COUCHSURFING AN COLLABORATIVE CONSUMPTION: ANALYSIS OF VALUES IN BUILDING INTERPERSONAL TRUST
Collaborative Consumption. Trust. Values. Couchsurfing.
From technological development, with the web 2.0 and the increase of the online platforms of shared network service in the last two decades, a new way of consuming appears, established also in face of the socioeconomic and environmental crises. This set of factors accelerated the need for rationing and gained prominence for sharing, especially in the online context. Collaborative consumption emerges as an alternative economic model, converging socialism and capitalism from consumption through access. Notoriously, for the tourism sector, consumption by access has had a positive impact through business models such as sharing accommodation (Airbnb, Hostel, among others), food (Eat with, Dinner, among others) and mobility (for example, Valenbisí, blablacar, uber). In collaborative tourism consumption, there is a special emphasis on the Couchsurfing platform, which involves 4 million members around the world and demonstrates a change in tourist behavior in travel. Guests and hosts create relationships that start in the online environment and run through the offline environment, with hosting, with no relationship based on monetary values. Thus, this research will seek to understand the relevant factors for building trust between peers on the couchsurfing platform from Schwartz's Theory of Values and from Interpersonal Trust. Therefore, requiring a depth of investigation, a qualitative research will be developed from a constructivist perspective at an exploratory level. The collection of primary data from the accessibility and non-probability sampling will be done through episodic interviews with a semi-structured script based on the theories of values and interpersonal trust, with members of the couchsurfing community in Natal-RN, in a single cross-section. Content analysis, developed through CAQDAS Atlas.ti 7, identified values associated with risk propensity and openness to change, self-transcendence and a sense of community (benevolence). In this same direction, trust building was strongly associated with the platform's verification tools and reference system in the online context (rationality), continuing through the attitudinal and cognitive dynamics of the offline context, built from time and quality of interaction and exchanges for the construction of affective bonds (emotionality), corroborating the findings of the systematic review as to the constructs addressed in the present work. It is concluded, therefore, that the process of building trust in collaborative consumption through Couchsurfing requires its adaptation to the community through common values, making the platform a mostly homogeneous environment and conducive to the construction of affective bonds, driven by reciprocity and emotivity.