Prospects for involving Muscovites in the sharing economy

Like residents of other metropolitan cities, Muscovites face a number of problems: congested roads, paid parking, expensive housing. In the modern world, the sharing economy comes to the rescue in these matters. Moscow has objective factors for its development, but are Muscovites ready to give up their own apartment and car in favor of rented housing and transport, as well as to save and increase savings needed to solve, among other things, these problems, with the help of crowd finance? Based on the conceptual model of sociological analysis of the prospects for development of the sharing economy, an empirical study was conducted, including a questionnaire survey and a series of expert interviews. Muscovites’ readiness for interactions in the sharing economy format was tested in three areas: housing, transport and finance (respectively, the attitude towards long-term rent and co-living, car sharing and the «car by subscription» service, as well as crowdlending was studied), for which three thematic questionnaires were developed and three separate audiences were surveyed (N=300 in each). It was found that, despite the presence of needs among Muscovites that, in principle, can be satisfied within the sharing economy, as well as the objective conditions available for this in the capital, the growth of the sharing economy sectors is uneven, and in some segments it is practically not observed, while the key constraints are socio-cultural factors (stereotypes, level of trust, ability to cooperate, etc.).

sharing economy, Moscow, housing, transport, finance, rent, co-living, car sharing, car by subscription, crowdlending