Abstract
This thesis, titled ""Blockchain-based Sharing Economy"", aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of blockchain utilisation in the sharing economy, particularly focusing on the accommodation sector. It consists of three interrelated studies evaluating existing knowledge, investigating user perspectives, and constructing and validating a model of user acceptance of blockchain-based sharing economy systems.
The first study, ""Unlocking the potential of blockchain-based sharing economy in hospitality and tourism: A systematic review,"" examined 43 relevant publications from 12 major scholarly databases. This study presents a comprehensive overview of the topic, including the sectoral scope, concepts, issues, benefits, and challenges associated with its implementation. The study results in an implementation framework, agenda for future research, and practical suggestions for various areas of the blockchain-based hospitality and tourism sharing economy.
The second study, ""Theoretical model of user acceptance of blockchain-based peer-to-peer accommodation,"" employed a grounded theory technique on primary data collected through focus group discussions. This study investigated users’ viewpoints on the blockchain-based sharing economy concept (a bottom-up approach), supplementing existing literature that focuses mainly on the technological aspect of such innovations and is more relevant to developers or service providers (a top-down approach). This study proposed a theoretical model of user acceptance of blockchain-based sharing economy which can be used as a foundation for future investigations involving quantitative data.
The third study, ""Decentralising Airbnb: Testing the acceptability of blockchain-based sharing economy systems,"" employed a sequential exploratory mixed methods approach to examine the theoretical model developed in the second study. Experiments and multigroup analysis (MGA) were used to determine the differences in outcomes (i.e., levels of user acceptance) between various implementation scenarios. According to this study’s findings, the significance of determining variables is context-dependent and some of the technology characteristics that users find appealing do not significantly impact their acceptance.
Overall, this thesis contributes to synthesising research related to the blockchain-based sharing economy and proposes a research agenda that contributes to knowledge advancement in the topics and guidelines for the practical implementation of such novel systems. This thesis also adds to the existing literature on integrating novel technology, blockchain, into the platform-based sharing economy by offering user perspectives and developing a theoretical model of user acceptance of such a system. In addition, the thesis’s key contributions include empirical evidence reinforcing the critical predictors of user acceptance of blockchain-based sharing economy systems, an overview of the dynamics caused by user preferences, and an emphasis on the importance of balancing technological and behavioural elements when designing blockchain-based sharing economy systems.