Consumers’ Journey into Access-Based Consumption: A Narrative Analysis Approach

Consumers are increasingly shifting from traditional ownership based consumption to relatively novel access-based consumption (hereafter, ABC). Access involves transactions that are market mediated but without transfer of ownership rights (Bardhi and Eckhardt 2012 881). Typically, ABC manifests in the form of renting, sharing, subscribing, or borrowing. This manifestation could be in the context of public services such as parks, museums, and libraries or could be in the context of private services such as Netflix, Spotify, and Airbnb. The primary focus of this study, however, is consumer engagement with private services. Specifically, the current research focuses on business-to-consumer situations with internet as a platform that facilitates access of products/services to consumers. Examples of such private services include companies like Rent the Runway, and Bag Borrow or Steal, which enable consumers to access fashion products such as handbags and jewelry. Moreover, music streaming services such as Spotify and Pandora allow consumers to store music in cell phones as opposed to buying stacks of music CDs. Broadly, ABC is a part of the sharing economy, wherein consumers place underutilized assets as market offerings to make a profit (Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PWC) Consumer Intelligence Series Report 2015). As per the PwC report (2015), 19% of all US consumers participate in sharing economy transactions; 72% plan to participate in the near future; and 57% view access as the new ownership. These numbers paint an optimistic picture of ABC’s promising growth in the future.