From Sharing to Exchange: An Extended Framework of Dual Modes of Collaborative Nonownership Consumption

Abstract

The sharing economy captures several different market practices such as “car sharing” or “house sharing.” Anecdotal and empirical evidence has found conflicting motivations for participating in the sharing economy due to a misuse of the concept and an absence of a framework. This article proposes a framework to classify sharing economy practices based on their relative weights of sharing and exchange characteristics. The argument is that each practice is dualistic in nature: having characteristics of both sharing and exchange. The essay suggests a way to situate practices within the framework by offering a method to quantitatively calculate the sharing score of a given practice. An augmented model of willingness to participate in the sharing economy is tested across five practices that support the framework’s validity and usefulness. The results resolve some of the mixed findings in the literature and the positive role that materialism plays in the likelihood to participate.