Brand Switching Intention in Collaborative Consumption Apps: moderating effects of perceived price

Academic literature on collaborative consumption has gained prominence in recent years. However, studies related to brand management of collaborative consumption platforms are still very little explored. In this context, this study applies a theoretical model based on the relationship between brand parity, brand dependence and switching costs in loyalty and brand switching intention. Perceived price was also tested as a moderating variable between these relationships. The model was tested using a covariance based structural equation model. For data collection, the instrument used was a fully structured questionnaire, containing five scales adapted from the literature, for the context of this study. The questionnaire contains twenty-five indicators, with a ten-point likert scale, built from Google Forms. The target population of this study are Brazilian students that already have used a collaborative consumption transport app. They were selected from a filter question "Have you ever used any transport app?". In order to investigate perceived price as a moderating variable, the questionnaire was divided into two questionnaire options, questionnaire A or B. Questionnaire B started with the following sentence “When answering the questions, consider that you are an Uber user, but competitors app (99Pop, Cabify) is more expensive than Uber.” Questionnaire A, on the other hand, did not contain any price indication for individuals when answering the questionnaire. When performing the multigroup analysis, the ideal scenario is that there is not a very large difference between the group’s samples studied. Thus, to make the size of the two samples similar, when the final period of data collection arrived, the questionnaire that had the largest number of respondents (questionnaire A) was closed. Therefore, only answers to questionnaire B were still being collected, until the number of respondents between the groups approximated. The sample was defined as being non-probabilistic, using convenience sampling technique. The questionnaire was disseminated through social media, related to collaborative consumption transport, and students of three different campus of University of São Paulo (USP) during the month of April 2021.近年来，协同消费领域的学术研究日益受到学界关注。然而，针对协同消费平台品牌管理的相关研究仍较为匮乏。在此背景下，本研究构建了基于品牌等同性、品牌依赖度与转换成本对品牌忠诚及品牌转换意向影响关系的理论模型，并检验了感知价格在上述关系中的调节作用。本研究采用基于协方差的结构方程模型（covariance-based structural equation model）对所提理论模型进行验证。数据收集环节采用完全结构化问卷，包含5个从既有文献改编而来、适配本研究场景的量表，共计25个测量题项，所有题项均采用10点李克特（Likert）量表计分，问卷依托Google Forms搭建。本研究的目标群体为曾使用过协同消费类出行应用的巴西学生，通过筛选题项“您是否曾使用过任何出行应用？”完成受访者招募。为探究感知价格的调节效应，问卷分为A、B两个版本：问卷B开篇设置如下提示语：“作答时请假设你是优步（Uber）用户，其竞品应用（99Pop、Cabify）的价格高于优步。”而问卷A未向受访者提供任何价格相关参考信息。在开展多群组分析时，理想状态下两组样本量不应存在过大差异。因此，为平衡两组样本规模，在数据收集末期，当问卷A的回收量多于问卷B时，我们关闭了问卷A的收集通道，仅保留问卷B的回收入口，直至两组受访者数量趋近一致。本研究采用非概率抽样中的便利抽样法，于2021年4月通过与协同消费出行相关的社交媒体渠道，以及圣保罗大学（University of São Paulo, USP）三个校区的学生群体进行问卷分发。