The Effects of Online Trust-Building Mechanisms on Trust in the Sharing Economy: The Perspective of Providers

Abstract

Trust is considered to be one of the key factors influencing the sustainable development of the sharing economy. In this paper, we focus on the trust issue of peer-to-peer accommodation models like Airbnb and Xiaozhu, which are among the most common examples of a sharing economy. This research divides trust into two types from the perspective of an accommodation provider in the context of peer-to-peer accommodation sharing: trust in the sharing platform and trust in consumers. The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive view of how the three types of online trust-building mechanisms affect providers’ trust in the sharing platform and trust in consumers. The structural equation modelling with partial least square method was used to empirically test the influence of the online trust-building mechanisms of a sharing economy platform on provider’s trust in the platform and provider’s trust in consumers, based on a sample of 209 providers on online short-term rental platforms in China. The empirical results show that perceived personal safety mechanisms, perceived property safety mechanisms, and perceived review mechanisms are positively related to a provider’s trust in the platform. Provider’s trust in the platform has a positive effect on trust in consumers, while perceived personal safety and review mechanisms have a positive effect on provider’s trust in consumers by the mediation of trust in the platform. This study has theoretical and practical significance for the promotion of the research and development of trust mechanisms in the sharing economy.

Young Consumers’ Intention to Participate in the Sharing Economy: An Integrated Model

“…Trust is also a fundamental variable in the online and insecure context of commerce and tourism carried out by young consumers through shared economy platforms [111,112]. Trust is a subjective feeling about how the supplier will deliver as promised [113,114].…”

Uncovering the Providers’ Continuance Intention of Participation in the Sharing Economy: A Moderated Mediation Model

“…An overview of antecedents for participation in the SE reveals that most of the previous studies on the SE discuss different application scenarios, including the accommodation marketplace [15] and ride-sharing programs [18], among others. Antecedents for participation in the SE seem to vary by application scenario [17,37].…”

“…The literature on the SE is inundated with research into why individuals do or do not participate in the sharing acts, but it mainly focuses on the demand-side users (e.g., [12,13]). Despite the providers also being users of SE platforms and just as motivated to participate, very few have explored the behavioral process of the providers (e.g., [14,15]). Furthermore, as shown in Table A1 existing provider-focused studies mainly devote themselves to the accommodation sharing situation.…”

“…Whether all these dimensions also act as driving factors for providers' participation continuance intention in the ride-sharing situation needs more empirical examination. Besides motivations, trust is considered a fundamental predictor of participation in SE [15]. So far, how trust affects providers' attitudes and intentions in the context of peer-to-peer (P2P) ride-sharing has not been adequately explored.…”

Consumo colaborativo: la confianza, un factor crítico en la intención de compra

“…Se ha desarrollado un modelo de investigación que permite examinar el grado de confianza de los consumidores en las plataformas tecnológicas colaborativas, aunque la confianza también se puede abordar desde la perspectiva de proveedores del servicio (Cheng, Fu, Sun, Bilgihan, & Okumus, 2019;Li & Wang, 2020), existen pocas investigaciones que se concentren en el usuario final, el cual es un eslabón determinante dentro del modelo colaborativo.…”