Management of the shared accommodation industry ethical dilemmas amidst competing interest of multiple stakeholders in the City of Cape Town and eThekwini

The dataset presents the outcomes of a PhD study investigating how municipalities manage the ethical dilemmas arising from the competing interests of multiple stakeholders in governing the shared accommodation industry. Platform enterprises operating in SA have altered how people think about paying for a place to stay, whether for social housing, business or leisure purposes. Some of these changes have had mixed results, leaving municipalities to deal with ethical dilemmas from a management and governance perspective.

The inquiry was conducted through a qualitative multiple case study method using the cities of Cape Town and eThekwini municipalities as units of analysis. Semi-structured interviews and observations were the primary techniques for collecting the data from 20 research participants drawn from both municipalities, as well as from external private and public sector and community organisations. The study used the purposeful, snowballing and opportunistic sampling techniques to maximize the opportunity to get more insights from the multiple research participants. Thematic analysis of the qualitative data from semi-structured interviews was used.

Following Collis and Hussey (2021), the analysis of data commenced immediately during the transcription process of the interviews. Upon completion of the interviews, the qualitative data underwent content analysis, employing Otter.ai for transcription and identifying response patterns. The first transcriptions of the interviews were then cross-checked with memos and observation notes made by the researcher during the interview phases. Following the feedback, the transcribed interview data was coded and concepts were produced. These concepts were then merged to form categories. The categories and the interpretations of the interviews were triangulated using memos, observation notes, and documents obtained from the two municipalities and organisations such as Airbnb and Tourism Grading Council of South Africa.

The researcher adopted the common ways of coding recommended by other qualitative researchers (Myers, 2019; Rashid et al., 2019; Yin, 2018). The adopted procedure involves following a four-step approach for interpreting the research material, viz: preparation, exploration, specification, and integration. The four-step technique provided a more organised and systematic method of interpretation, which proved useful in the presentation of the research data.

Once the individual interviews were transcribed with rigorous analysis, the responses to both sets of research questions were extracted and organised to produce into two data summary tables. One data summary table recorded the research participants’ key responses to the primary research questions, separating the responses of the internal research participants (municipal employees) from the external research participants (stakeholders including businesses and community organisations). In the same manner, the second data summary table recorded the research participants’ key responses to the secondary research questions. These data summary tables included the research participants’ recommendations for improved governance for both municipalities. A separate consolidated data summary table was developed to capture the data of the research participants with a national footprint including their recommendations. The dataset include the customised "Interview questionnaire" that were used in interviewing the two categories of research participants in each municipaity; and a third “Interview Questionnaire” for the research participants with a national footprint.