Shared Goods but What about Shared Identities? The Resonance of the Sharing Economy in Communities

• In Event: 466 - Regular Session. Organizations and Communities

Abstract

Since the economic downturn of 2008, a set of companies known as the “sharing economy” has emerged with claims to bring more sustainability, egalitarianism, and solidarity to local economic exchange. However, beyond economic valuations and the companies’ claims of social benefit, very little is known about how exactly this form of social enterprise resonates in local communities. This paper asks: are the organizational identities of sharing economy firms reflected in the characteristics of their communities of users? What type of user constitutes the sharing economy “movement” and to what extent does it match the movement envisioned by the firms? Using an original dataset that merges 2010-2016 U.S. census demographics, 2011 NCCS nonprofit data, and 2015 listing data scraped from the home-sharing website Airbnb.com for 51,176 U.S. census tracts, I analyze the extent to which claims about the sharing economy’s benefits match the identifiers of neighborhoods where Airbnb listings are most dense. My preliminary analysis indicates that sharing economy firms and their local membership share commitments to social welfare and awareness, but that these commitments are complicated by the profit-seeking model of the sharing economy. In particular, the Airbnb case illustrates that membership is strong in communities characterized by high levels of nonprofit services and education but also in communities with racial homogeneity and significant wealth, a reality that challenges the company’s claims of egalitarianism. Such findings extend understanding of the organizational authenticity of movements in the marketplace, highlighting how the contradictory goals of the social enterprise resonate with consumer audiences.

Author

• Yotala Oszkay Febres-Cordero, University of California, Los Angeles