What drives consumers to adopt a sharing platform: An integrated model of value-based and transaction cost theories

Abstract

The sharing economy has become a source of innovation in recent years. However, some sharing business models succeed while others fail. A research model combining transaction costs and value-based models is developed and empirically evaluated using 476 responses. The results indicate that transaction costs and perceived benefits affect perceived value, which affects the intention to use the platform. The sharing object moderates the effect between transaction costs and perceived value. The effects of location and brand asset specificity on transaction costs vary across different sharing objects. Our findings explain why certain products are more likely to be successful on sharing platforms.