Shedding light on sharing ECONOMY and new materialist consumption: An empirical approach

Abstract In the last decade, the sharing economy has emerged as a business model that improves the use of goods, uses fewer resources than traditional markets, increases social interactions and promotes more responsible and environmentally friendly consumption. This has led various authors to propose that the sharing economy could be a business model that will change consumers’ relationship to objects and the materialistic lifestyle. This exploratory research is, to the best of our knowledge, the first to specifically identify a new consumer materialism with the sharing economy. To this end, a survey was conducted among 384 participants in the sharing economy, identifying not only the drivers of the new materialism but also their impact on consumption. Our conclusions show that we are currently experiencing a new materialism in which the main elements of traditional materialism—property and the accumulation of goods and the happiness derived from the accumulation of goods and their exhibition as a status symbol—are losing importance. Thus, materialism is evolving from a mere static accumulation of goods towards a hybrid model in which property and the enjoyment of goods coexist with the enjoyment of experiences, which are becoming increasingly more important. Last, participation in the sharing economy drives this new materialism through its contribution to a greater awareness of consumption. In other words, the consumer has a greater consumption awareness. This paper proposes theoretical foundations to conceptualize the new materialism and a new materialist consumer profile that represents a break from the traditional conception, provides evidence on the dynamics of the feedback and empowerment of the sharing economy, and finally contributes by shedding light on its impact because the dynamics and impact of the sharing economy are more complex than they initially seem and thus it is necessary to analyse different angles and concepts.