Psychological Ownership and Territorial Behaviors in Rental Transactions: Why “Who” You Rent from Matters

With the advent of access-based platforms bringing phenomenal growth in rentals, consumers can rent products from person providers (e.g., Alex on Airbnb) and company providers (e.g., Apex Vacations on Airbnb). But does it matter from whom a consumer rents? Across nine experiments (including one real-world experiment), the authors demonstrate that despite the product being the same, consumers’ feelings about the product differ depending on whom they rent from. Consumers feel stronger psychological ownership of a product when renting from company providers than they do when renting from person providers. These feelings of psychological ownership drive consumers to engage in territorial behaviors—behaviors that assert their claim on the rented product (e.g., moving furniture around in a rental cabin). Consequently, consumers are more willing to exhibit such behaviors when renting from company providers than when renting from person providers. These behaviors impose real costs on rental providers through increased operational burdens and property damage, as exemplified through additional analyses of providers’ comments on Airbnb's community platform and interviews with providers. The authors identify strategies to mitigate consumers’ territorial behaviors by altering consumers’ feelings of psychological ownership through its antecedent in the rental context: providers’ connections to the rental product.