Customer intention and satisfaction to participate in the sharing economy : empirical study of AIRBNB in China

Abstract

The sharing economy is an increasingly prominent feature in daily life globally. As a category of the sharing economy, peer-to-peer accommodation develops rapidly in China. The purpose of this research is to investigate the factors that affect customer intention through an empirical study of Airbnb in China. Qualitative research was adopted in this paper by conducting 15 in-depth interviews. With differing importance levels, the results show that the seven main factors influencing customer intention from accommodation providers side are economic benefit, social appeal, trust in guests, Word-of-mouth, brand recognition, website design and quality of service, five factors of these factors are new discoveries. The nine main factors influencing guests’ purchasing intention are economic benefit, social appeal, trust in host and platform, location, website design, characteristic of accommodation, accommodation description, decoration of accommodation and quality of service, with 4 new factors found. The empirical evidence from this research suggests academic and managerial implications for P2P accommodation industry in China.