Territoire et société

While considerable investigative work has focused on collaborative consumption (CC) from a managerial standpoint, the concept still lacks the conceptual groundwork necessary to categorize and fully understand its scopes and limits. In this article, the authors draw upon past research to delineate the construct, discuss its dimensionalities, and propose a conceptualization of CC. The CC concept is based on six key thrusts: (1) the consumer’s ability to switch sides; (2) the collaboration intensity; (3) the manner in which consumers partake in CC; (4) the transfer of ownership and use; (5) the channels used; and (6) the extended range of stakeholders in collaborative exchanges. This analytical endeavour brings to the fore the multidimensional aspect of CC, the centrality of a two-sided instead of a one-sided consumer role, and the extent to which both CC (collaborative consumption) and conventional consumption (conventional economy) are tightly interrelated.