Sunjoo Oh
ABSTRACT
Advances in IT platforms coupled with movements towards sustainable consumerism through resource sharing have fueled the growth of the "sharing economy". Businesses have sprung up around not only tangible products, such as housing and car rides, but also intangible assets, such as talent, knowledge, time, and experience. The "sharing economy" concept emerged first in the context of "non-monetary" transactions. The current leading sharing economy platforms such as Airbnb, Uber, and Zipcar however, enable economic transactions. Regulating the novel modes of business transactions is murky. As these platforms blur industry boundaries, regulators face the challenge of clearly defining sharing economy businesses. The confusion around the sharing economy's boundaries and those of regulations for different industries may derail plans for the global expansion of various sharing economy platforms. This paper presents an preliminary organizing framework of the concept of the "sharing economy" based on a survey of the academic literature and practitioner writings. We review prevailing definitions of the "sharing economy," its characteristics, and cases. A crisp definition of the concept will be useful not only for researchers of the sharing economy, but also for policy developers and regulators.
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Index Terms
- Calling for a shared understanding of the "sharing economy"
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