Exploring fashionability in sharing economy communities

Abstract: Sharing Economy as a concept is based on providing a space for individuals that brings them together on a platform providing access to goods/services to both parties. It has grown in popularity since the 2010s due to digitalization and social media. The reason why the sharing economy is growing is due to different stakeholders involved in this concept. For example, it can be said that companies try to boost their brand by incorporating sharing economy in their portfolio or in academics where lots of resources are used in researching this concept as sustainability is trending these days. The consumer plays a role in growing interest in this concept through active participation in this economy. Now with many people involved in sharing economy, it is certain that there are different desires and needs. These desires and needs are known as motivation. Naturally, there are different types of motivations seen in sharing economy. They are economic, critical, and recreational motivation that has been researched extensively by other authors in this domain. This thesis looks at social motivation and in more specific term ‘fashionability’. Fashionability is the motivation that consumers use to ‘be unique’, ‘stand out in a crowd’, and keep up with the trends specifically to second-hand clothes. But to be unique and to stand out, there are activities that are carried out by the consumer in a second-hand store/platform. These activities are known as practices. To understand these practices, a theoretical framework known as Social Practice Theory is used. The aim of the thesis is to understand fashionability in sharing economy and to see how fashionability affects the sharing practices in second-hand consumption. To do this, the researchers have used a qualitative research method to interview active participants of sharing economy. There were ten interviewees sampled, and a semi-structure interview guide was used to understand the interviewees. The findings were that second-hand fashion was seen through different perspectives amongst consumers. Some of them were able to express themselves to enhance their identity. The researchers also analyzed that fashionability was indeed a motivator since this was seen as a starting point towards the consumption of second-hand clothes. There were seven practices found through the results in this thesis. The researchers analyzed these seven practices and theorized the links between these practices needed to be sustained.