Is sharing up for sale? Monetary exchanges in the sharing economy

Past research has neglected the question of whether different exchange mechanisms and consumption or service contexts (CSCs) in the sharing economy may lead to different outcomes. The authors develop a novel theoretical framework that proposes that willingness to participate in the sharing economy will be lower if exchange mechanisms and CSCs do not match-that is, if monetary/social exchange mechanisms are applied in hedonic/utilitarian CSCs, taking into account the moderating role of materialism. Moreover, the authors propose that in the sharing economy, monetary exchanges may cause a crowding-out of prosocial behaviors and that this effect will be especially pronounced for highly materialistic individuals. They test their hypothesized framework in three experimental studies that support the theorizing and provide results with important implications for the design of sharing economy offers as well as for society.