The Rise of Collaborative Consumption on the Example of Couchsurfing

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2011 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing grade: 10 Northeastern University of Boston language: English abstract: The objective of this paper is to analyze the emergence and the characteristics of collaborative consumption. Moreover this paper examines the causes and underlying motivations for using Couchsurfing as one particular form of collaborative consumption by focusing on consumers. Lastly we will provide potential implications of this trend for commercial organizations.In recent years economic life has changed more radically than in the past century altogether. Consumers and firms are getting away from the typical capitalistic principle of buyers and sellers. The new economies are rather defined by users and suppliers. Ownership which was the underlying principle of decades of capitalism is not desirable anymore as it is (..) considered outdated and out of place (..) (Rifkin 2000 p. 5). Nowadays firms are outsourcing and leasing cars electronics and even people. It is just not important to own things anymore but simply to have access to resources. Product life-cycles are becoming shorter and shorter and especially electronic goods are almost outdated shortly after their release. Therefore companies need to be flexible and react quickly. The principle of ownership can just not fulfil the requirements of an ever-changing and fast-paced economy (Rifkin 2000).While consumers are still more reluctant towards this trend they are picking up on it. Car-sharing or bike-sharing for example is becoming more and more popular in order to (simply) save money and thus replace traditional ways of just buying goods. Furthermore people are increasingly aware of their (negotiation) power. Groupon for instance is only able to offer all these blockbuster discounts because there is a huge mass of people behind (it) to negotiate big bargains. The rise of the inter