The Sharing Barriers and Different Sharing Situations That Affect Consumers' Participation in the Sharing Economy

Sharing economy, as a result of the technological advantages and social interactions offered by the present age, is a system involving more and more consumers but still observed that a significant number of consumers stay away from the system. Knowing the barriers to participation in the sharing economy, which provides an important advantage in terms of sustainability, is important in terms of taking measures to eliminate these barriers. There are various preventive factors such as risk perception and security factors that affect participants' stay away from the system. On the other hand, consumers' intention to share in different sharing situations may also vary. In this study, firstly, the effects of the factors (materialist tendencies, fear of transmission, risk perception and security) which are thought to prevent participation in the sharing economy were determined. In addition, a scenario-based quantitative study was conducted on six groups in three different categories in order to determine the participants' intention to share in different sharing situations (personal product sharing and non-personal product sharing; shares in which consumption action occurs and does not occur together; paid and non-paid sharing). As a result of the study, it was determined that risk perception, security concerns and fear of transmission showed a significant difference negative effect on sharing intention. However, the materialist tendencies of the participants and the status consumption tendencies could not have a negative effect on the sharing intentions. It was also determined that the paid and unpaid cases for the sharing action had a significant effect on the sharing intention.

Keywords

Sharing economy, Sharing barriers, Risk perception, Contamination fear