Adoption of collaborative consumption as sustainable social innovation

This study focuses on consumer cognitive factors as drivers of collaborative consumption (CC). It enriches the understanding of these drivers, in particular by conceptualizing CC as a social innovation that is adopted by consumers mainly due to their pro-social thinking with regard to the process and outcomes of consumption. These factors, as well as social norms connected with in-group collectivism, are especially important for the specific context of the CEE region. The SEM model with the intention to consume collaboratively as a dependent variable, is tested on a sample of 270 collaborative consumers in Poland. All pro-social factors, i.e. trust, sociability and novelty seeking, received empirical support as antecedents of perceived CC usefulness, and together with social norms contributed to CC intention. Policy makers and businesses in CEE that want to facilitate CC may consider these results in their activities.