| Summary: | 碩士 === 實踐大學 === 企業管理學系碩士在職專班 === 105 === The concepts of monetizing idle assets and sharing economy have become increasingly influential due to the improvements of internet technologies, and the development of new and creative platform-based business models. The excessive development and the unequal distribution of resources have attracted a lot of global attention and sharing economy has been proposed as the solution. Jeremy Rifkin, a guest lecturer at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, has argued that sharing economy “is the first new economic paradigm to emerge on the world scene since the advent of capitalism and socialism in the early 19th century” (Rifkin, 2014). According to an estimate from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the global sharing economy market will reach 335 billion U.S. dollars in 2025.
Airbnb is one of the most successful examples among the sharing economy platforms. Utilizing the Airbnb internet platform, people are able to share their private spaces and idle properties for short-term rentals. Nine years after it was founded in San Francisco, Airbnb currently has more than 2 million rental listings, and over 60 million people who have used its service worldwide. Furthermore, tourism has shifted to a new era with an increasing demand of in-depth traveling experiences, that is, to travel like a local. Since Airbnb not only encourages owners to monetize idle properties but also values social interactions between owners and renters, many tourists are willing to expand their accommodation choices from hotels to shared rooms. Because the latter allows for more face-to-face interactions with the locals, and a life experience closer to the locals. Though Airbnb has no operational office in Taiwan, it has already owned more than 10 thousand listings, covering counties such as Taipei, Yilan, Hualien, Pintung, and Penghu. With more than 320 thousand people having stayed in Airbnb listings, its economic impact can hardly be neglected.
The goal of this study is to explore the determinants of consumer’s purchase intention of Airbnb service among Taiwanese consumers. This study examines the effects of Airbnb’s marketing mix components, and consumer’s product involvement on consumer’s purchase intention. The targeted population of the survey is the consumers who have used or heard of Airbnb. With a valid survey sample size of 252, this study confirms the 7Ps Marketing Mix theory and finds that Airbnb’s marketing mix has a positive association with consumer’s purchase intention. The empirical findings are: (1) the marketing mix components have positive effects on consumer’s purchase intention with the “promotion, product, and place” being the most significant factors; (2) consumer’s product involvement has a moderating effect on how the marketing mix components affect consumer’s purchase intention. The empirical results of this study can provide useful insights to the future development of how service and product can be offered in Taiwan during the rise of sharing economy.
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