Resumo

New peer-to-peer platforms have been emerging over the past years in the socio-economic environment, while environmental and social issues are playing an increasingly important role. Peer-to-peer platforms, which connect providers and consumers directly, provide an alternative to traditional mobility models and have the potential to significantly alter the urban mobility segment as a whole. They can change people's mindsets and generate social change, solving social issues, providing new services, employment opportunities, diversity, environmental sustainability and socioeconomic development.

This article seeks to answer the following research questions: Does the use of Uber’s platform provide social change, solving social issues? Has the Uber platform affected passengers and drivers at different levels? The article examines the social impacts of P2P digital platforms, which enable large networks with members acting as both clients and/or suppliers. The central objective is to test the hypothesis that it is associated with many kinds of social change, including some that enable solving social issues; and that there are differences in the level of social change between them.

There are many systematic approaches to understand social change. This study focuses on some aspects of solving social issues (Kolk & Ciulli, 2020). The emergence of shared mobility through peer-to-peer platforms can drastically change society's standards of living, as people have changed their choices, behaviors, and urban mobility decisions (Hampshire et al., 2017). People can earn income through the app, and the use of the application can reduce drunk driving and increase social well-being, in addition to offering a mobility alternative to low-income people (Kavanagh et al., 2021).

A probabilistic and stratified sample of 843 users (446 passengers and 397 drivers) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, was analyzed using six social change indicators specifically designed for this study (employability, inequality, life quality, environmental, economic concerns and policy management). The indicator was created based on the structured questions, with support from the Likert-scale questions. Based on the data provided by the indicator, it was possible to carry out the Levene’s and t-tests to verify the hypothesis that the peer-to-peer platform Uber has promoted social changes.

The research findings corroborate the proposition that the peer-to-peer technological platform is associated with social change (Kavanagh et al., 2021); as the platform provides interaction, it could meet social needs and solve social issues (Kolk & Ciulli, 2020). The analysis of the t- and Levene’s test results compared to the indicator data, indicates that Uber adoption has a significant impact and happens at different levels. Life quality and employability conditions are the most impactful factors for passengers, while employability and economic concerns are from the drivers' perspective.

Field evidence allows us to conclude that: i) The peer-to-peer platform has a significant positive impact on changing the non-material culture, such as employability conditions, social inequality, economic concerns, the policy management system, life quality, and the environment. ii) Platform interaction enables users to meet social needs and solve issues. Life quality and employability conditions are the most impactful factors for passengers, while employability and economic concerns are from the drivers' perspective.

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