Abstract
Online user representation (UR) is a cornerstone of platform-mediated interactions within the sharing economy. While the general usefulness of UR artifacts for facilitating online and offline interactions is widely acknowledged and understood, the underlying mechanisms and operating principles often require a more detailed analysis. In this chapter, we thus introduce a systematic framework grounded in signaling and social presence theory for analyzing UR artifacts for online platforms in general—and the sharing economy in particular. We apply our framework as a structural lens in a case study on user profiles on Airbnb, unveiling structural similarities and differences between the opposing market sides. We discuss our findings against the backdrop of emerging information systems research directions and suggest paths for future work on the sharing economy.
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abramova, O. 2020. “Does a smile open all doors? Understanding the impact of appearance disclosure on accommodation sharing platforms,” in HICSS 2020 Proceedings, pp. 831–840.
Abramova, O., Shavanova, T., Fuhrer, A., Krasnova, H., and Buxmann, P. 2015. “Understanding the sharing economy: The role of response to negative reviews in the peer-to-peer accommodation sharing network,” in ECIS 2015 Proceedings, pp. 1–16.
Abramova, O., Krasnova, H., and Tan, C.-W. 2017. “How much will you pay? Understanding the value of information cues in the sharing economy,” in ECIS 2017 Proceedings, pp. 1–18.
Airbnb. 2016. “Airbnb’s nondiscrimination policy: Our commitment to inclusion and respect,” (available at https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1405/airbnb-s-nondiscrimination-policy%2D%2Dour-commitment-to-inclusion-and-respect; retrieved September 14, 2017).
Airbnb. 2020. “How do I become a Superhost?,” (available at https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/829/how-do-i-become-a-superhost; retrieved October 23, 2020).
Al Jaroodi, H., Chiong, R., Adam, M. T. P., and Teubner, T. 2019. “Avatars and embodied agents in information systems research: A systematic review and conceptual framework,” Australasian Journal of Information Systems, (23), pp. 1–37.
Altman, I., and Taylor, D. A. 1973. Social Penetration: The Development of Interpersonal Relationships, Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Bente, G., Baptist, O., and Leuschner, H. 2012. “To buy or not to buy: Influence of seller photos and reputation on buyer trust and purchase behavior,” International Journal of Human Computer Studies, (70:1), pp. 1–13.
Bente, G., Dratsch, T., Kaspar, K., Häßler, T., Bungard, O., and Al-Issa, A. 2014. “Cultures of trust: Effects of avatar faces and reputation scores on German and Arab players in an online trust-game,” PLOS ONE, (9:6), pp. 1–7.
Chica, M., Chiong, R., Adam, M. T. P., and Teubner, T. 2019. “An evolutionary game model with punishment and protection to promote trust in the sharing economy,” Nature Scientific Reports, (9), p. 19789.
Cui, R., Li, J., and Zhang, D. 2020. “Reducing discrimination with reviews in the sharing economy: Evidence from field experiments on Airbnb,” Management Science, (66:3), pp. 1071–1094.
Custers, B. 2018. “Profiling as inferred data. Amplifier effects and positive feedback loops,” in Being Profiled: Cogitas Ergo Sum. 10 Years of “Profiling the European Citizen,” E. Bayamlioğlu, I. Baraliuc, and L. Janssens (eds.), Amsterdam University Press.
Cyr, D., Head, M., Larios, H., and Pan, B. 2009. “Exploring human images in website design: A multi-method approach,” MIS Quarterly, (33:3), pp. 539–566.
Dann, D., Teubner, T., and Weinhardt, C. 2019. “Poster child and guinea pig—Insights from a structured literature review on Airbnb,” International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, (31:1), pp. 427–473.
Dann, D., Teubner, T., Adam, M. T. P., and Weinhardt, C. 2020. “Where the host is part of the deal: Social and economic value in the platform economy,” Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, (40), p. 100923.
Edelman, B. G., Luca, M., and Svirsky, D. 2017. “Racial discrimination in the sharing economy: Evidence from a field experiment,” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, (9:2), pp. 1–22.
Ert, E., and Fleischer, A. 2017. “What in a photo makes you trust a person online? A structural equation modeling approach,” Working Paper, pp. 1–17.
Ert, E., Fleischer, A., and Magen, N. 2016. “Trust and reputation in the sharing economy: The role of personal photos in Airbnb,” Tourism Management, (55:1), pp. 62–73.
Filippas, A., Horton, J. J., and Golden, J. 2017. “Reputation in the long-run,” Working Paper.
Ge, L., and Voß, S. 2020. “Managing information in the case of opinion spamming,” in Design, User Experience, and Usability: Interaction Design, A. Marcus and E. Rosenzweig (eds.), Springer, pp. 370–384.
Gebbia, J. 2016. “How Airbnb designs for trust,” (available at https://bit.ly/2SOa4PH; retrieved December 12, 2019).
Gefen, D., and Straub, D. W. 2003. “Managing user trust in B2C e-services,” e-Service Journal, (2:2), pp. 7–24.
Greiner, B., Teubner, T., and Weinhardt, C. 2020. “How to design trust on market platforms?,” Schmalenbachs Zeitschrift für betriebswirtschaftliche Forschung, (in press).
Hamari, J. 2017. “Do badges increase user activity? A field experiment on the effects ofgamification,” Computers in Human Behavior, (71), pp. 469–478.
Hawlitschek, F., Jansen, L. E., Lux, E., Teubner, T., and Weinhardt, C. 2016a. “Colors and trust: The influence of user interface design on trust and reciprocity,” in HICSS 2016 Proceedings, pp. 590–599.
Hawlitschek, F., Teubner, T., Adam, M. T. P., Borchers, N., Möhlmann, M., and Weinhardt, C. 2016b. “Trust in the sharing economy: An experimental framework,” in ICIS 2016 Proceedings, pp. 1–14.
Hawlitschek, F., Teubner, T., and Gimpel, H. 2016c. “Understanding the sharing economy—Drivers and impediments for participation in peer-to-peer rental,” in HICSS 2016 Proceedings, pp. 4782–4791.
Hawlitschek, F., Teubner, T., and Weinhardt, C. 2016d. “Trust in the sharing economy,” Swiss Journal of Business Research and Practice, (70:1), pp. 26–44.
Hawlitschek, F., Notheisen, B., and Teubner, T. 2018a. “The limits of trust-free systems: A literature review on blockchain technology and trust in the sharing economy,” Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, (29), pp. 50–63.
Hawlitschek, F., Stofberg, N. O., Teubner, T., Tu, P., and Weinhardt, C. 2018b. “How corporate sharewashing practices undermine consumer trust,” Sustainability, (10:8), pp. 1–18.
Hawlitschek, F., Teubner, T., and Gimpel, H. 2018c. “Consumer motives for peer-to-peer sharing,” Journal of Cleaner Production, (204), pp. 144–157.
Hawlitschek, F., Notheisen, B., and Teubner, T. 2020. “A 2020 perspective on The limits of trust-free systems: A literature review on blockchain technology and trust in the sharing economy,” Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, (40), p. 100935.
Hesse, M., and Teubner, T. 2019. “Reputation portability – quo vadis?,” Electronic Markets, (29:5), pp. 1083–1119.
Hesse, M., and Teubner, T. 2020. “Takeaway trust: A market data perspective on reputation portability in electronic commerce,” in HICSS 2020 Proceedings, pp. 5119–5128.
Hesse, M., Dann, D., Braesemann, F., and Teubner, T. 2020a. “Understanding the platform economy: Signals, trust, and social interaction,” in HICSS 2020 Proceedings, pp. 5139–5148.
Hesse, M., Teubner, T., and Adam, M. T. P. 2020b. “Bring your own stars—The economics of reputation portability,” in ECIS 2020 Proceedings, pp. 1–11.
Jaeger, B., Sleegers, W. W. A., Evans, A. M., Stel, M., and van Beest, I. 2019. “The effects of facial attractiveness and trustworthiness in online peer-to-peer markets,” Journal of Economic Psychology, (75:102125).
Janssen, J. H., IJsselsteijn, W. A., and Westerink, J. H. D. M. 2014. “How affective technologies can influence intimate interactions and improve social connectedness,” International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, (72:1), pp. 33–43.
Karlsson, L., Kemperman, A., and Dolnicar, S. 2017. “May I sleep in your bed? Getting permission to book,” Annals of Tourism Research, (62:1), pp. 1–12.
Kas, J. 2020. “Trust and reputation in the peer-to-peer platform economy,” Dissertation, Utrecht University.
Klement, F., and Teubner, T. 2019. “Trust isn’t blind: Exploring visual investor cues in equity crowdfunding,” in ICIS 2019 Proceedings, pp. 1–9.
Liang, S., Schuckert, M., Law, R., and Chen, C.-C. 2017. “Be a ‘Superhost’: The importance of badge systems for peer-to-peer rental accommodations,” Tourism Management, (60), pp. 454–465.
Ma, X., Hancock, J. T., Mingjie, K. L., and Naaman, M. 2017. “Self-disclosure and perceived trustworthiness of Airbnb host profiles,” in CSCW 2017 Proceedings, pp. 1–13.
Mazzella, F., Sundararajan, A., Butt d’Espous, V., and Möhlmann, M. 2016. “How digital trust powers the sharing economy: The digitization of trust,” IESE Insight, (30:3), pp. 24–31.
Moon, S., Kim, M. Y., and Iacobucci, D. 2020. “Content analysis of fake consumer reviews by survey-based text categorization,” International Journal of Research in Marketing, p. in press.
Otto, L., Angerer, P., and Zimmermann, S. 2018. “Incorporating external trust signals on service sharing platforms,” in ECIS 2018 Proceedings, pp. 1–17.
Peukert, C., Adam, M. T. P., Hawlitschek, F., Helming, S., Lux, E., and Teubner, T. 2018. “Knowing me, knowing you: Biosignals and trust in the surveillance economy,” in ICIS 2018 Proceedings, pp. 1–11.
Short, J., Williams, E., and Christie, B. 1976. The Social Psychology of Telecommunications, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, London.
Siegfried, N., Löbbers, J., and Benlian, A. 2020. “The trust-building nature of identity verification in the sharing economy: An online experiment,” in WI 2020 Proceedings, pp. 1–16.
Spence, M. 1973. “Job market signaling,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, (87:3), pp. 355–374.
Stummer, C., Kundisch, D., and Decker, R. 2018. “Platform launch strategies,” Business & Information Systems Engineering, (60:2), pp. 167–173.
Teubner, T., and Flath, C. M. 2019. “Privacy in the sharing economy,” Journal of the Association for Information Systems, (20:3), pp. 213–242.
Teubner, T., and Glaser, F. 2018. “Up or out—The dynamics of star rating scores on Airbnb,” in ECIS 2018 Proceedings, pp. 1–13.
Teubner, T., and Hawlitschek, F. 2018. “The economics of peer-to-peer online sharing,” in The Rise of the Sharing Economy: Exploring the Challenges and Opportunities of Collaborative Consumption, P. Albinsson and Y. Perera (eds.), Praeger Publishing, pp. 129–156.
Teubner, T., Hawlitschek, F., Adam, M. T. P., and Weinhardt, C. 2013. “Social identity and reciprocity in online gift giving networks,” in HICSS 2013 Proceedings, pp. 708–717.
Teubner, T., Adam, M. T. P., Camacho, S., and Hassanein, K. 2014. “Understanding resource sharing in C2C platforms: The role of picture humanization,” in ACIS 2014 Proceedings, pp. 1–10.
Teubner, T., Hawlitschek, F., and Dann, D. 2017. “Price determinants on Airbnb: How reputation pays off in the sharing economy,” Journal of Self-Governance and Management Economics, (5:4), pp. 53–80.
Teubner, T., Hawlitschek, F., and Adam, M. T. P. 2019. “Reputation transfer,” Business & Information Systems Engineering, (61:2), pp. 229–235.
Teubner, T., Adam, M. T. P., Hawlitschek, F. 2020. “Unlocking online reputation: On the effectiveness of cross-platform signaling in the sharing economy,” Business & Information Systems Engineering, (62:6), pp. 501–513.
Tussyadiah, I. P. 2016. “Strategic self-presentation in the sharing economy: Implications for host branding,” in Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism, pp. 695–708.
Tussyadiah, I. P., and Park, S. 2018. “When guests trust hosts for their words: Host description and trust in sharing economy,” Tourism Management, (67), pp. 261–272.
Wagenknecht, T., Teubner, T., and Weinhardt, C. 2018. “A Janus-faced matter—The role of user anonymity for communication persuasiveness in online discussions,” Information & Management, (55), pp. 1024–1037.
Wu, Y., Ngai, E. W., Wu, P., and Wu, C. 2020. “Fake online reviews: Literature review, synthesis, and directions for future research,” Decision Support Systems, (132), p. 113280.
Xie, K., and Mao, Z. 2017. “The impacts of quality and quantity attributes of Airbnb hosts on listing performance,” International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, (29:9), pp. 2240–2260.
Zhang, K. Z. K., Barnes, S. J., Zhao, S. J., and Zhang, H. 2018. “Can consumers be persuaded on brand microblogs? An empirical study,” Information & Management, (55:1), pp. 1–15.
Acknowledgment
This publication was supported by the Open Access fund of Technische Universität Berlin. Support is gratefully acknowledged.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Teubner, T., P. Adam, M.T., Hawlitschek, F. (2021). On the Potency of Online User Representation: Insights from the Sharing Economy. In: Gimpel, H., et al. Market Engineering . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66661-3_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66661-3_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-66660-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-66661-3
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)