No matter what the name, we’re all the same? Examining ethnic online discrimination in ridesharing marketplaces
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
Authors
Sharing marketplaces emerged as the new Holy Grail of value creation by enabling exchanges between strangers. Identity reveal, encouraged by platforms, cuts both ways: While inducing pre-transaction confidence, it is suspected of backfiring on the information senders with its discriminative potential. This study employs a discrete choice experiment to explore the role of names as signifiers of discriminative peculiarities and the importance of accompanying cues in peer choices of a ridesharing offer. We quantify users’ preferences for quality signals in monetary terms and evidence comparative disadvantage of Middle Eastern descent male names for drivers and co-travelers. It translates into a lower willingness to accept and pay for an offer. Market simulations confirm the robustness of the findings. Further, we discover that females are choosier and include more signifiers of involuntary personal attributes in their decision-making. Price discounts and positive information only partly compensate for the initial disadvantage, and identity concealment is perceived negatively.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Electronic Markets |
Volume | 32 |
Issue number | 3 |
Pages (from-to) | 1419-1446 |
Number of pages | 28 |
ISSN | 1019-6781 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 09.2022 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:
The current article is the extended version of the ECIS paper (https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2020_rp/48). I would like to thank Dr. Jianwei Hou, who served as associate editor, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. The author also acknowledges the assistance of Georg Voronin in creating the mock-ups for the experiment.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
- Discrete choice experiment, Discrimination, Racism, Sharing economy, Social inclusion, Stated preferences
- Business informatics
- Informatics