Understanding Online Ride-hailing Passengers' Trust Building In The Context Of Sharing Economy ——An Investigation Based On Mixed-methods

Online car-hailing is a typical application of the sharing economy in “Internet +transportation”.Through a two-sided platform built on the basis of Internet technology,online car-hailing provides non-cruise car travel service solutions for drivers and passengers through online matching.In recent years,online car-hailing has become a new form of transportation,bringing benefits to the people,but we should also pay attention to the problems that exist during its development.With the development of online car-hailing,the issue of trust in online car-hailing has attracted the attention of academia and industry.How to improve trust through management,so as to achieve user retention and expansion,and how to promote the healthy development of the industry through regulation by the regulatory authorities should be considered.Therefore,it is of practical significance and theoretical value to explore trust of car-hailing passengers under the background of sharing economy.In the discussion of online car-hailing in the context of the sharing economy,the existing research focuses on the motivation of drivers and passengers,the benefits of online car-hailing,and the safety and privacy of online car-hailing users,optimization of online car-hailing platform,control strategy of online car-hailing platform,etc.Although online car-hailing has become an important mode of travel,there are obviously few studies that deeply explore the trust mechanism.This study focuses on the main issue of “car-hailing passengers' trust building”.Based on the perspective of trust building,this study focuses on the individual characteristics of car-hailing passengers,interaction process and platform mechanism,and deeply discusses three different trust building processes.In terms of research methods,this paper mainly adopts mixed research methods through a qualitative and quantitative mixed design to provide a richer perspective.The main research contents and conclusions of this article are as follows:(1)Research on the trust building of car-hailing passengers towards the drivers.This section aims to explore the factors that influence the trust of online ride-hailing passengers towards the drivers under the background of the sharing economy;what is the mechanism for building the trust of ride-hailing passengers towards the drivers.From the perspective of knowledge-based trust,this paper explores the process of trust building of car-hailing passengers towards drivers.Through mixed-methods design,this section explores the factors influencing the trust of car-hailing passengers towards the drivers in qualitative research,and further validates the findings of qualitative research and expands the role of trust.This content found that drivers' driving skillfulness,drivers' online review,passengers' personal trust propensity and structural assurance are all conducive to promoting online car-hailing passengers' trust towards drivers,thus bringing about some positive behavioral feedback,such as customer loyalty and customer recommendation.(2)Research on the trust building of car-hailing passengers towards the platform.This section is dedicated to researching the factors that influence the trust of online car-hailing passengers towards the platform in the context of the sharing economy;and what is the mechanism for building the trust of ride-hailing passengers towards the platform.From the perspective of institution-based trust,the process of building the trust of online ride-hailing passengers towards the platform is explored.Through the sequential mixed-methods design,it is possible to develop new perspectives and provide new insights.Firstly,through qualitative research,the factors influencing the trust of ride-hailing passengers towards the platform are explored.Secondly,through quantitative research and combining with existing research findings,the findings of qualitative research are further verified and the role of trust is expanded.(3)Research on the car-hailing passengers' trust transfer.This section mainly answers what is the trust transmission mechanism of car-hailing passengers in the context of the sharing economy;how the trust of car-hailing passengers affects their positive behavior feedback.Online car-hailing developed based on information technology such as the Internet and big data has a certain similarity with traditional taxi services,and highlights the convenience and efficiency of the information age.Combining the trust transfer theory and the above two research contents,the trust transmission mechanism of car-hailing passengers is constructed and verified.This content finds that trust in mobile payment and trust in traditional taxi can promote trust in online car-hailing platform.Trust in the car-hailing platform can be transferred to the trust in drivers on the platform.The trust propensity of individuals can significantly affect the trust in mobile payment,the trust in traditional taxis and the trust in car-hailing drivers.Trust can effectively promote customer loyalty and customer recommendation.This research presents following innovations:(1)Previous studies on the background of sharing economy have focused on the concept of sharing economy,the motivation of users to participate in sharing economy and the benefits of sharing economy,while research on online car-hailing is mostly focused on its dynamic pricing strategy and improvement of the platform's matching capabilities.Few studies have explored the interpretation of the relationships brought to users by online car-hailing services from the perspective of users.Based on the ride-hailing service under the background of sharing economy,this paper deeply discusses the trust building mechanism of car-hailing passengers,which plays an important supplementary role in the research of sharing economy.(2)During the process of online car-hailing service,passengers need to communicate with drivers offline,operate on the platform,and communicate with drivers online.Therefore,it involves two entities,the online car-hailing platform and the drivers.In this paper,trust of passengers during online ride-hailing services are divided into trust in drivers,which is interpersonal trust,and trust in platforms,which is trust in websites.(3)In this study,we explored the trust building process and influencing factors for online ride-hailing passengers and found that trust propensity has various effects on the two types of trust.The findings indicate that trust propensity can significantly affect ride-hailing passengers' trust in drivera,but has no significant effect on ride-hailing passengers' trust in platforms.(4)Through the empirical test,the trust transfer mechanism of intrachannel and interchannel in the online ride-hailing service were identified.In the verification of trust transfer mechanism in intrachannel,the results show that trust in mobile payment and trust in traditional taxi can boost trust in the car-hailing platform.While in the verification of trust transfer mechanism in interchannel,the results indicate that trust in the car-hailing platform could promote trust in drivers.The research has the following theoretical contributions and practical implications:(1)In terms of theoretical contribution,it expands the research scope of the sharing economy,explains the participation behavior of Internet users in combination with theory,deepens the existing research on the sharing economy,explores the trust building mechanism of different types of trust,and broadens the perspective of trust research.(2)In terms of practical implications,it has practical significance for the strategic development of online car-hailing companies,an important reference for the government's online car-hailing regulatory department,and a reference for sharing economy development mode.