This is not mine anymore: the dark side of collaborative consumption

Extant research on collaborative consumption in the sharing economy generally focuses on consumers (those who consume such services) while overlooking an important actor: the peer service providers (those who provide these services by sharing their resources with other consumers). Through four studies, we show a potential detrimental side effect of collaborative consumption. Specifically, our results suggest that for peer service providers, sharing their assets leads to a greater perceived loss of psychological ownership of these assets. This phenomenon thus results in a potentially unsustainable outcome: faster disposal of the shared assets. The authors further show that this effect disappears when the asset is shared with in-group (vs. out-group) members. Lastly, the authors offer a practical and easily implementable solution that could avert this potentially detrimental phenomenon: To encourage service providers to personalize their assets, which restores their perceived psychological ownership. Together, these results advance the literature on the dark side of collaborative consumption and offer managerial insights into mitigating strategies.