Purchase intention of access-based consumption services : An empirical study on motivational drivers, and brand equity’s moderating role

Abstract

With the rise of the sharing economy, a number of terms have spurred to describe the services offered from firms such as Airbnb, HomeExchange and Couchsurfing. Access-based consumption describes these services, where transactions can be marked mediated but where no transfer of ownership takes place. Using a set of established drivers from literature on access-based consumption, we measure the effects of economic benefits, consumer symbolism, and trust on purchase intention of access-based accommodation services, and the moderating effect of brand equity. Our analyses show that the proposed drivers each have a significant effect on purchase intention. Past purchase was also found to be a significant driver and was therefore included in our analyses. Furthermore, we establish that past purchase, economic benefits, and consumer symbolism are significantly different dependent on brand equity condition. We test and find that economic benefits and past purchase are moderated by brand equity. We provide a discussion of the results and corresponding implications.