived social and community benefits, are interested in sharing and are the least materialistic of the groups. The Quiet Anti‐Consumers feel a sense of belonging to their toy library and hold strong anti‐consumption, frugality and sharing values. The Passive Members are not socially involved, nor did they hold strong anti‐consumption values. Thus, the authors find evidence that sharing may be one possible alternative market structure that may be adopted by anti‐consumption consumers. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Impact of Technology-Mediated Consumption on Identity: The case of Airbnb

“…Others have argued that this phenomenon is fueled by a capitalist marketplace trading in cultural resources rather than material objects [23,43]. Ozanne and Ballantine [29] identified four types of consumers, each fueled by different motives to pursue sharing and accessing goods, and conclude that collaborative consumption may be one form of consumer resistance behavior.…”

“…Political motives for accessing consumption objects include increased environmental concern [41], anti-consumerism [29], or anticar ownership culture [2]. Politically-motivated access-based consumption contexts might be those involving car sharing such as BlaBlaCar, which are telling of the anticar ownership movement.…”

“…However, we subscribe to Belk's [5] more comprehensive understanding of the self that moves beyond valued possessions to include categories such as ideas, experiences, persons, or places in the construction of the extended self. Because accessbased consumption practices depart from the ideal of ownership [2], emphasizing community values [34] and anti-consumption [29], they are characterized by acts of sharing and giving that express a sense of the self through 'being' as opposed to 'having' [5]. The less the self-identity is defined through ownership, the more is it oriented towards community values [21], which are said to underlie collaborative consumption practices.…”

“…While prior research has addressed the process of identity construction through alternative consumption practices [e.g. 6,7,8,13,29], consumer identity projects in technology-mediated consumption contexts is, with a few exceptions [2,11,9], an under-researched topic. In this paper, we contribute to the nascent research on the role of technology-mediated access-based consumption in identity construction by focusing on Airbnb.…”

Collaborative Consumption, the ambiguous aspect of the functional Economy

“…En s'opposant plus généralement au mode de l'avoir, ces consommateurs se définissent par ce qu'ils refusent et vont privilégier un mode d'existence régi par l'être (Cherrier, 2009). Comme le précisent Ozanne et Ballantine (2010), le partage -sur le continuum de comportements de résistances identifiés par Fournier (1988) -ne peut être considéré comme une forme extrême de résistance active. Cependant, la mutualisation de l'usage d'un bien au même titre que l'utilisation de produits de seconde main ou l'autoproduction fait partie des stratégies de retrait de marché et de réduction de la consommation déployées par les adeptes de la simplicité volontaire.…”