Attracted to or Locked In? Explaining Consumer Loyalty toward Airbnb

A decade of systematic literature review on Airbnb: the sharing economy from a multiple stakeholder perspective

Airbnb, which launched its business in 2009, has experienced explosive growth by creating value through the sharing economy business model. The Airbnb business model helps property owners exploit underutilized assets. However, along with its rapid growth, controversies have arisen among many stakeholders, especially the traditional hotel industry, communities, and policymakers. This study reviews academic articles to pinpoint the factors involved in the relationships among Airbnb and its multiple stakeholders. The aim is to identify the benefits, drawbacks, and issues surrounding Airbnb. The analysis is based on the perspectives of six Airbnb stakeholders: guests, hosts, employees, communities, competitors, and policymakers. A variety of scholarly journals indexed in the Scopus database were reviewed, with 282 included in the final analysis. The analysis will be useful for academics, practitioners, and policymakers alike, as it summarizes the Airbnb relevant actors, identifies key factors that influence stakeholder behavior, and assesses the power and level of influence of each stakeholder. Ultimately, the study points to potential directions for future research on Airbnb.

Theoretical dilemmas, conceptual review and perspectives disclosure of the sharing economy: a qualitative analysis

The sharing economy (SE) has become a prominent theme in a broad variety of research domains in the last decade. With conceptions from an increasing range of theoretical perspectives, SE literature is disperse and disconnected, with a great proliferation of definitions and related terms which hinder organized and harmonious research. This study carries out a systematic literature review from 1978 to September 2020, uncovering 50 definitions as units of analysis. The authors, through a qualitative–interpretative analysis, review definitions, identify perspectives, and critically assess their conceptual nature on an evolutionary basis. Findings show that despite the SE has been extending its routes and approaches, it is far from a stock of conceptual grounds. The paper makes three contributions. First, we portray SE within a common evolutionary framework by developing it as a life cycle model. Second, we clarify the definitional and terminological jungle. And third, we suggest a new definition that can enrich the discussion.

Airbnb Is Customers’ Choice: Empirical Findings from a Survey

The main objective of this paper is to identify the incentives (strengths) that attract tourists to use the Airbnb platform. Moreover, Airbnb tourists’ expectations are compared to the services provided by hotels in order to assess their possible weaknesses. Via a quantitative survey that includes the exploration of the knowledge and use of this platform, a comparative analysis of the levels of agreement, along with a disagreement with the various incentives, are identified in order to highlight how important the practical factors for Airbnb’s choice are. The results show that the hotel industry is actually exposed to Airbnb’s existence and clearly disputes the statement as to whether Aibnb complements or just competes with traditional accommodations.

Achieving loyalty for sharing economy platforms: an expectation–confirmation perspective

Purpose

This study explores how sharing platforms achieve platform loyalty through various operation management strategies.

Design/methodology/approach

A multiple case study method has been conducted in two Chinese sharing economy industries: ride- and bike-sharing. Data were collected through 30 semi-structured interviews with managers from four platform companies (DiDi, Uber China, ofo and Mobike). Individual case studies were developed from the triangulation of all existing data. Concurrent with the development of these individual case studies was a cross-case analysis. Emerging patterns have been identified and compared to previous findings in the literature to build upon and modify the existing knowledge base and to formulate a series of propositions.

Findings

Platform asset characteristics and mergers and acquisitions affect supply network readiness and operational capacity, respectively, and this effect would consequently contribute to achieving platform loyalty through user satisfaction. Moreover, externality, as a moderator, may influence the strength of the relationship between satisfaction and platform loyalty.

Practical implications

The proposed theoretical model provides an overarching framework for sharing platform companies to design and operate their businesses while carefully examining the situations, contexts and actions of users and other stakeholders and choosing an appropriate strategic mechanism to drive platform growth.

Originality/value

This study is one of the first to empirically explain how firms in a sharing economy sector could gain platform loyalty by adopting an expectation–confirmation theory perspective.