Understanding psychological ownership in access-based consumption through a theory synthesis: an investigation of Airbnb and hotels

ABSTRACT

Access-based consumption has received close attention from academics and industry practitioners in recent years. However, the nature of this type of consumption and the corresponding concept of psychological ownership are yet to be fully understood in hospitality services. This study referred to self-determination theory and psychological ownership theory to examine antecedents and outcomes of psychological ownership in the accommodation context. Two studies were conducted: Study 1 empirically assessed theoretical relationships among the constructs with an Airbnb customer sample, and Study 2 evaluated the proposed model with a hotel sample. Findings highlighted identity and existential authenticity as consistent antecedents of psychological ownership while intimacy and communal identity were not. Multi-group analysis indicated that the two samples’ path coefficients did not significantly differ, providing empirical evidence that supports the proposition that Airbnb and hotels both fall into the category of access-based consumption. The findings provide important insight into similarities and differences between new and traditional access-based consumption.

摘要

近年来，基于获取的消费受到了学术界和行业从业者的密切关注. 然而，这类消费的性质以及相应的心理所有权概念在酒店服务中尚待充分理解. 本研究参考了自决理论和心理所有权理论，考察了调节情境下心理所有权的前因和结果. 进行了两项研究: 研究1用Airbnb客户样本实证评估了结构之间的理论关系，研究2用酒店样本评估了所提出的模型. 研究结果强调，身份和存在的真实性是心理所有权的一致前提，而亲密感和共同身份则不是. 多组分析表明，两个样本的路径系数没有显著差异，提供了实证证据，支持Airbnb和酒店都属于基于访问的消费类别. 讨论了相关影响.

KEYWORDS:

• Access-based consumption
• psychological ownership
• value co-creation
• customer citizenship behavior
• customer participation behavior
• sharing economy

Disclosure statement

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