What causes consumers to participate in collaborative consumption? A self-efficacy perspective toward Peer-to-Peer (P2P) secondhand platforms

Peer-to-peer (P2P) secondhand platforms refer to platforms that enable consumers to voluntarily exchange used items, such as used clothes. Because this type of collaborative consumption relies on consumers’ conative commitment, such as listing and searching items and arranging the exchange, consumers’ self-efficacy may play a critical role. Based upon Bandura’s self-efficacy theory, this study analyzed 322 consumers and found that four antecedents (i.e. performance accomplishments, vicarious experience, social persuasion, physiological state, and emotional state) have distinctive effects. Performance accomplishments influenced self-efficacy negatively, but influenced behavioral intention positively. Vicarious experience influenced neither self-efficacy nor behavioral intention. Social persuasion did not increase self-efficacy, but increased behavioral intention directly, while individuals’ physiological state increased self-efficacy but did not influence behavioral intention directly. Individuals’ emotional state increased both self-efficacy and behavioral intention significantly, and lastly, self-efficacy increased behavioral intention significantly. The results show which factors increased or decreased consumers’ self-efficacy judgments regarding the use of P2P secondhand platforms, and whether these judgments ultimately influenced their behavioral intention to use the platforms.