A typology of consumers sharing luxury services

ABSTRACT

The exponential growth of the sharing economy has led to the emergence of new forms of luxury services and experiences. The rise of shared luxury services and experiences challenges the DNA of traditional luxury consumption by enabling consumers to tap into new, digitalized and shared forms of luxury. While previous research has hitherto investigated consumers’ perceptions of new forms of liquid luxury, little is known about the types and characteristics of consumers who engage in shared luxury services and experiences. This research aspires to answer the following research questions: who are these consumers and what are their characteristics, motives, and attitudes? We delve deeper into the different motivational and behavioral characteristics of 805 US-based consumers in a shared luxury service context. Through a cluster analysis, we uncover four main clusters of shared luxury consumers: Luxury indulgers, excellence-driven traditionalists, value seekers, and community engagers. We delineate each cluster’s different characteristics, motivations, and attitudes towards shared luxury services and offer theoretical and managerial implications for shared luxury providers as well as traditional luxury marketers who wish to tap into this fast-growing market.

KEYWORDS:

• Sharing economy
• cluster analysis
• luxury services
• consumer typology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/0965254X.2023.2262472

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the American University of Sharjah [FRG19-M-B39]