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Top1. Introduction
Over the years, the sharing economy has become popular all over the world mainly due to the advent of technological innovations (Mittendorf, 2017) that enable individuals to eliminate traditional commercial channels and to share excess resources effectively with each other at a reasonable fee (Andersson, Hjalmarsson, & Avital, 2013). The objective of the sharing economy is to unleash the value of underused personal resources (Dillahunt & Malone, 2015). In particular, the sharing economy includes arranging the procurement and distribution of an underused resource for a fee or for other types of monetary compensation (Belk, 2014). The sharing economy is viewed as a business model that allows users to share their unused resources through peer-to-peer services at a fee (Bochman, 2013). The sharing economy presents a new trend that is gradually transforming the business world and society at large (Lee, Chan, Balaji, & Chong, 2018). Organizations adopting the sharing economy business models do not own any resources themselves but rather develop platforms to link on-demand service providers and users. Rapidly rising multinational companies like Uber and Airbnb have proven popular in implementing these creative business models (PwC, 2015).
Gradually, sharing economy services have become an emerging and profitable market that attracts significant investments from businesses as well as millions of users (Kim, 2015; Mareike, 2015). From transportation and housing to entertainment, the sharing economy has permeated every aspect of human lives. For example, people can have access to taxi services (Uber), room services (Airbnb), cars, and bikes (Riley Rides) (Malhotra & Van Alstyne, 2014) at reasonably lower prices. As revealed by a Statista (2019) report on the sharing economy, 47 percent of US consumers were reported to have used the sharing economy as of April 2018. It is however expected that by the year 2022 the Americas will account for 57.2 percent of the total earnings of the sharing economy market. The report further revealed the ride-sharing market as a key component of the sharing economy market with Uber being the world’s leading ride-sharing operator with a market value of US$72 billion as of 2018. Sharing economy services in Africa are similarly experiencing a surge mainly due to the increasing rates in the adoption of mobile devices and the use of the Internet (Hilal, 2019). Companies such as Uber and Airbnb have recently emerged and are gradually disrupting the delivery of traditional rides and accommodation in the developing world. For instance, as of 2018, Uber as the dominant ride-sharing app in Africa earned 1.3 million riders in sub-Saharan Africa alone (Dahir, 2018), with operations in about 15 cities across 8 countries in Africa including Ghana (Wesgro, 2017). According to the Business Insider Report (2017), Ghana ranks as the fourth largest Uber market in sub-Saharan Africa with about 140,000 active riders. This has created an affordable, safe, and reliable public transport alternative.