Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze why people have become suppliers in the sharing economy (SE) as Uber drivers in a developing country. Design/methodology/approach From a background on SE, car sharing and gig economy, the authors carried out a qualitative research. The analysis was based on 20 semi-structured interviews conducted with Uber drivers, and on the authors’ participant observation as Uber drivers and passengers in the third largest Brazilian city, Belo Horizonte. Findings Empirical evidence shows that becoming an Uber driver is more a matter of solving unemployment on a more permanent way rather than a search for a temporary and flexible work to supplement income. Although there are benefits related to flexibility, income and social interactions, negative externalities identified herein lead to the conclusion that the overall work relations and conditions are negative. Originality/value Much in the literature of the SE is focused on understanding consumer behavior; this research, on the contrary, is focused on understanding producers, which indicates an incipient perspective. The contributions of this paper show that the SE merges into different distributive decentralized means of production that are seeing as profit/income generated from shareable assets.
Sobre a economia da partilha e o mercado da partilha: uma análise do Uber como pseudocompartilhamento Resumo A partilha é uma ação em que as pessoas compartilham de bens, serviços e também sentimentos, experiências, conhecimento e informação. No entanto, uma nova geração de negócios, como o Uber, tornou a delimitação deste conceito mais difícil. A ideia de que os novos negócios da economia da partilha não sejam de fato representações de compartilhamento já está presente na literatura sobre o tema. Ainda assim, são escassos os trabalhos sobre os negócios definidos como pseudocompartilhamentos. Sobre o Uber, em particular, não há registro de trabalhos publicados nas revistas brasileiras de Administração. Diante dessa lacuna teórica, problematizamos o Uber no contexto da economia da partilha. Sem dúvida, trata-se de um caso exemplar para compreender diversos dos principais desafios da atual era do acesso, como a descreve Rifkin. Enfim, o Uber é um negócio da economia da partilha ou um falso compartilhamento para ganhar o mercado da partilha? Nesse trabalho, procuramos responder a essa pergunta sustentando a posição de que o Uber não é compartilhamento, mas um negócio que explora um mercado da partilha. Como produto dessa reflexão, oferecemos uma contribuição teórica para a análise de negócios que atuam no mercado da partilha.Palavras chave: Uber, Economia da Partilha, Acesso, Sustentabilidade, Mobilidade. On sharing economics and the sharing market: an analysis of Uber as pseudo sharing AbstractSharing is an action in which people share goods, services and also feelings, experiences, knowledge and information. However, a new generation of businesses, such as Uber, has made the delimitation of this concept more difficult. The idea that the new businesses of the sharing economy are not actually representations of sharing is already present in the literature on the subject. Still, there is scarce work on the businesses defined as pseudo-shares. About Uber, in particular, there is no record of published works in the Brazilian magazines of Administration. Faced with this theoretical gap, we problematize Uber in the context of the sharing economy. Undoubtedly, it is an exemplary case to understand several of the major challenges of the current era of access, as described by Rifkin. Anyway, is Uber a sharing economy business or a fake sharing to win the sharing market? In this paper, we seek to answer this question by holding the position that Uber is not sharing, but a business that exploits a sharing market. As a product of this reflection, we offer a theoretical contribution to the business analysis that operates in the sharing market. Sobre la economía del reparto y el mercado del reparto: un análisis del Uber como pseudo-compartición ResumenEl compartir es una acción en la que las personas comparten bienes, servicios y también sentimientos, experiencias, conocimiento e información. Sin embargo, una nueva generación
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.