The Role of Service-provider's Attributes in Sharing Economy: a Data-driven Study from the Perspective of Trust

Trust has been found as the key determinant of consumer decisions in sharing economy platforms, and service-provider’s attributesare crucial fortrust building but rarelystudied. In this paper, we investigate the effect of host’s attributes on consumer’s purchasing behaviors in xiaozhu.com, a leading short rental platform in China. Specifically, we argue that host’s attributescan influencetrustworthiness from the perspective of benevolence, ability, integrity andhave significant effects on orders. Furthermore, it isfound that consumers prefer to choose women as hosts when book single roomsand genderis an influencing factor in the decision process of ordering. These findings imply that service-provider’s attributes can contribute to trust building and decisionmaking in sharing economy. It’s expected to make contributions to trust studytheoretically and provide practical trust development guidesfor sharing economy platforms.