Unravelling the antecedents of misbehaviours in the sharing economy: a motivated cognition perspective
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-07-2022-0432 |
| Published date | 28 November 2022 |
| Date | 28 November 2022 |
| Pages | 596-615 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information systems,Data management systems,Knowledge management,Knowledge sharing,Management science & operations,Supply chain management,Supply chain information systems,Logistics,Quality management/systems |
| Author | Teng Teng,Huifang Li,Ji Wu,Yang Zhou,Liangqing Zhang |
Unravelling the antecedents
of misbehaviours in the sharing
economy: a motivated
cognition perspective
Teng Teng
School of Management, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
Huifang Li
School of Management, International Institute of Finance,
University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
Ji Wu
School of Business, Sun Yat-Sen University, Shenzhen, China
Yang Zhou
School of Electronic Engineering, Anhui Xinhua University, Hefei, China, and
Liangqing Zhang
School of Management, University of Science and Technology of China,
Guangzhou, China
Abstract
Purpose –In the sharing economy (SE), consumer misbehaviour is an operational challenge for platforms due
to its negative outcomes. The psychological mechanism behind consumer misbehaviour remains unclear.
As such, this research aims to investigate how consumers’sharing motivations affect their misbehaviours
in the SE.
Design/methodology/approach –Drawing on motivated cognition theory, the authors establish a research
model explaining the effects of consumers’sharing motivations on their cost–benefit analysis of misbehaviour
and misbehaviour intention. A scenario-based online experiment is used to test the research hypotheses.
Findings –The results indicate that consumers’extrinsic and intrinsic motivations to share have different
impactson their perceived benefits and costsof potential misbehaviour,thereby influencing theirmisbehaviour
intention.
Originality/value –This study reveals consumers’psychological mechanism underlying their
misbehaviours in the SE and provides operational implications for platforms to help them effectively reduce
consumer misbehaviours through preventive measures.
Keywords Sharing economy, Consumer misbehaviour, Motivated cognition theory, Extrinsic motivation,
Intrinsic motivation
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
With the growing number of global concerns regarding climate change and sustainable
development, the sharing economy (SE) is becoming increasingly popular (K€
obis et al., 2020).
IMDS
123,2
596
This study is primary supported by the MOE (Ministry of Education in China) Project of Humanities and
Social Sciences [Project No. 21YJC630058] and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
[Project No. 72071218]. The second author thanks for the support of the Fundamental Research Funds
for the Central Universities.
Declarations of interest: none.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0263-5577.htm
Received 18 July 2022
Revised 11 October 2022
Accepted 31 October 2022
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 123 No. 2, 2023
pp. 596-615
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-07-2022-0432
Such a business modelallows consumers to temporarily access a wide range of productsand
services, suchas office space (e.g. WeWork),transportation (e.g. Zipcar)and physical facilities
(e.g. Jiedian) (Belk, 2014). However, consumers’misbehaviours,such as misappropriation and
damage to shared products, present an operational challenge for platform firms since such
behaviours result in much more operational or maintenance costs, among other negative
consequences (K€
obis et al., 2020). For instance, it has been reported that vandalism and
disorderlyparking are the main challengesin the bike-sharing market in China(Gu et al.,2019).
Thesemisbehaviours not only increaseplatform firms’financialand labour costsbut also affect
the serviceexperience of other consumers(Schaefers et al.,2016). As such, understanding why
consumers misbehave in the SE can have important implications for platform owners who
strive to operate their businesses in a cost-efficient manner.
Consumer misbehaviour is defined as “behavioural acts by consumers which violate the
generallyaccepted norms of conduct in consumptionsituations, and disruptthe order expected
in such situations”(Fullerton and Punj, 1997).Given the access-based and self-servicenatures
of the SE (Bardhi and Eckhardt,2012), consumer misbehaviour in such a context warrants a
distinctive investigation. Although there are a growing number of studies focussing on this
phenomenon, little is known about the roles of consumers’sharing motivations despite their
impactson consumers’attitudes and behaviourssuch as post-adoption (Ge et al.,2017;Oliveira
et al.,2022). As such, this research aims to investigate how consumers’sharing motivations
influence their misbehaviours in the SE context.
By drawing on motivated cognition theory, we establish the research model. This theory
posits that people’s initial motivations can guide their cognitive processes about a specific
action by influencing their beliefs and strategies (Epley and Gilovich, 2016), which helps us
understand the psychological mechanism behind consumers’misbehaviours. Specifically, we
first conduct a review of the literature on SE and identify consumers’sharing motivations,
including extrinsic and intrinsic motivations. Then, as Jin et al. (2020) argued, consumers will
weigh the favourable and unfavourable consequences of the choice to misbehave. Although
the literature has confirmed the direct role of cost–benefit analysis on consumer
misbehaviour (Jin et al., 2020;Lowry et al., 2016), little research has focused on its indirect
effect. Cost–benefit analysis provides a powerful schema for assessing the motivated and
cognitive aspects of people’s decision-making (Alaoui and Penta, 2022). Given this, we
identify it as the motivated cognition through which consumers’sharing motivations
influence their misbehaviours, which advances our understanding of the process.
A scenario-based online experiment is conducted to test the research model. Overall, this
study makes research contributions to the literature on consumer misbehaviour, SE and
motivated recognition theory. First, although previous research has explored the reasons for
consumer misbehaviour in the SE from different theoretical perspectives, such as deterrence
and rational and ethical decision-making (Hou et al., 2022;Jia et al., 2018;Jin et al., 2020), they
ignored consumers’sharing motivations, which have been confirmed to influence consumers’
attitudes and behaviours in the SE (Mohlmann, 2015;Lou et al., 2021). By drawing on a
motivated cognition perspective, this research provides fresh insights into the reasons for
consumer misbehaviour. Second, previous research has applied motivated recognition theory
to study issues related to consumer behaviour and business ethics (Lin et al., 2020;Jia et al.,
2020;Rees et al., 2022). However, its application is still insufficient in these research fields. By
further extending motivated recognition theory into the research on consumer misbehaviour
in the SE, our work confirms the applicability of this theory to understand the consumer dark
side. Third, despite the direct impacts of consumers’cost–benefit analysis on their
misbehaviour (Jin et al., 2020;Lowry et al., 2016), little research has investigated its indirect
role. This study deepens our understanding of the formation of consumer misbehaviour by
uncovering the mediating effects of perceived benefits and costs between consumers’sharing
motivations and their misbehaviour intention. In addition, operational implications are
Misbehaviours
in the sharing
economy
597
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