How privacy practices affect customer commitment in the sharing economy: A study of Airbnb through an institutional perspective

Shijiao (Joseph) Chen, Kuttimani Tamilmani*, Khai Trieu Tran, Donia Waseem, Vishanth Weerakkody

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Privacy is an emerging issue for home-sharing platforms such as Airbnb. Home-sharing providers (business customers) are subject to both digital privacy risks (e.g., data breaches and unauthorized data access) and physical privacy risks (e.g., property damage and invasion of their personal space). Therefore, platforms need to strengthen their institutions of privacy management to protect the interests of providers and maintain their commitment. By applying the micro-level psychological aspect of institutional theory, our research investigates how providers decide their level of commitment to a platform by evaluating the institutions of the platform's privacy management. Our survey recruited 380 Airbnb providers from the Prolific panel. Structural equation modelling analysis shows that both physical and digital privacy practices strengthen providers' legitimacy judgement of the platform's privacy management and subsequently increase their commitment to the platform. Our theoretical contribution lies in revealing the effects of physical and digital privacy practices on B2B relationships from an institutional perspective. Our research is among the first to provide an integrative framework illustrating providers' psychological process of legitimacy judgement. It also has practical implications for sharing economy platforms to manage privacy.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)161-175
Number of pages15
JournalIndustrial Marketing Management
Volume107
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2022

Keywords

  • Sharing economy
  • Institutions
  • Legitimacy judgement
  • Privacy
  • Business-to-business marketing

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'How privacy practices affect customer commitment in the sharing economy: A study of Airbnb through an institutional perspective'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this