Research project is (co)funded by the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
Project
Member ofUniversity of Ljubljana
School of Economics and Business
Code
J5-1782
Project
Looking into the dark side of the triadic relationship in the sharing economy
Period
1. 7. 2019 – 30. 6. 2022
Range on year
1,66 FTE
Head
Research activity
Social sciences/Economics
Research organisation
/
Abstract
Recently, there has been an upsurge in a new type of economy, labelled the sharing economy which enables consumers to utilize goods or services through temporary access non-ownership models by relying on the Internet. As a result, the understanding of the market in the sharing economy has changed, as it is no longer divided only in terms of suppliers and consumers, but the relationships become much more complex, and a triadic platform-based relationship is created by three groups of participants: service enablers (e.g., Uber, Airbnb), service providers (e.g., driver, host), and customers (e.g., rider, guest). Consequently, the tensions among different players are growing and ethical misconduct is becoming more prevalent. Because of the complex relationships that develop in the sharing economy (i.e. enabler – provider, enabler – consumer, consumer – provider), existing models of ethical evaluations need to be reconsidered to understand how individuals develop their ethical position through these interactions.
The focus of this project will be on the users (i.e. consumers and providers) of the sharing economy. The objective is to understand the ethical evaluations of others’ transgressions, antecedents and outcomes of these evaluations in the sharing economy context. Therefore, the main research question is: How does the process of ethical evaluations of other participants’ wrongdoings in the sharing economy unfold? Considering the popularity of the sharing economy, it seems imperative to develop new models that would help explain:
- (1) how do users evaluate the disruptive behaviours of others (providers/enablers)?
- (2) what are the relational outcomes of user ethical evaluations of others and how do they interact?
- (3) how does ethics at different levels influence user ethical evaluations of others?
- (4) which factors from the ethical and relational theories moderate the relationships between the ethical antecedents, evaluations, and outcomes?
Researchers
The phases of the project and their realization
Work package | Timeline |
---|---|
WP1: Cutting edge report | Month 7 – 18 (in course) |
WP2: Netnography | Month 7 – 18 (in course) |
WP3: Consumer perspective | Month 13 – 30 |
WP4: Provider perspective | Month 7 – 24 (in course) |
WP5: User segmentation | Month 25 – 36 |
WP6: Dissemination | Month 13 – 36 |