Does It Make a Difference? Business and Private Customers in the Sharing Economy

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 hospitality platform Airbnb. In particular, we investigate how social motives, trust, and perceived risk of private and business customers, alter the accommodation providers’ intentions to accept a booking request. Understanding the different perception of private and business customers is key – not only for platform providers, but also for researchers investigating the sharing economy. Our study employs survey data (n = 179) and covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM). We find that social motives have a distinct impact on the accommodation providers’ intentions to accept a private customer. Consistent with the predictions of related literature, trust and perceived risk is identified to affect the accommodation providers’ intentions in the sharing economy. Academic and practical implications and future research directions are discussed