Do green practices really attract customers? The sharing economy from the sustainable supply chain management perspective

The notion of the sharing economy has been introduced in many sectors and provided significant benefits to consumers and asset owners. Despite the remarkable improvement of the sharing economy in recent years, its relationship with sustainability remains insufficiently researched. This study adopts a sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) perspective. A large-scale survey with 420 participants showed that investment recovery (IR) practices and corporate social responsibility (CSR) conducted by sharing economy platforms significantly and positively affect customers’ intention to use sharing economy-based services/products, whereas internal green management (IGM), supplier green management (SGM), eco-design (ECD) and customer green management (CGM) practices do not. A follow-up qualitative study with ten participants provided further explanations and supported the findings of the survey. This study links the sharing economy and sustainability by testing the effectiveness of sharing economy platforms’ sustainable practices and proposes the best practices for sharing economy platforms to maintain a long-term sustainable marketplace.