Is the Sharing Economy an Opportunity or a Threat? : A Case Study on the Swedish Hotel Industry

Sammanfattning: The act of sharing goods and services is not a new or revolutionary concept in any way. In the internet age, the phenomenon of what has been titled the “sharing economy” has emerged, and touched many different industries and researchers around the world. Incumbent industries, operating in traditional manners, are in today’s society experiencing a pressure to transform. The hotel industry, in particular, is facing the tension of the customers’ shifting behavior, from staying at hotels to using accommodation sharing services instead, such as Airbnb. This study therefore seeks to explore how the sharing economy is impacting the hotel market. A question that has guided the research reads; Is the phenomenon, to the hotel industry, an opportunity or a threat? The research can be followed through a conducted explorative case study on the sharing economy’s manifestation in the Swedish hotel market, which encompasses an exploration of how hotel actors are perceiving and reacting to accommodation sharing. The case is based on gathered data from reviewing written material and conducting qualitative, semi-structured interviews with hotel actors, experts on the hotel industry and experts on the sharing economy. The empirical material has been complemented and processed with the transformational pressure theory and competitive strategic approaches in mind, along with having notions drawn from socio-technical transition theory whereas a Multi-Level Perspective approach is applied to discuss the transition the hotel industry is undergoing. This thesis contributes analytically to the research area of the current transformation in the hotel industry, with implications on how traditional hotel actors can adapt to the emergence of the sharing economy. The case study shows how hotel actors in Sweden, being in a currently prosperous state, are alarmingly positive towards the growing phenomenon of accommodation sharing hence they perceive it as an opportunity and a complement to the industry as minor negative financial effects are evident. However, we argue that traditional hotel actors will, after a coming period of recession, truly realize the effects of the accommodation sharing phenomenon. This since the adoption of sharing services is accelerated in a weaker financial landscape. We are of the perception that the phenomenon has resulted in the emergence of a new customer segment, “Mid Stay“ customers. In the study, we conclude that the hotel actors, no matter size or category, risk losing current customers, as well as the opportunity to attract new ones, if they do not transform and adapt to the ongoing change. Accommodation sharing should be perceived as nothing less than a threat that needs to be acted upon soon to remain sustainable in the now thriving hotel industry. However, the sharing economy is not necessarily a threat that needs to, or can, be eliminated, but rather one from which new profitable opportunities are made available for hotel actors to exploit in order to operate in symbiosis with the phenomenon.