Share or not to share? Sharing economy in public eyes

Technical University in Zvolen, Faculty Wood Sciences and Technology, Department of Marketing, Trade and World Forestry, T. G. Masaryka 24, 960 01 Zvolen, Slovakia

^* Corresponding author: kaputa@tuzvo.sk

Abstract

Research background: Sharing (or collaborative) economy brought a bulk of possibilities to spread the business internationally not only for private sector, but also for every citizen who own any assets demanded on the market. With a vital support of web platforms even individuals can utilise shared goods and services either as a supplier or as buyer.

Purpose of the article: The study aims at the assessment of public attitudes towards the phenomenon of sharing economy. More detailed, the willingness to utilise shared services and goods as well as the willingness to offer them are investigated.

Methods: The questionnaire survey was conducted to reveal the public attitudes towards selected aspects of sharing economy. Dominantly, the Likert-type scale is used to express respondents’ attitudes, but also the method of semantic differential was utilised. It is used as the 7-points rating scale designed to measure the connotative meaning of the sharing economy concept. The questionnaire was distributed among public using purposive sampling via web platforms. The frequency and contingency analyses with support of the relevant statistics are used to process the data. Findings & Value added: The survey reached mostly young people which is positively perceived as lot of “web-skilled” individuals could be expected among such a sample. Internet literacy is a pre-cursor for sharing economy possibilities utilisation. Surprisingly, higher share respondents do not expressed interest to offer services via sharing economy platforms. Overall, no more than 30% of the sample utilise shared services. Here, men seem to be more embraced to be involved.