Dual Roles of Consumers: Towards an Insight into Collaborative Consumption Motives

Abstract

This article aims to investigate the consistency of the consumer motivational process in accordance with the acquisition and disposition of tangible goods through collaborative consumption. Three studies, involving a total of 7,715 consumers, show that, when considered separately, acquisition and disposition are governed by relatively similar hierarchies of motivations that can be grouped together into an overarching four-dimensional structure: (1) utilitarian, (2) experiential, (3) protester and (4) spiritual. Hence, consumers driven primarily by one or other of the four motivational categories when acquiring goods will be similarly motivated when disposing of goods Other drivers may nonetheless represent significant secondary motivations.