Private vs. Business Customers in the Sharing Economy - The implications of Trust, Perceived Risk, and Social Motives on Airbnb

The sharing economy is continuously changing the hospitality industry while competing with incumbent businesses over the available market share. This study examines the peer-to-peer renting service Airbnb. In particular, we investigate how social motives, trust, and perceived risk of private and business customers, alter the accommodation provider’s intention to accept a booking request. Understanding the implications of private and business customers is key – not only for platform providers, but also for researchers investigating the sharing economy. In this article, we develop a questionnaire for assessing the influence of the respective customer type on trust, perceived risk, and the provider’s intention. Our pretest employs survey data (n = 53) and principal component analysis (PCA) to prepare a clean structural equation modeling.