Exploring the effect of Airbnb hosts' attachment and psychological ownership in the sharing economy

Previous research on the sharing economy has not typically focused on organizational structure and its management in spite of the fact that the essence of recent peer-to-peer business practices is the collaboration of online platforms and sharable assets owned by market peers. This paper critically examines a theoretical model to explore how these market partners engage in this platform organization and how their perceptions of attachment and ownership are established within the new organizational structure. The results of structural equation modeling applied to 224 Airbnb hosts indicate that attachment to a platform firm plays a vital role in achieving a sense of psychological ownership that ultimately influences citizenship behaviors toward the organization as well as toward peer hosts. The results suggest that the newly formed structure should acknowledge an establishing mechanism of attachment and psychological ownership in partnering with individual service providers in its operational management.