Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

User Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction in the App Sharing Economy

An Investigation Into Two-sided Mobile Fashion Reselling and Swapping Markets

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Sustainability in Fashion

  • 8626 Accesses

Abstract

There are a growing number of two-sided platforms providing innovative approaches to consuming fashion by means of sharing. However, the high failure rate of these entrepreneurial endeavours suggests that better knowledge of the barriers faced by these platforms is paramount. This chapter proposes a study of user satisfaction and dissatisfaction with mobile reselling and swapping platforms, which are conceptualized as being part of the sharing economy. By adopting the SERVQUAL measurement and extending it to mobile word-of-mouth user evaluations in app stores, this chapter identifies “app design”, “product portfolio”, “reliability”, and “structure” to constitute the key factors, which might promote or prevent interested users from adopting these new practices. By means of adopting content analysis on textual app reviews from the US iTunes app store, this chapter expands our understanding of the possibilities and pitfalls of working with this new form of naturally occurring data.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 139.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    The decision was made in line with the assessment of appFigures, a well-respected reporting platform for mobile app developers, of what constitutes a “top” app. According to AppFigures (2014), an app within the iOS US app store receives 52 reviews on average, whereas the so-called top apps have an average of 144 reviews.

References

  • AppFigures. (2014). A deep dive into app store reviews distribution. Retrieved from: http://blog.appfigures.com/a-deep-dive-into-app-store-reviews-distribution/ [accessed on: 15/09/2014]

  • Benson, S. P. (2007). What goes’ round comes’ round: Secondhand clothing, furniture, and tools in working-class lives in the interwar United States. Journal of Women’s History, 19(1): 17–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Botsman, R., & Rogers, R. (2010). What’s mine is yours: The rise of collaborative consumption. Harper Business: New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2): 77–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carman, J. M. (1990). Consumer perceptions of service quality: An assessment of the SERVQUAL dimensions. Journal of Retailing, 66(1): 33–55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chatterjee, P. (2001). Online reviews – Do consumers use them? Advances in Consumer Research, 28: 129–133.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen, N., Lin, J., Hoi, S. C., Xiao, X., & Zhang, B. (2014). AR-Miner: Mining informative reviews for developers from mobile app marketplace. In Proceedings of the 36th International Conference on Software Engineering, 767–778.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cho, N., & Park, S. (2001). Development of electronic commerce user-consumer satisfaction index (ECUSI) for Internet shopping. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 101(8): 400–406.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Codagnone, C., & Martens, B. (2016). Scoping the sharing economy: Origins, definitions, impact and regulatory issues. Institute for Prospective Technological Studies Digital Economy Working Paper, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, F. D., Bagozzi, R. P., & Warshaw, P. R. (1989). User acceptance of computer technology: A comparison of two theoretical models. Management Science, 35(8): 982–1003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dellarocas, C. (2003). The digitization of word of mouth: Promise and challenges of online feedback mechanisms. Management Science, 49(10): 1407–1424.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Demary, V. (2015). Competition in the sharing economy (No. 19/2015). IW Policy Paper.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finkelstein, A., Harman, M., Jia, Y., Martin, W., Sarro, F., & Zhang, Y. (2014). Mining app stores: Extracting technical, business and customer rating information for analysis and prediction. Research Note RN/14/10, UCL Department of Computer Science.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fletcher, K. (2008). Sustainable fashion and textiles: Design journeys, Earthscan/James & James: London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flick, U. (2009). Sozialforschung – Methoden und Anwendungen: Ein Überblick für die BA-Studiengänge, Rowohlt: Reinbek.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fu, B., Lin, J., Li, L., Faloutsos, C., Hong, J., & Sadeh, N. (2013, August). Why people hate your app: Making sense of user feedback in a mobile app store, In Proceedings of the 19th ACM SIGKDD international conference on Knowledge discovery and data mining, 1276–1284, ACM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galvis Carreño, L. V., & Winbladh, K. (2013). Analysis of user comments: An approach for software requirements evolution, In ICSE ’13 Proceedings of the 2013 International Conference on Software Engineering, 582–591, IEEE Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giesen, B. (2008). Ethical clothing – New awareness or fading fashion trend. VDM Verlag, Saarbrücken: Germany.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gönroos, C. (1983). Strategic management and marketing in the service sector. Marketing Science Institution: Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gönroos, C. (1984). A service quality model and its marketing implications. European Journal of Marketing, 18(4): 36–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gregson, N., & Beale, V. (2004). Wardrobe matter: The sorting, displacement and circulation of women’s clothing. Geoforum, 35(6): 689–700.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grinevich, V., Huber, F., Baines, L., & Eder, M. (2015). Upscaling in the sharing economy: Insights from the UK, Research Report, University of Southampton, UK and University Seeburg Castle, Austria.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guzman, E., & Maalej, W. (2014). How do users like this feature? A fine grained sentiment analysis of app reviews. In Requirements Engineering Conference (RE), 2014 IEEE 22nd International, 153–162.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hagiu, A., & Wright, J. (2015). Multi-sided platforms. International Journal of Industrial Organization, 43: 162–174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henten, A. H., & Windekilde, I. M. (2016). Transaction costs and the sharing economy. info, 18(1): 1–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herbig, P., Milewicz, J., & Golden, J. (1994). A model of reputation building and destruction. Journal of Business Research, 31(1): 23–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoon, L., Vasa, R., Schneider, J. G., & Grundy, J. (2013). An analysis of the mobile app review landscape: Trends and implications. Faculty of Information and Communication Technologies, Swinburne University of Technology, Technical Report.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iacob, C., & Harrison, R. (2013). Retrieving and analyzing mobile apps feature requests from online reviews. In Mining Software Repositories (MSR), 2013 10th IEEE Working Conference, 41–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jun, M., Yang, Z., & Kim, D. S. (2004). Customers’ perceptions of online service quality and their satisfaction. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 21(8): 817–840.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khalid, H., Shihab, E., Nagappan, M., & Hassan, A. E. (2015). What do mobile app users complain about?. IEEE Software, 32(3): 70–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim, E. Y., & Kim, Y. K. (2004). Predicting online purchase intentions for clothing products. European Journal of Marketing, 38(7): 883–897.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim, J., & Lee, J. (2002). Critical design factors for successful e-commerce systems. Behaviour and Information Technology, 21(3): 185–199.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kornish, L. J. (2009). Are user reviews systematically manipulated? Evidence from helpfulness ratings. Leeds School of Business Working Paper.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, G. G., & Lin, H. F. (2005). Customer perceptions of e-service quality in online shopping. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 33(2): 161–176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, J., & Pee, L. G. (2013). Reading consumer reviews to confirm my expectations: The accelerated impact of confirmation under extreme review tones. PACIS 2013 Proceedings, Paper 76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Li, H., Zhang, L., Zhang, L., & Shen, J. (2010). A user satisfaction analysis approach for software evolution. In Progress in Informatics and Computing (PIC), 2010 IEEE International Conference, 2, 1093–1097.

    Google Scholar 

  • Li, J., Moreno, A., & Zhang, D. J. (2015). Agent behavior in the sharing economy: Evidence from Airbnb. Retrieved from SSRN 2708279.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lohse, G. L., & Spiller, P. (1998). Electronic shopping. Communications of the ACM, 41(7): 81–87.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maalej, W., & Nabil, H. (2015). Bug report, feature request, or simply praise? On automatically classifying app reviews. In Requirements Engineering Conference (RE), 2015 IEEE 23rd International, 116–125.

    Google Scholar 

  • McIlroy, S., Ali, N., Khalid, H., & Hassan, A. E. (2015). Analyzing and automatically labelling the types of user issues that are raised in mobile app reviews. Empirical Software Engineering, 21(3) : 1–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pagano, D., & Maalej, W. (2013). User feedback in the appstore: An empirical study. In Requirements Engineering Conference (RE), 2013 21st IEEE International, 125–134.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L. (1985). A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research. Journal of Marketing, 49(Fall): 41–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L. (1988). SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. Journal of Retailing, 64(1): 12–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Park, C., & Lee, T. M. (2009). Information direction, website reputation and eWOM effect: A moderating role of product type. Journal of Business Research, 62: 61–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pavlou, P. A., Liang, H., & Xue, Y. (2007). Understanding and mitigating uncertainty in online exchange relationships: A principal-agent perspective. MIS Quarterly, 31(1) : 105–136.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rauch, D. E., & Schleicher, D. (2015). Like Uber, but for local governmental policy: The future of local regulation of the “sharing economy”. George Mason Law & Economics Research Paper (15–01).

    Google Scholar 

  • Reeves, C. A., & Bednar, D. A. (1994). Defining quality: Alternatives and implications. Academy of Management Review, 19(3): 419–445.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rice, M. (1997). What makes users revisit a Web site. Marketing News, 31(6): 12–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations, 5th edn., Free Press: New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seth, N., Deshmukh, S. G., & Vrat, P. (2005). Service quality models: A review. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 22(9): 913–949.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Song, B., Lee, C., Yoon, B., & Park, Y. (2015). Diagnosing service quality using customer reviews: An index approach based on sentiment and gap analyses. Service Business, 10(4) : 1–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Teo, T. S., & Yu, Y. (2005). Online buying behavior: A transaction cost economics perspective. Omega, 33(5): 451–465.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Utz, S., Kerkhof, P., & Bos, J. V. D. (2011). Consumers rule: How consumer reviews influence perceived trustworthiness of online stores. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 11: 49–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolfinbarger, M., & Gilly, M. (2002). comQ: Dimensionalizing, measuring, and predicting quality of the e-tail experience. Marketing Science Institute Report, Cambrigde, MA, No, 02-100, 1–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang, Z., & Jun, M. (2002). Consumer perception of e-service quality: From Internet purchaser and non-purchaser perspectives. Journal of Business Strategies, 19(1): 19–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang, Z., Jun, M., & Peterson, R. T. (2004). Measuring customer perceived online service quality: Scale development and managerial implications. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 24(11): 1149–1174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yang, Z., Peterson, R. T., & Cai, S. (2003). Services quality dimensions of Internet retailing: An exploratory analysis. Journal of Services Marketing, 17(7): 685–700.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zeithaml, V. A., Berry, L. L., & Parasuraman, A. (1993). The nature and determinants of customer expectations of service. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 21(1): 1–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zeithaml, V. A., Parasuraman, A., & Malhotra, A. (2001). A conceptual framework for understanding e-service quality: Implications for future research and managerial practice. Marketing Science Institute Working Paper Series, No. 00-115, Cambridge, MA, 1–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zeithaml, V. A., Parasuraman, A., & Malhotra, A. (2002). Service quality delivery through web sites: A critical review of extant knowledge. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 30(4): 362–375.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zervas, G., Proserpio, D., & Byers, J. (2014). The rise of the sharing economy: Estimating the impact of Airbnb on the hotel industry. Journal of Marketing Research.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Copenhagen Business School, Frederiksberg, Denmark

    Sarah Netter

Authors
  1. Sarah Netter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sarah Netter .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Manchester , Manchester, United Kingdom

    Claudia E. Henninger

  2. Management School, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom

    Panayiota J. Alevizou

  3. University of Leicester , Leicester, United Kingdom

    Helen Goworek

  4. University of Manchester , Manchester, United Kingdom

    Daniella Ryding

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Netter, S. (2017). User Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction in the App Sharing Economy. In: Henninger, C., Alevizou, P., Goworek, H., Ryding, D. (eds) Sustainability in Fashion. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51253-2_11

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation