Date of Award
5-2020
Degree Type
Honors College Thesis
Department
Marketing and Fashion Merchandising
First Advisor
Joanne T. Cao, D.B.A
Advisor Department
Marketing and Fashion Merchandising
Abstract
The sharing economy offers consumers an alternative to ownership by exchanging value through technology-based services. As sharing economy practices continue to emerge, business scholars have only recently begun to study how cultural differences impact the sharing economy. Specifically, few studies have examined individual cultural values. Therefore, this study explores whether differences in cultural values, using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, account for consumers’ attitudes and participation in sharing economy services (SES). Utilizing a survey, data was gathered from a total of 276 consumers from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) who had previous experience with Airbnb, a popular peer-to-peer accommodation SES. Multiple regression was used to test the proposed hypotheses regarding an individual’s cultural values in relation to attitudes and participation in SES. Results show that some, but not all, cultural values impact the outcome variables. Specifically, Hofstede’s dimensions of long-term orientation and indulgence positively influence a consumer’s attitudes and participation in sharing economy services. Overall, the results of this research aim to further our understanding of the sharing economy and its impact across cultures. To the author’s knowledge, this research is one of the first papers to investigate the influence of cultural values in the sharing economy at the individual level, as most research has only focused at the national level.
Copyright
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Recommended Citation
Wallace, Lacey K., "The Cultural Influence on Sharing Economy Services: The Case of Airbnb" (2020). Honors Theses. 737.
https://aquila.usm.edu/honors_theses/737