共享经济中消费者信任影响因素实证研究

An empirical research on the factors influencing consumer trust in the sharing economy

近些年在信息技术和网络服务的促使下共享经济发展迅猛并得到了广泛关注。交易个体之间的信任缺失成为限制共享经济发展的关键因素。本研究以房屋在线短租为例,从基于个人的信任、基于制度的信任、基于计算的信任、基于人际的信任和基于认同的信任五方面出发探究其对消费者信任的影响,从而构建共享经济中消费者信任影响因素理论模型。运用结构方程对模型进行实证分析,发现基于人际信任维度中的感知相似性对消费者信任影响不显著,而其余因素均显著正向影响消费者信任。此外,消费者熟悉度对影响因素与消费者信任之间的关系具有显著的调节作用。研究结果为共享经济中信任机制的建立提供了理论依据和建议。

With the rapid development of information technology and network services, sharing economy is booming and gradually attracts much attention in recent years. However, the lack of trust among trading individuals has become a key factor hindering the development of sharing economy. For example, in the short-term rental, the host is afraid that the guest may damage goods and facilities, and the guest is worried about the security, the service ability of the host, authenticity of the information provided by the host, etc. This paper constructed a theoretical model of influencing factors of consumer trust in the context of online short-term rental. The model was constructed from five levels of personal based trust, institutional based trust, computational based trust, interpersonal based trust and identity based trust. Interpersonal based trust mainly includes reputation, perceived interaction, perceived similarity and information quality. The research data was collected through questionnaires. Then structural equation model was applied to empirically verify the theoretical model. It is found that personal based trust, institutional based trust, computational based trust and identity based trust have significant positive influence on consumer trust. Besides, the reputation, perceived interaction and information quality in the dimension of interpersonal based trust have significant positive influence on consumer trust, but the perceived similarity has no significant influence on consumer trust. In addition, we also found that the consumer familiarity has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between influencing factors and consumer trust. Specifically, in the early stage, consumers have no experience and are unfamiliar with sharing trading platforms. They mainly use personal trust tendency, and personal cognitive judgment on the service provider and sharing platform to build their initial trust. At this time, personal trust tendency, the reputation of provider, and the information quality of sharing platform have a greater influence on the construction of consumer trust. As the number of transactions continues to increase, consumers have continuously accumulated experience, enhanced their understanding of platforms and providers, and can make rational judgments on the benefits and costs of transactions between the two parties. While the interaction between community members is strengthened, consumers will also be affected by the emotion and value of the inner group. Therefore, the influence of consumer′s computing process and social identity on trust is easier to play a role in familiar situations.The findings provide theoretical guidance and advices for establishing trust mechanisms in sharing economy. This paper makes an empirical study on the factors that affect consumer trust in the sharing economy. The positive influence of social identity on consumer trust in sharing economy is verified. And the moderating role of consumer familiarity on the relationship between influencing factors and consumer trust is also founded. Enterprises can cultivate consumer trust according to the development stage of the sharing economic platform. For the products that have just entered the market, enterprises should reasonably formulate the regulation system of the sharing platform, strengthen the supervision and ensure the safety. For providers, they should communicate more with consumers, pay more attention to consumers′ needs, give consumers timely help, and establish a good personal reputation. They also should pay attention to the information quality. They should provide high-quality information related to housing characteristics and quality, pay close attention to guest comments to improve service quality.