Collaborative Consumption - Essay Example

?COLLABORATIVE CONSUMPTION of It has been argued that we are entering an era of collaborative consumption. Giving examples and drawing on any of the theoretical insights covered in this module, assess the extent to which you believe that this new era will require a dramatic re-evaluation of everything we know about improving the customer-supplier relationship. In recent times, some people have argued that we are entering an era of collaborative consumption. Botsman and Rogers (2010, p. 11) define collaborative consumption is term that is used in describing an economic model which is based on trading, bartering, sharing, renting or swapping access to products rather than owning the products. The concept of collaborative consumption has been aided by advancing technology and peer communities that reinvents old behaviours of the market on new scale and ways that have not been witnessed before. Examples of aspects that enhance collaborative consumption include: car sharing marketplaces such as Zipcar, huge marketplaces such as Craiglist and eBay, and peer-to-peer communities such as GuideHop (Walljasper, 2010, p. 28). Several studies have shown that collaborative consumption is greatly disrupting the traditional business models, while at the same time reinventing old market behaviours thereby influencing how people consume and what they consume. Since collaborative consumption is disrupting the traditional business models and reinventing old market behaviours, it is conceivable that this new era will require a dramatic re-evaluation of everything that we know regarding improvement of the relationship between the customers and the suppliers. It is no doubt that the extent of re-evaluation would be bigger than even imagined. This is some sort of paradigm shift from “common consumption” that has been characterized by a number of problems, miscommunication being its biggest problem (Baron and Harris, 2008, p. 113). Collaborative consumption is informed by the theory of collaboration which basically states that collaboration is enhanced among people when the collaborators are expecting beneficial outcome from the collaboration. Price et al (2006, p. 51) argues that this theory holds that collaboration is vital towards eliminating inherent selfish nature of human beings by making them see benefits out of combined actions and efforts. Further, collaborative consumption is informed by the collaboration theory assumption that it has a causal outcome; that is, if causal outcome is higher then the collaborators would have higher commitment and participation levels. Even though “common consumption” is still prominent in the marketplaces, it is emerging that everything is becoming collaborative. The world has in recent times has experienced immense renting and swapping of clothes, homes, and cars through technologies and peer communities such as Airnb, Zipcar, and RentCycle (Walljasper, 2010, p. 57). Collaborative consumption is a theory in itself that holds that people can buy something without necessarily owning it. The view of not owning something after buying it notwithstanding, a person buying it should take responsibility for them, be it clothes, electric, or car. The era of collaborative consumption requires dramatic re-evaluation in respect to both customer-supplier relationship and how we look at the community. This dramatic re-evaluation has to entail the understanding of the resurgence of community, the values in the community, and how members of the community connect to one another. The same re-evaluation should be applied to the customer- supplier relationship. As has been noted, consumers and suppliers in this model calls for more responsibilities; as such, it is critical to re-evaluate the accountability and the responsibility aspects in the model (Holt, 2005, p. 6). Collaborative consumption has been touted as one of the greatest revolutions of our time and may be as significant as the industrial revolution. It has been argued that it will result to a world which is driven by “reputational capital” and that the idea of “We” in the collaborative consumption will replace the idea of “me” that became prominent in the industrial age (Baron and Harris, 2008, p. 119). This is the conception that will require dramatic re-evaluation of the aspects that are known regarding the customer- supplier relationship. However, it should be noted that collaborative consumption is not yet fully “ripe” and that it may take quite a longer time before it becomes a reality. Actually, there are those who argue that collaborative consumption may not actually be a great thing especially for people who are not naturally participatory. The opponents of collaborative consumption argue that the whole idea of “reputational capital” is a little creepy as people may not be actually be accountable and responsible thereby compromising the whole concept of collaborative consumption (Walljasper, 2010, p. 80). As has been noted, collaborative consumption is a business model that seeks to benefit everyone through swapping, renting, sharing, and bartering of things without people actually owning them. It has been argued that it will replace “common consumption” and will eliminate inherent selfish nature of human beings by making them realize that all of them can benefit through combined efforts. However, there are those who argue that it may not materialize fully especially among people who are not naturally participatory. All in all, one thing is agreeable: collaborative consumption is a reality and is gradually becoming prominent in the marketplaces. Therefore, there is need for dramatic re-evaluation of everything we know about improving the customer-supplier relationship. Bibliography Baron, S and Harris, K, 2008, “Consumers as Resource Integrators,” Journal of Marketing Management 24(1): 113-130. Botsman, R and Rogers, R, 2010, What’s Mine is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption, Harper Business. Holt, D, 2005, “How Consumers Consume: A Typology of Consumption Practices,” Journal of Consumer Research, 32(1):p. 1-16. Price, L et al, 2006, Towards a Resource-based Theory of the Customer, New York: M.E. Sharpe. Walljasper, J, 2010, All that we share: how to save the economy, the environment, the Internet, democracy, our communities, and everything else that belongs to all of us, New York, New Press. Read More