Consumer Behaviour in Collaborative Consumption : A study of sustainable consumption behavioural change on the online sharing platforms for products

• Main Author: He, Lei
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Uppsala universitet, Naturresurser och hållbar utveckling 2020
• Subjects: Sustainable Development; Greenhouse gas emission; Sustainable consumption behaviour; Sharing practice; Online peer-to-peer sharing platform; Earth and Related Environmental Sciences; Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-404379

The urgency for a drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emission is emphasised in the new Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in order to maintain the security and sustainable development of humanity. As proposed in the report, changing individual consumption behaviour can considerably alleviate the environmental impact of consumption and emissions. However, transforming individual to sustainable consumption behaviour has proven over time to be a challenging task involving all aspects of the society and industry. Sharing practice is a form of collaborative consumption proven to be applicable in fulfilling user needs with minimised environmental impact and material consumption as well as creating a sustainable consumption behaviour. A case study is conducted on the online peer-to-peer stuff sharing platform to discover what challenges users to perform sharing practice, what influences the participation in sharing practice, and what strategy a platform can have to stimulate the participation in sharing practice. The method of this thesis is a qualitative content analysis of the user reviews from the online stuff sharing platform, and the approach is inspired by grounded theory. The findings of the thesis present the difficulties of platform users in sharing practice, i.e. information transparency, arrangement, quality, security, and user knowledge. Also, the findings state the factors underlying identified difficulties, namely social presence, competence in sharing practice, and platform responsibility. The study concludes with strategies that can be applied for optimising sharing practice and platform. Besides, the initiative of the platform is highlighted to create transformation toward sustainable consumption behaviour. Otherwise, the development of sharing practice can be jeopardised. Besides, further research is necessary to establish a holistic outlook of sharing practice and facilitating the transformation toward sustainable consumption.