Digitalisation and its networking alternatives have given the sharing financial system an unprecedented enhance. When many customers share houses, gardens, instruments and lots of different items, this gives not solely financial benefits for the person person, but additionally ecological benefits by lowering general consumption. The costly automobile, as an example, will not be parked in a storage 90 per cent of the time.
However, the brand new world of sharing additionally requires particular person members to respect the foundations of the sport. The corporations, platforms and communities that organise entry to the shared facilities have a selection of measures at their disposal to advertise the required cooperative behaviour amongst their customers. In the FWF-funded mission “Collaborative Consumption & Sharing Economy”, researchers on the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration (WU) have developed a theoretical framework for these measures and examined their effectiveness utilizing numerous strategies. The central challenge on this context: what guidelines and communication methods are notably conducive to growing cooperation within the shared use of items?
Cooperation with the organisation and different sharing members
“Our research is based on a previous project in which we developed a model on trust and regulation in the relationship between taxpayers and tax authorities. We have transferred this model to the conditions of the sharing economy,” explains the principal investigator Eva Hofmann, who has since switched from WU in Vienna to the University of Graz and the Danube University Krems. “Taxpayers have obligations towards the tax authorities. The participants in the sharing economy on the other hand have to behave cooperatively not only towards a company or institution, but also towards the other users. That makes it a very complex subject matter.” In addition, totally different organisational varieties form these interdependencies otherwise. For the mission, the researchers examined each corporations, such because the car-sharing supplier car-2-go and Airbnb-style platforms, in addition to communities which might be supported solely by their members – similar to group gardens.
Hofmann distinguishes between two varieties of regulation that have an effect on cooperative behaviour: arduous regulation makes use of punishment and rewards to realize the specified behaviour. “A car-sharing company may for instance impose fines in the form of additional charges if the car is returned with an empty tank or uncleaned. If the user always complies with every requirement, the company may grant bonus points which can be converted into benefits.” But then, there may be additionally a smooth regulation. Hofmann: “It may use information being passed on in a targeted way or it may come in the shape of special expertise or a role model function.”
Surveys, experiments and area analysis
The researchers tried to get to the underside of how these varieties of regulation work through the use of a number of methodological approaches. These embody focus teams, during which they initiated debates on the use of sharing companies, in addition to a sequence of surveys of related teams or laboratory experiments during which take a look at topics select a sure behaviour in simulations. The workforce additionally carried out area analysis, during which, for instance, time spent with a sharing group was monitored over a sure interval of time.
When the workforce investigated the communication methods on the web sites of related sharing suppliers they discovered that these work very strictly with arduous regulation together with sanctions for misconduct. “This was surprising for us. We had expected that more soft regulation would be used, relying on information and role models,” explains Hofmann. “For, in the laboratory experiments, in which sharing situations with different combinations of regulations were played out, we found that soft regulation produces better results in promoting cooperative behaviour – and this is true regardless of what organisational form the sharing takes.”
Rule-based and lived cooperation
Experiments with group gardens, during which two gardens have been topic to totally different laws revealed one other phenomenon: “Both hard and soft regulation quickly lost relevance. Nonetheless we saw a trend emerging that people do actually want clear structures and responsibilities, as they exist in an association, for instance. In the laboratory experiments, the test persons adhered very closely to the rules. In practice, however, it is also important to live the cooperation in a communicative way and to exchange ideas on an ongoing basis,” Hofmann notes in conclusion.
In their surveys, the researchers additionally requested in regards to the motivation that induced folks to search for sharing gives. One of the findings of this research says that motives similar to environmental safety or heightened social exchanges are much less necessary than assumed for the members. “While these aspects definitely play a role, they are not the most important factor,” says Hofmann. “Ultimately, it is always the financial argument that takes priority.”
Personal particulars
Eva Hofmann, who studied psychology in Vienna, held a postdoc place on the Competence Centre for Empirical Research Methods and an assistant professorship on the Institute for International Marketing Management on the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration till 2021. She now works on the Institute of Psychology on the University of Graz and on the Danube University Krems. Between 2017 and 2021 she was the principal investigator within the mission “Collaborative Consumption & Sharing Economy”, which acquired round EUR 350,000 in funding from the FWF.
scilog – the journal of the Austrian Science Fund FWF