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Top1. Introduction
There is a growing need to create new channels for sustainability. Recent debates about new interpretations and measures of green growth, fair growth, growth zero, post-growth or slowing growth, and quality of life beyond GDP reflect this ambitious sustainability discourse (Brand 2012). This view opens up opportunities for rethinking the long-term sustainability of our socio-economic systems. In parallel with this debate, another leading vision, “sharing economy” is emerging. The umbrella term includes some exciting developments that can give a new perspective to pursuing a more fundamental sustainability vision.
The concept and practice of sharing economy suggest that we use market information to create more collaborative and sustainable commerce. A notable example is a web-based peer-to-peer platform that covers a wide range of activities such as leasing rooms, sharing gadgets, and exchanging clothes, and a bicycle or car-sharing scheme. Since Botsman and Rogers (2010) published a book on the growth of joint consumption, the sharing economy has become a hot topic in mass media (Hern, 2015). The terms “sharing economy” “collaborative consumption” “peer-to-peer economy” are among the most popular to describe the phenomenon as peer to peer sharing of access to underutilized goods and services, which prioritizes utilization and accessibility over ownership (Schor &Fitzmaurice, 2015). However, more than typical faddish buzz, a sharing economy presents the opportunity to transform how we make sense of what is happening by rethinking our business model design, and day-to-day decision-making (OECD,2016), which has deep implications for us both an opportunity and a challenge (Guttentag, 2015). The sharing economy1 has developed service innovations in the tourism industry. One of the big questions that the tourism industry is currently facing is the extent to which it embraces service innovations of platforms, such as Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb (Cheng, 2016). Although these applications are significantly impacting traditional business and economic models, few studies have investigated how consumers are motivated to accept and adopt social economy. Specifically, while the rapid emergence of this new consumption model is increasingly discussed in both industry and academic circles (Puschmann & Alt, 2016), beyond anecdotal evidence, there is a dearth of understanding as to why people participate in collaborative consumption (Hamari et al., 2015), particularly in emerging markets (Cheng, 2016).
This study, therefore, sets forth to empirically investigate what factors that affect consumers’ adoption of sharing economy application in tourism industry in the perspective of social learning theory and provides a new theoretical model that contributes to the emerging literature on the sharing economy through the lens of social learning (Bandura, 1978). For this, the research was conducted in two phases. First, to review literature based upon sharing economy in tourism industry, and based on the social learning theory, hypothesize the antecedents of self-efficacy and the influence of self-efficacy on the adoption of sharing economy application in tourism industry. Second, to empirically assess the relationships hypothesized in the theoretical models to answer research questions. Third, to discuss the results and findings and position them within the existing sharing economy literature. Fourth, to draw theoretical contributions and managerial implications for academics and practitioners regarding the influence of social learning in sharing economy in tourism industry.