Trust in the sharing economy: A critical literature review

Defined as "the use of online marketplaces and social networking technologies to facilitate peer-to-peersharing of resources (such as space, money, goods, skills and services) between individuals, who may be bothsuppliers and consumers" (Barnes & Mattsson, 2016, p.200), the sharing economy induces a new paradigmin terms of production and consumption, engendering technological as well as sociological changes. Mostindustries, including transportation, accommodation, hospitality, dining, finance, retail and services at large,realise today a significant part of their activity from collaborative platforms.According to Rachel Botsman (2012), the leading advocate in sharing economy, in this new economy, "thecurrency […] is trust", which could be defined as a "willingness to commit to a collaborative effort beforeyou know how the other person will behave" (Coleman, 1990). Trust is indeed the key building block of thesharing economy, where exchanges usually occur between total strangers in a non-face-to-face setting. Still,little research has examined the question of trust in the sharing economy.To fill the gap, this paper proposes a critical review of the extant literature to analyse the research state onthe question of trust in the sharing economy. A systematic analysis of 130 articles on the sharing economyfirst reveals a nascent literature, fragmented between several disciplines (namely Marketing, Economy,Management and Information Systems), where trust has rarely been the subject of empirical works. The fewworks dealing with trust confirm its central role and suggest that it is built on the assessment of original cues(e.g., personal photos, profile description, review scores) that contribute to develop a reputational systemfor both suppliers and consumers. Going further, a critically review of the scope and limits of the most populartheoretical frameworks on trust shows that these frameworks are still partly relevant to understand the sharingeconomy, but that they should evolve on some dimensions to better meet this new context. Ultimately,drawing on signal theory (Spence, 1973), this article provides an integrated conceptual framework on trust,which suggests several areas for further research that we summarise in a research agenda. As such, this paperopens new perspectives for the academic world and practitioners alike to unleash the power of trust in thesharing economy.