WHAT’S IN A NAME: EXAMINING DISCRIMINATION ON SHARING PLATFORMS AND ITS POSSIBLE REMEDIES

Authors

Olga Abramova, University of PotsdamFollow

Abstract

Sharing platforms emerged as the new Holy Grail of value creation by enabling exchanges between strangers. To build trust, users are encouraged to extensively present themselves online. However, revealing one’s own identity cuts both ways: While inducing pre-transaction confidence, it is suspected of having backfired on the information senders with its discriminative potential. These vulnerabilities trigger alarm among platform providers, users and policymakers, spawning heated discussions on the possible solutions to cope with the underlying bias. So far, understanding of the equivocal effects of personal information in the sharing context remained ambiguous, with past research reporting a disparity in outcomes (e.g., price, acceptance rate and waiting time) but lacking insights into the mechanisms behind the observed dynamics. To bridge this gap, the current study employs a discrete choice experiment to explore the role of names as signifiers of discriminative peculiarities and investigate the impact of accompanying cues in peer choices of a ridesharing offer. We quantify users’ preferences for particular quality signals in monetary terms. Beyond hands-on insights for providers, our study contributes to the theoretical discourse on the dark side of prosumer experiences in online peer-to-peer communities.

Recommended Citation

Abramova, Olga, "WHAT’S IN A NAME: EXAMINING DISCRIMINATION ON SHARING PLATFORMS AND ITS POSSIBLE REMEDIES" (2020). In Proceedings of the 28th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), An Online AIS Conference, June 15-17, 2020.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2020_rp/48