Since its inception in 2007, Airbnb has been a major success story for business models based on the sharing economy or collaborative consumption. This article contributes to the discussion on responsible leadership theory in combination with Airbnb. The method used was a mix of literature review and qualitative study, where 10 semi-structured interviews were conducted with 7 hosts and 3 guests between winter 2021 and summer 2022 to confirm the findings from the literature. it includes a view of their attitudes toward Hofstede’s (2010) cultural dimension of Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI), meaning their levels of risk-taking9. Iresponsible leadership is related to low-level scores on Uncertainty Avoidance, which, in turn, tends to impair change and innovation, the critically needed processes in a globalized world. Airbnb has been a subject of interest for researchers since its creation and notably because of its success. What are the possible drivers of this success? This is the research question for this paper.
Schinzel, U. (2022). What is the success of Airbnb in terms of ‘responsible leadership’ and ‘uncertainty avoidance’? Journal of Strategic and International Studies, 16(4), 55-65.