Share a ride, rent a tool, swap used goods, change the world? Motivations to engage in collaborative consumption in Brazil

ABSTRACT

During the last decade, access to goods and services in the form of collaborative consumption (CC) has gained more popularity and consumer favour across the globe. This paper explores the role of motivations behind the engagement in four different collaborative consumption behaviours. Consumer engagement in CC may result from a perception of shared consumption modes as better attending individual utilities, such as personal economic benefits and timesaving. Alternatively, CC adoption may spring from value-related, sustainability concerns. This paper tests the influence of these two competing motivations in metropolitan areas of Brazil. Results from survey data indicated that sharing transportation and exchanging of services are driven by individual motives, while sharing physical spaces and exchanging second-hand goods are motivated by sustainability goals. Social norms are strongly and positively associated with behavioural intention across all expressions of CC. This study highlights the need for recognising the autonomy of specific CC domains and behavioural practices subjected to different types of influences. It also contributes to extending CC debate beyond Western societies.

KEYWORDS:

• Collaborative consumption
• sharing economy
• sustainable consumption
• Brazil
• SDG12 responsible consumption and production

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See: http://www.cidadecolaborativa.org/downloads/guia-digital-cidade-colaborativa.pdf.

2 IE Business School/BID/Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, Gobierno de España (2015), “Economia colaborativa en América Latina”, http://informeeconomiacolaborativalatam.ie.edu/informe-economia-colaborativa.pdf (Accessed May 14, 2016).