Customer participation in the sharing economy: An empirical study of impacts of customer-perceived barriers on Generation Z participation in the sharing economy

Details

Supervisors

Hazée, Simon

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] : ingénieur de gestion, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

Acquiring sufficient customers is particularly important in the sharing economy to foster network effects and develop a competitive advantage. However, this remains a critical challenge for sharing platform managers. Complementing prior research that has mainly focused on customer-perceived benefits of the sharing economy, this thesis seeks to address this managerial challenge by empirically examining customer-perceived barriers’ impacts on the participation in the sharing economy. Eight main barriers that could potentially influence the sharing economy adoption were chosen from the literature. A quantitative questionnaire answered by young Belgian customers (aged from 18 to 27) revealed that the “privacy concern”, the “perceived lack of economic benefits”, and the “perceived lack of resource quality” are negatively associated with customer participation in the sharing economy. The other identified barriers, namely the “complexity”, the “incompatibility”, the “contamination”, the “responsibility”, and the “perceived lack of physical safety", do not appear to negatively influence customer participation. Altogether, the results suggest that sharing platform managers aiming at acquiring sufficient customers should also overcome customer-perceived barriers to the sharing economy, besides promoting the sharing economy benefits.