Trust and distrust in two-sided markets: An example in the sharing economy

Abstract

Mobile applications and Internet-based platforms continuously foster the rise of the sharing economy business model that can nowadays be found in various industries. In this paper, we focus on potential customers in the ridesharing industry. We use the setting of ‘BlaBlaCar’, a popular ridesharing platform, to investigate the implications of ‘trust’ and ‘distrust’ on the users’ intention to engage in a sharing encounter. In particular, we extend the research model by Mittendorf (2017) which investigates the influence of trust and risk in the sharing economy. In this regard, we differentiate between the platform and the sharing partners, while incorporating both trust and distrust. Our study employs survey data (n = 238) and structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Our results provide empirical evidence that trust and distrust have unequal effects on the respective user intention, which contributes to the understanding of two-sided market platforms. Academic and practical implications are discussed.