What makes the sharing economy successful? An empirical examination of competitive customer value propositions

Abstract

The current study aims to identify a customer value proposition (CVP) for the sharing economy business model and to compare the competitive advantages of CVPs in the sharing economy. Because of the novelty of the topic of CVPs in the context of the sharing economy, this study adopts a mixed-methods approach. First, a qualitative study is conducted to develop a scale and theoretical framework for a CVP in the sharing economy. Then, a quantitative approach is performed to test the scale and framework and compare CVPs and their competitive advantages. The qualitative study shows that four values reside in a CVP: economic, social, emotional, and technical. These values result in the development of a model CVP for the sharing economy. Moreover, the quantitative data collected from 1285 samples indicate that social and emotional values are assessed as more significant than technical and economic values in terms of customer repurchase intention with regard to services in the sharing economy. Furthermore, results show that social and emotional values play equal roles in motivating customers to revisit businesses in the sharing economy.