What Trust means in the Sharing Economy: A provider perspective on Airbnb.com

Information and communications technology has fostered the rise of the sharing economy, enabling individuals to share excess capacity. In this paper, we focus on Airbnb.com, which is among the most prominent examples of the sharing economy. We take the perspective of an accommodation provider and investigate the concept of trust, which facilitates complete strangers to form temporal C2C relationships on Airbnb.com. In fact, the implications of trust in the sharing economy fundamentally differ to related online industries. In our research model, we investigate the formation of trust by incorporating two antecedents – ‘Disposition to trust’ and ‘Familiarity with Airbnb.com’. Furthermore, we differentiate between ‘Trust in Airbnb.com’ and ‘Trust in renters’ and examine their implications on two provider intentions. To seek support for our research model, we conducted a survey with 189 participants. The results show that both trust constructs are decisive to successfully initiate a sharing deal between two parties.