Impact of the Blockchain on the Sharing Economy

Details

Supervisors

Paque, Bernard

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] en Ingénieur de gestion

Abstract

Peer-to-peer sharing applications are an important part of our daily lives. More and more individuals choose to get around using Uber, rent accommodations on AirBnb and buy goods on eBay. Behind this growing significance, scholars have identified the notion of trust as an important driver to influence the consumers’ intentions to participate to the peer-to-peer economy. In light of this, Blockchain has been seen as an important step toward fostering the appeal of peer-to-peer sharing platforms. The technology is said to enable the exchange of value on decentralized digital networks. According to its supporters, these networks are trust-less because the need for its participants to trust one another is significantly reduced. However, this claim is yet to be substantiated by evidence in research and carried out in applications in business. In line with the observation of this gap of knowledge, this paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the impact of the Blockchain on the popularity and success of peer-to-peer sharing platforms. More specifically, we strive to assess the current attitudes of people toward using a blockchain sharing platform and understand how the notion of trust influences these attitudes. At the end of this research, we are able to (i) assess the likely adoption of our blockchain platform, (ii) measure the influence of the different components of trust on users’ intentions to participate, and (iii) empirically test the validity of our representation of trust within a blockchain environment.