Brand image in the Sharing Economy : An exploratory study of how to achieve positive customer perceptions in the sharing economy

Sammanfattning: Abstract Background: Most of existing literature in the field of sharing economy has focused on aspects of sustainability and business model structure. Research on brand image in the sharing economy has up until today not been an area of investigation. The purpose of a company’s marketing activities is to influence the perception and attitude towards the brand and stimulate consumers’ purchasing behavior by establish the brand image in consumers’ mind. The peer-to-beer based structure of sharing goods and services in the sharing economy consequently means less involvement from the focal company and presents the challenge of influencing the customers’ perception of the brand. Purpose: Page and Lepkowska-White (2002) developed the ‘Web Equity Framework’ which illustrates factors affecting brand equity in an online environment. By using this framework as a foundation for interviews, the purpose of this study is to understand how brand image is built and uncover factors that affects brand image in the sharing economy. Method: This is a qualitative study using an abductive approach. Seven in-depth interviews have been held with sharing economy companies in Sweden to collect data and gain an understanding in the field of study. Conclusion: The findings of this study show five factors that affect brand image in the sharing economy. The factors in Page and Lepkowska-White’s (2002) framework have been found to affect brand image also in the sharing economy, to different extent. However, two of them have been renamed to more appropriately fit the field of study and one additional factor has been identified, namely Peer trust, which has been illustrated in a revised model. Since trust between consumers becomes more apparent in the sharing economy, this is also one of the factors that impact the way consumers perceive the brand.