Conceptualizing the Sharing Economy through Presenting a Comprehensive Framework

Abstract

Abstract:In recent years, through the advances in technology and highlighting the sustainability concepts in different aspects of human lives, the sharing economy has become an interesting topic for researchers, and also, many businesses claim to be active in this environment. However, a comprehensive definition, which is generally accepted, does not yet exist in the literature. In this paper, through a systematic literature review, analysis, and coding, a comprehensive definition, and also, an inclusive framework is presented for the sharing economy. This can help scientists and businesses to clarify which companies or parts of their activities fall into the SE category, and which do not. Such clarification in a small scale is done for five companies at the end of the paper.

Towards an understanding of the regional impact of Airbnb in Ireland

“…The idea of monetizing idle accommodation capacity through a temporary access to travellers was not invented by Airbnb (Ranjbari et al, 2018). Numerous other companies offer this service, such as Oasis, OneFineStay, GuesToGuest, HomeAway, VRBO and FlipKey, to cite a few.…”

“…From research conducted in 179 academic publications, Ranjbari, Morales-Alonso, and Carrasco-Gallego (2018) provided 10 core principles of a sharing economy. These core principles are summarized in Table 1, which are the most important characteristics of a framework for the sharing economy.…”

Sharing Economy: Promote Its Potential to Sustainability by Regulation

“…In general, the business models, motivations for participation, behavioral preferences of consumers, behavior of economic subjects [5,6], and construction of theoretical systems [7] of the sharing economy remain popular research areas related to the sharing economy [8]. However, with the development of this research, foreign studies have gradually turned to assessing the environmental benefits [9][10][11], sustainable conditions, and policies for governance and regulation [12,13] of the sharing economy.…”

“…As a new economic form with environmental sustainability potential [7,14], the sharing economy can be an important entry point for exploring and researching the effective promotion of sustainable development. Although the definition of the sharing economy is still controversial among different researchers, the main features of the sharing economy can be characterized by online platform, idle capacity, collaborative consumption, non-ownership, accessibility of share, trust and network-based activity and for-profit activities [10], which are significantly different from the traditional economic form. In a broad understanding, the sharing economy is a business model designed to provide convenient and cost-effective access to take advantage of underutilized or redundant resources provided by digital platforms [15].…”

“…While the sharing economy has had an impact on the traditional economic model, such as a huge innovation due to disruptive technologies [16], it is often accused of permitting improper competition because of its lack of regulation. With the development of the sharing economy, the demand for guidance and regulation is growing [10]. As a new economic form, in this window of opportunity to develop regulations, the question of whether the sharing economy can embody the concept of sustainable development will be important.…”