The aim of the research was to get a better understanding of why one might be a couch surfing host. The focus of this study is the general concept of the Couchsurfing platform which has created the possibility for travelers from all over the world, to offer or to request (or both) hospitality free of charge. As a part of a qualitative study, online interviews were held with six hosts located in different countries around the world. The findings of the data gathered while conducting the research, give an insight of how people choose their potential guests, how they negotiate trust along with what is the that they gain out of sharing the privacy of their homes with ‘strangers’.

A presente dissertação é dividida em três capítulos, o primeiro deles buscando explicar o aparecimento de novas formas de trabalho com a ascensão da chamada economia colaborativa, focando especialmente no aplicativo Uber e o trabalho prestado por motoristas parceiros no transporte individual privado de passageiros, bem como o surgimento de um novo termo na economia e no mundo do trabalho, a uberização. É objeto de exame a natureza do trabalho prestado por esses motoristas, se subordinado, com o exame detalhado dos requisitos da relação de emprego, ou se autônomo, bem como sua aproximação a alguns modelos trabalhistas assemelhados a essa nova forma de trabalho, com menção à zona cinzenta existente entre a subordinação e a autonomia, com o exemplo da parassubordinação italiana. Estudam-se tendências mundiais, com os exemplos de duas decisões judiciais (na Califórnia e no Reino Unido) reconhecendo direitos trabalhistas ao motorista do Uber, bem como os primeiros passos possíveis em território nacional – igualmente com decisões judiciais recentes -, e as possibilidades de tutela de direitos trabalhistas dos motoristas parceiros do Uber. / This thesis is divided into three chapters, the first one seeking to explain the emergence of new ways of working with the rise of so-called collaborative economy, focusing especially on the Uber app and the work done by partners drivers in the private individual passenger transport, as well as the rising of a new term in the economy and the world of work, the uberization. The nature of the work performed by these drivers is examined, if subordinated, with the detailed examination of the requirements of the employment relationship, or if autonomous, as well as its approximation to some labor models similar to this new form of work, with mention of the gray area between subordination and autonomy, with the example of Italian parassubordination. New trends are being studied worldwide, with examples of two judicial decisions (in California and the United Kingdom) recognizing labor rights for the driver of Uber, as well as the first possible steps in national territory – also with judicial decisions -, and the possibilities of protection of labor rights of Uber's partner drivers.

The aim of this article is to give an overview of the business model concept and theories focussing on the sharing economy. Selected concepts and studies are presented, and its application, usefulness and limitations are discussed. The concepts and models that are presented in more detail build the foundation for the realisation of a digital business plan. The plan was part of the overall examination for the course ‘Digital Business Development’ at Linnæus University. The theories and studies concerning business models are being traced back to 1975. With the advent of the Internet mid-1990s the academic community picked up on the business model concept and an increasing number of articles, publications and studies were published. Although the huge interest in the concept, there is still no common theoretical foundation and established researchers such as Michael E. Porter even argue that the business model doesn’t help a company to develop or to assess competitive advantage instead it only helps to understand basic questions. Airbnb and Uber have been the companies mostly cited when articles were written about the ‘sharing economy’. The research field of the sharing economy is rather new and most of the theoretical foundation is rooted in the concept of ownership. Recently, researchers have begun to investigate frameworks around the sharing economy i.e. understanding the determinants of a successful sharing model from a marketing and technological perspective. The literature related to the sharing economy is still in its formation phase. The theory must reach a higher level of generalizability and move away from pure descriptions of ‘successful companies in the sharing economy’. Most studies have focused on identifying motivational factors for consumers and companies to participate in the sharing economy. In conclusion, both concepts have its strengths and weaknesses, but they provide useful insights for analyzing current situations and developing potential strategic directions.

The sharing economy is a fast-growing movement where consumers share and exchange underutilised goods and services on digital platforms. Today, these sharing platforms are being dominated by millennials due to their inherent digital mindset and awareness of global issues. As a result of this movement, consumer attitudes and engagement are important to study as it helps us understand, influence and respond to the needs of consumers. To this end, the purpose of this paper is to further explore this concept of the sharing economy and to examine consumer attitudes and engagement towards sharing platforms. The research conducted in this study was exploratory and an abductive approach was used. Qualitative data was collected through five focus groups to understand different attitudes and perspectives in relation to sharing platforms. Results indicated that attitudes are generated differently among millennials due to various demographic and cultural differences. The study contributes with a revised attitude model and provides insights for businesses and entrepreneurs who seek to engage on sharing platforms. This research study provides new insights to the field of the sharing economy as no previous research, to the best of our knowledge, has been conducted on millennials’ attitudes and engagement. For future studies on the topic, we emphasise the importance to choose one or similar platforms and to distinguish the types of millennials so that a more targeted analysis can be conducted.

Abstract Background: Most of existing literature in the field of sharing economy has focused on aspects of sustainability and business model structure. Research on brand image in the sharing economy has up until today not been an area of investigation. The purpose of a company’s marketing activities is to influence the perception and attitude towards the brand and stimulate consumers’ purchasing behavior by establish the brand image in consumers’ mind. The peer-to-beer based structure of sharing goods and services in the sharing economy consequently means less involvement from the focal company and presents the challenge of influencing the customers’ perception of the brand. Purpose: Page and Lepkowska-White (2002) developed the ‘Web Equity Framework’ which illustrates factors affecting brand equity in an online environment. By using this framework as a foundation for interviews, the purpose of this study is to understand how brand image is built and uncover factors that affects brand image in the sharing economy. Method: This is a qualitative study using an abductive approach. Seven in-depth interviews have been held with sharing economy companies in Sweden to collect data and gain an understanding in the field of study. Conclusion: The findings of this study show five factors that affect brand image in the sharing economy. The factors in Page and Lepkowska-White’s (2002) framework have been found to affect brand image also in the sharing economy, to different extent. However, two of them have been renamed to more appropriately fit the field of study and one additional factor has been identified, namely Peer trust, which has been illustrated in a revised model. Since trust between consumers becomes more apparent in the sharing economy, this is also one of the factors that impact the way consumers perceive the brand.

A presente dissertação é dividida em três capítulos, o primeiro deles buscando explicar o aparecimento de novas formas de trabalho com a ascensão da chamada economia colaborativa, focando especialmente no aplicativo Uber e o trabalho prestado por motoristas parceiros no transporte individual privado de passageiros, bem como o surgimento de um novo termo na economia e no mundo do trabalho, a uberização. É objeto de exame a natureza do trabalho prestado por esses motoristas, se subordinado, com o exame detalhado dos requisitos da relação de emprego, ou se autônomo, bem como sua aproximação a alguns modelos trabalhistas assemelhados a essa nova forma de trabalho, com menção à zona cinzenta existente entre a subordinação e a autonomia, com o exemplo da parassubordinação italiana. Estudam-se tendências mundiais, com os exemplos de duas decisões judiciais (na Califórnia e no Reino Unido) reconhecendo direitos trabalhistas ao motorista do Uber, bem como os primeiros passos possíveis em território nacional – igualmente com decisões judiciais recentes -, e as possibilidades de tutela de direitos trabalhistas dos motoristas parceiros do Uber. / This thesis is divided into three chapters, the first one seeking to explain the emergence of new ways of working with the rise of so-called collaborative economy, focusing especially on the Uber app and the work done by partners drivers in the private individual passenger transport, as well as the rising of a new term in the economy and the world of work, the uberization. The nature of the work performed by these drivers is examined, if subordinated, with the detailed examination of the requirements of the employment relationship, or if autonomous, as well as its approximation to some labor models similar to this new form of work, with mention of the gray area between subordination and autonomy, with the example of Italian parassubordination. New trends are being studied worldwide, with examples of two judicial decisions (in California and the United Kingdom) recognizing labor rights for the driver of Uber, as well as the first possible steps in national territory – also with judicial decisions -, and the possibilities of protection of labor rights of Uber's partner drivers.

The sharing economy is a topic that is discussed continuously in the media as it continues to grow and large corporations continue to flourish. This disruptive technology in coalition with regulatory question marks has allowed sharing economy companies to change the business landscape in a number of industries in a short amount of time. However, there has been little investigation into how consumers perceive risk when using sharing economy companies in comparison to their traditional counterpart. This thesis looks at both the dimensions of perceived risk in addition to the antecedents of perceived risk in order to establish what makes a consumer perceive something as ‘risky’. A qualitative study was carried out through semi-structured interviews with drivers at UberPOP and Taxi Stockholm, as well as with passengers that have travelled with both companies. From our analysis we conclude that consumers perceived risks as higher in traditional companies in comparison to sharing economy companies.

隨著時代變遷，每個人的家庭結構、生活型態、消費行為及價值觀…等方面，也隨之改變。再加上人們休閒時間的增加，因此外出旅遊的次數也隨之上升。而伴隨著網路時代的來臨，共享經濟（Sharing Economy）一詞逐漸被大眾知曉，其概念是強調將自己的閒置資源，透過網路平台分享、出租的方式，以合理的價格與其他有需要的人共用資源。也就是使用者以「租賃」取代「購買」。這一概念的出現，使得人們在出外旅遊時多了一種除了飯店與民宿之外的住宿選擇。 以P2P住房網站中的Aribnb為例，在預定該平台上之房源前，我們僅能參考房東所提供之房源照片及資訊，但無法證實這些資訊之真實性。而租賃雙方只能依靠網站上所述之評價來評斷對方之品行。但這一切的資訊都是可以造假的，因此我們該如何信任該平台上之對方，是一件很重要的事情。因此，我們可以透過區塊鏈技術來加強租賃雙方之見的信任，以及改善目前該住房網站所面臨的一些問題與痛點。 而區塊鏈是一種不依賴第三方、通過自身分散式節點進行網路數據的存儲、驗證、傳遞和交流的一種技術。該技術主要具有去中心化、透明性、開放性、不可竄改性及安全性…等性質。我們可以利用這些性質去強化租賃雙方之間的信任，以及確保儲存在該網站之所有資訊的真實性，使得使用該平台的所有用戶都擁有極大的安全性。因此，本研究將以共享經濟中著名的案例—Airbnb為例，探討目前Airbnb的營運模式、區塊鏈技術，以及加入區塊鏈技術後對Airbnb這個住房網站所帶來之影響。 / The number of outbound travel had increased a lot because of new living style. The sharing economy has also been emerged from the new internet age. The concept of sharing economy is to utilize idle resources, through the Internet platform to share, rent them at a reasonable price and other people in need. That is, people have new option to "lease" instead of "buy". In the case of sharing economy of housing such as Aribnb in the P2P housing website, people can only refer to the housing photos and information provided by the landlord before booking the premises on the platform, but people is not able to confirm the authenticity of the information. And both parties can only rely on the lease on the evaluation of the site to judge each other's conduct. But all this information might be false, so how do we trust the other side on the platform, is a very important issue. As a result, we can strengthen the trust of both parties through the blockchain technology and improve some of the problems and pain points facing the P2P housing website. Blockchain is a technology that doesn't rely on third parties to store, validate, transmit and communicate network data through its own distributed nodes. The technology has the characteristics of decentralized, transparency, openness and security and so on. These characteristics can strengthen the trust between the two parties and to ensure that all the information stored in the blockchain. Therefore, this thesis uses Airbnb as a case to discuss the current Airbnb operating model and the impact on business model with the addition of blockchain.

The thesis concentrates on the impact of the sharing economy on consumer behavior in tourism. The theoretical part focuses on several approaches towards consumer behavior and the importance of mobile technologies for the growth of the sharing economy. The second part later deals with characterization of the sharing economy, determination of the key players and most importantly researches the impact of this phenomenon on consumer behavior in tourism, especially in the area of accommodation and transportation.

This master's thesis focuses on phenomen of sharing economy in France and its impact on tourism. It analyses the current situation of sharing economy in France and emphasizes the role of France on the market of sharing economy in comparison with other countries, especially with the Czech Republic. The following practical part concentrates on the different knowledge and experience with services in sharing economy between the people living in France and in the Czech Republic. The main aim of this comparison is to emphasize the difference between these countries and determine the situation of sharing economy in France more deeply.