Trust Breakthrough in the Sharing Economy: an Empirical Study of Airbnb1

Despite the acknowledged importance of trust in the sharing economy, especially for continuance use intention, a solid understanding of this phenomenon is still lacking. Due to the nature of the unique characteristics of Airbnb, as one of the most representative cases of sharing economy businesses, the effort of this research contributes to the literature by integrating attachment theory with the trust building model (TBM), which leads us to identify two types of trust initiators: cognitiveand affectbased trust. This work also reveals the mediating role of attachment in the relationship between trust and the behavioral outcome (i.e., continuous use intention). As the first stage of research in progress, the current paper presents a conceptual research model to be empirically tested in the next stage. At the end of the paper, expected implications for both theories and practices are discussed.

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