A Study on Airbnb’s Trust Mechanism and the Effects of Cultural Values—Based on a Survey of Chinese Consumers

A sharing economy is developing rapidly worldwide, especially in China. Trust has been considered as a crucial factor in facilitating the practice of the short-term rental business, where hosts and renters are strangers. However, not only has the inherent trust-building mechanism of this newly emerged business model not been fully explored, but how cultural values affect the trust-building path also remains unknown. This study proposes a model of the trust-building mechanism in the sharing economy platforms, with three central modes—institutional trust, product trust, and interpersonal trust—and introduces national cultural values dimensions at the individual level as moderators to explore the impact on the inherent mechanism of trust-building on Airbnb. The data collected from 210 Chinese Airbnb consumers by survey provides support for the proposed structural equation model. The results show that institutional trust has a positive influence on product trust and interpersonal trust, and that product trust has a positive influence on interpersonal trust as well. For the moderating effect of cultural values, the relationship between the institutional trust and product trust is regulated by power distance (PDI), individualism (IDV), uncertainty avoidance (UAI), and long-term orientation (LTO), while the relationship between product trust and interpersonal trust is regulated by PDI, IDV, and UAI. This paper indicates that in order to foster trust in the sharing economy, practitioners should enhance institutional trust, product trust, and interpersonal trust synchronously, as these three modes of trust are positively inter-related; they must also be sensitive to local cultural value dispositions when conduct sharing business internationally.