Consumer motives for peer-to-peer sharing

Contemporary e-commerce platforms enable the exchange of idle resources among private individuals directly from peer to peer. The success of peer-to-peer sharing platforms largely depends on the capability of platform providers to understand the users' motives for engagement. To investigate the relative importance of consumer motives for and against peer-to-peer sharing, we develop a theoretical model based on a comprehensive set of potential consumer motives. We validate our model by means of a survey among 745 participants. Our findings suggest financial benefits, trust in other users, modern lifestyle, effort expectancy, and ecological sustainability as the five most important drivers and prerequisites of platform usage intentions. Based on our findings, we suggest directions for future research on peer-based sharing and discuss implications for both theory and practice. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.