Access-based consumption, defined as transactions that may be market mediated in which no transfer of ownership takes place, is conceptualized by Bardhi and Eckhardt (2012). While it was introduced to explore consumer engagement in the sharing economy, conceptually it challenges the dominant assumption of ownership in marketing. This paper reflects on the impact of ABC and its boundary conditions. We critically interrogate and expand on five challenges of the original concept: the static dichotomy of access versus ownership; its transactional framing; its lack of identity value; its treatment of ideology; and its reliance on one context. We discuss the implications of ABC for marketing research related to: a prosumer role of the consumer; its ambivalent responsibility and governance; the bundled, or layered notions of access/ownership for digital ownership; as well as its implications for platformized consumption, which reinforces its instrumental sociality, and where value is extracted through data rather than ownership.

The now-mature sharing economy has not delivered on its original utopian promises. Instead of providing prosocial benefits for consumers and society, incumbent platforms dominate monopolistic markets. In this article, we study a novel business model in the sharing economy––the platform cooperative––to ask how can a responsible marketing strategy can be viable and effective for market challengers. We draw on a qualitative, ethnographic study of the lived experiences of consumers and managers in leading platform cooperatives Fairbnb and Drivers Cooperative, and find that while challengers cannot overhaul the system, they can engender change from the margins . We identify three dimensions of a change from the margins strategy in decentralizing the marketplace , shaping authentic narratives , and building institutional partnerships . We discuss implications of a responsible marketing strategy for market incumbents and challengers within the sharing economy and beyond, and for theorizing new frameworks in the marketing strategy literature.