"Whether you use a taxi or a rideshare app like Uber, you’re still going to get a driver who will take you to your destination. But consumers view an employee of a taxi company differently from an independent driver picking up riders via an app, a new Ohio State University study suggests. Consumers see themselves as helping independent providers like those on rideshare apps. When they use traditional firms, like a taxi company, they don’t view themselves as helping the employees – they’re just purchasing a service. The peer-to-peer business model of firms like Uber or Airbnb is changing how consumers view some service providers, said John Costello, lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate in marketing at Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business. “Previous work has shown that consumers view employees as being an extension of the company they work for,” Costello said. “But we found that consumers see providers for these peer-to-peer companies as separate from the company – as people just like themselves.”"