THE IMPACT OF MOTIVATIONS ON BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS IN THE SHARING ECONOMY

This study examines the motivations that impact individuals’ behavioral intentions (BI) to participating the sharing economy in the tourism industry. Based on existing literature, the study develops a conceptual framework to test the research hypotheses that encompasses six major motivations: economic benefits, sustainability, enjoyment, reputation, trust, and privacy. For this purpose, the quantitative research method is preferred and the data was collected through a face-to-face survey questionnaire from 398 locals in Istanbul with experience of using Airbnb. As a result of the study, the proposed Sharing Economy Motivation Scale (SEMS) is confirmed using factor analysis. The results of the path analysis also revealed that, all six motivations have a significant direct and positive influence on behavioral intention. In fact, trust emerged as the most influential motivation to behavioral intention, followed by privacy, enjoyment, sustainability, economic benefits and reputation. The research findings contribute to a greater understanding of the motivations behind participation in the sharing economy in tourism industry.