Documents Innovation Studies Utrecht 2 results

"The sudden rise of the sharing economy has sparked an intense public debate about its definition, its effects and its future regulation. Here, I attempt to provide analytical guidance by defining the sharing economy as the practice that consumers grant each other temporary access to their under-utilized physical assets. Using this definition, the rise of the sharing economy can be understood as occurring at the intersection of three salient economic trends: peer-to-peer exchange, access over ownership and circular business models. I shortly discuss some of the environmental impacts of online sharing platforms and then articulate three possible futures of the sharing economy: a capitalist future cumulating into monopolistic super-platforms allowing for seamless services, a state-led future that shifts taxation from labour to capital and redistributes the gains of sharing from winners to losers, and a citizen-led future based on cooperatively owned platforms under democratic control. The nature and size of the social and environmental impacts are expected to differ greatly in each of the three scenarios."

"The sharing economy is a fast-growing and heavily debated phenomenon. This study provides an overview of motivations of people willing to participate in different forms of the sharing economy. A survey was held amongst 1,330 respondents from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Using stated preference data, we investigate the relative importance of (1) economic, (2) social and (3) environmental motivations to participate in peer-to-peer sharing. Hereby we consider differences between (a) sectors of the sharing economy, (b) socio-demographic groups, and (c) users and providers. Results are descriptive as well as based on ordered logit models. Notable differences are observed in the motivations for sharing between sectors. To a lesser extent there is variety in sharing drivers between socio-demographic groups. Finally, users seem more economically motivated than providers of goods."