Collaborative Finance and Its Hurdles to Overcome

Using survey data from an online Spanish university, real and perceived financial literacy levels, social interactions and personal trust with the social network are measured as key elements for collaborative finance development. This is the first study regarding the factors that may affect the use of collaborative finance. Results show levels of financial literacy are quiet low as in prior studies and individuals consider that the bank manager, friends, and parents can manage financial issues better than them, with the last two peers being those who most trust to discuss financial issues. The findings also provide information about how little individuals trust online networks when it comes to financial matters. Besides, respondents interact moderately with their social network missing the benefits of peer-to-peer learning. Overall, lack of financial literacy, low social interaction, and personal trust may be affecting the short use of collaborative financial services.

Determining Factors of User Satisfaction for Bicycle-Sharing Systems

With the development of new shared transportation services, changes are occurring in the habitual consumption of these kinds of services, and it is expected that this trend will continue in the coming years. Given the rise of public bicycle-sharing systems (PBSS) and the increase in their use as a new mode of transportation in many cities, it is considered necessary to analyze and understand the main aspects that determine satisfaction with PBSS. This chapter proposes 10 aspects related to PBSS, grouped according to service infrastructure and other factors that are typical of this service. The results show that all the variables maintain a significant relationship with the established levels of satisfaction. In addition, it has been demonstrated that concessionaires and town halls must take special interest in the quality of the city's bicycles, bike lanes, and network of stations.

The Impact of Collaborative Consumption on Sustainable Development

Excessive use of goods and services and industrialization progress of 20th century depleted resources and emerged the sustainable development as the main target of the policymakers, but past experiences and consequences of rapid economic growth of 20th century showed that there must be a change in the policies. Alleviating of poverty with inequalities and hunger in a degraded environment is needing sustainable cities and communities that have decent work for economic growth. In this context, perhaps, there must be a change in the economic paradigm beyond a policy change. Collaborative consumption is this new economic paradigm that has changed the understanding of the economic system. This new economic paradigm is depending on the sharing of idle resources with or without a fee that changed the importance of asset ownership. The main aim of this chapter is to present the impact of collaborative consumption on the 10 Sustainable Development Goals of the UN.

The Politics of the Sharing Economy

The current academic debate on the sharing economy (SE) seems to embrace three main discussions: its definition, its effects, and the role of regulation. A neglected topic here seems to be analyzing the specific implications of the changing nature of these firms boosted by private equity and venture capital. As the author points out, we need to analyze not only the impact of a changing business model but, specifically, how stakeholders, cities, and regulators should approach this moving target now called SE. In the following sections the author departs from a traditional definition of the sharing economy to start building the case for treating the SE at large as an epiphenomenon of the platform economy, and as a temporary condition based on a moveable business model. The chapter closes by introducing the regulatory hurdles that come associated with the previous and mapping out its different futures.

The Impact of Sharing Economy in Heritage Neighborhoods in Granada

The objective of this chapter is to provide reliable information from online platforms that quantifies the impact of tourist accommodation in Granada in relation to commercial activities, hotels, and residential homes. To do so, the authors take into consideration economic and population variables. Particularly, they focus on offering evidence on the tourist pressure in the most touristic neighborhoods of the city, mainly Albaicín-Sacromonte, Centro 1, and Realejo. This type of research has been widely demanded by residents, local government, and stakeholders in general in order to take action on this field.

How Do Food Delivery Platforms Affect Urban Logistics?

The rise of the platform economy is rapidly changing the traditional economic and business environment. The phenomenon is being widely studied in academia, although so far this has taken a general approach. Lack of precise data and differences in markets hinder more specific analyses that could illustrate the real impact of these trends. This chapter offers an exploratory study of the impact of food-delivery platforms on urban logistics. The study is based on data scraped from the app of the Barcelona-based Glovo, consisting of affiliated restaurants, delivery times, and cost of the delivery. The physical premises identified for the restaurants were georeferenced to study how they are spread and clustered in the city. Restaurants were also matched to their parent companies to obtain economic data from the specialist SABI database. The research questions aim to provide understanding of what types of restaurants have joined the platform, how this has affected their annual turnover, where their physical premises are located, and how the consumer's location affects the service.

We Are All Digital Tourists, but Are All Digital Tourists the Same?

As the sharing economy is transforming the profile, preferences, and expectations of travel and tourism demand, technology becomes an essential element in understanding how tourists change their behavior and consumption patterns. The digital nature of tourism is determined by 1) analogical by digital tourism useful equipment (TUE), 2) a high acceptance of technology, and 3) a high assessment of the tourist experience obtained through mobile devices (MD). Using a sample of 450 tourists in Barcelona, this chapter tries to identify profiles of digital tourists with different degrees of TUE usage. Findings show that digital tourists are characterized by the combination of the use of MD with other TUE. This method could be of great value for managers that want to gain understanding of the characteristics of digital tourists. The study makes a contribution by proposing a classification of digital tourists based on the use of technology supporting the tourist experience. Besides, different patterns of tourist behavior are distinguished depending on the use they make of their mobile devices.

Why Rideshare?

The growth in the use of online platforms in the sharing economy is generating great interest in the scientific community. This study seeks to discover what causes travelers to use ridesharing platforms. A theoretical model of causal relationships, evaluated with data collected in an online survey, using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is proposed. The results show that attitude towards ridesharing is a critical antecedent of intention to use. Travelers develop positive attitudes mainly due to the economic reward of making savings in travel costs. In addition, attitude is also positively influenced, although to a lesser extent, by perceptions of security and by the moral motivation to help other people. In contrast, the influence of social motivation is not significant. Practical implications guide platform managers in the design of their commercial strategies.

The Strategic Governance of Sharing Platforms

Sectors from hospitality, consumer finance, freelance services to taxis have been reshaped in the last few years due to the growth of online access-based sharing platforms. Notable examples of such platforms are Airbnb (accommodation services), Lyft (mobility), TaskRabbit (freelancing), and Kickstarter (peer lending). The chapter posits that access-based sharing platforms are subject to an evolution from “peer-to-peer” (P2P) to “integrated” forms, where the platform owner adopts a series of governance mechanisms aimed at providing effective safeguarding, adaptation, and measurement features to transactions. The level of transaction frequency, uncertainty, and specificity is a strategic decision taken by the owner to grow the platform. The management of transaction features generates transaction costs and determines the need, by the platform members and by the platform owner, to adopt specific mechanisms of platform integration. The chapter concludes with a call for scholars to intensify empirical evaluation of the important and growing phenomena identified in the chapter.

Pricing Rental Tourist Accommodation

Digital marketplaces are rapidly flourishing, especially in travel and tourism services. Airbnb is providing one of the most evident examples of this successful evolution. Prices are a crucial factor to understand the business model and the economic performance in hospitality businesses. This chapter studies how prices are formed in Airbnb, focusing the analysis on a wide sample of accommodations listed in Barcelona (Spain). Contextual factors, lodging amenities and some hosts' attributes critically influence pricing in the digital platform. The accommodations located closer to the main tourist amenities concentrate most of the supply of rental services whereas consumer preferences for privacy and host identification give rise to higher prices. The research also confirms that commercial hosts exacerbate the upward movement of rental prices in the central districts of the city.