Technology Sharing Decisions Digital Technologies and Sharing Economy

As the conversation regarding sharing as well as economic alliance has heightened around the phrase “sharing economy”, the concept of digital sharing economy emanates more and more significantly. The objective of the paper is to support sharing of digital technologies and forums in order to achieve a sustainable shared economy. In addition, the research uses qualitative research methodology that relies extensively on literature review from assembled academic, peer – reviewed journal articles to improve comprehensive understanding on the impact of digital technologies on sharing economy. The research findings indicate that utilization of digital technologies enhances sharing economy and that the rising of digital sharing forums implies more individuals will be linked to resources closer to them as well as connected to each other. In conclusion, digital technologies in sharing economy offers significance collective solutions to areas such as employment and income generation; natural resources stewardship; asset sharing; knowledge exchange, education and professional establishment; crowd funding; new community – driven technological revolutions; disaster relief; and civic engagement. Keywords: Sharing Economy, Digital Technologies, Digital Platforms, Collective consumption, Collective Economy DOI: 10.7176/ISDE/12-1-04 Publication date: January 31st 202

5504 Sharing Models in the Digital Sharing Economy

The Digital Sharing Economy (DSE) is made up of manifold sharing models that are diverse in their basic business model components; i.e., the type of resource provider (“From”), resource recipient (“To”), shareable resource (“What”), and sharing practice (“How”). This diversity can be mapped into a 4- dimensional space (see Figure 1). The 4 types of resource providers are individuals, for-profit organizations, non-profit organizations, and the public sector; the same applies to resource recipients. Shareable resources can be classified in 8 types based on whether they are material or immaterial, and durable or consumable. When a durable material good is shared, its unused capacity comes into utilization, either to serve multiple demands concurrently (free capacity) or sequentially (idle capacity). Consumable material goods, such as food, are used up when consumed. They can be either sufficient for all consumers or there could be an abundant availability of them to share, e.g. to avoid waste. Competence and durable information goods (such as software) are subsumed under durable immaterial goods. Time and consumable information goods (i.e. volatile information that loses value rapidly over time, such as information on the traffic situation) belong to the category of consumable immaterial goods. Sharing practices can be classified depending on whether there is an expectation of something in return or not (formal vs. informal) and whether the exchange is reciprocal, compensation-based, or price-based; direct or indirect (to the same provider vs. to the community); upstream or downstream in case of indirect exchange; and immediate or delayed (while sharing takes place or later). Overall, based on the various combinations of these exchange types, 43 different sharing practices could exist in the DSE. Figure 1 shows a typology of digital sharing models (4 types of resource providers * 4 types of resource recipients * 8 types of sharable resources * 43 types of sharing practices = 5504). Any instance of the DSE can be represented by a corresponding vector in the “FTWH space”. For example, Airbnb is coded as (F1, T1, W2, H22). The typology can also inspire entrepreneurs to design digital sharing systems that do not exist yet

Modeling the Motivation of Users’ Sharing Option: A Case Study Based on A Car-Sharing Digital Platform

Sharing economy is associated with a series of economic activities in terms of renting, lending, trading, bartering and swapping of goods, service, space or money, that take place in organized systems or digital platforms. In this research, we interviewed 50 drivers, a kind of users type who provides cars and service from a car-sharing digital platform. Based on the prior studies of motivation, we combined Social Exchange Theory (SET) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to identify salient motivators in this context. Furthermore, building on Self-determination Theory (SDT), we propose a motivation model of users’ sharing option in digital platform. The findings extend literatures of motivation researches in the context of sharing economy as well as help guide the development and operation of sharing economy digital platform

Performing the sharing economy

The sharing economy converges around activities facilitated through digital platforms that enable peer-to-peer access to goods and services. It constitutes an apparent paradox, framed as both part of the capitalist economy and as an alternative. This duplicity necessitates focusing on the performances of the sharing economy: how it simultaneously constructs diverse economic activities whilst also inviting the deconstruction of ongoing practices of dominance. Such performances hold open the question of what the (sharing) economy is, suspending it as a space for both opportunity and critique. Drawing on participant observation at a sharing economy ‘festival’ and analysis of the vocabularies of online platforms, the paper outlines three performances of sharing through community, access and collaboration. It argues through these performances that the sharing economy is contingent and complexly articulated. It has the potential to both shake up and further entrench ‘business-as-usual’ through the ongoing reconfiguration of a divergent range of (economic) activities. Whilst offering an antidote to the narrative of economy as engendering isolation and separation, the sharing economy simultaneously masks new forms of inequality and polarisations of ownership. Nonetheless, the paper concludes in suggesting that by pointing to wider questions concerning participation in, access to and production of resources, the sharing economy should not be dismissed. Instead, it should serve as prompt to engage with ‘digital’ transformations of economy in the spirit of affirmative critique that might enact the promise of doing economy differently

Digital Innovation Through Partnership Between Nature Conservation Organisations and Academia : A Qualitative Impact Assessment

We would like to thank all interviewees for sharing their experiences of working with academics, and the guest editor and three anonymous reviewers for valuable comments on earlier versions of the work. The research in this paper is supported by the RCUK dot.rural Digital economy Research Hub, University of Aberdeen (Grant reference: EP/G066051/1).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Platforms, scales and networks: meshing a local sustainable sharing economy

The “sharing economy” has promised more sustainable use of the world’s finite resources, exploiting latency and promoting renting rather than ownership through digital networks. But do the digital brokers that use networks at global scale offer the same care for the planet as more traditional forms of sharing? We contrast the sustainability of managing idle capacity with the merits of collective local agency bred by caring-based sharing in a locality. Drawing on two studies of neighbourhood sharing in London and analysis of the meshing of local sharing initiatives, we ask how ‘relational assets’ form and build up over time in a neighbourhood, and how a platform of platforms might act as local socio-technical infrastructure to sustain alternative economies and different models of trust to those found in the scaling sharing economy. We close by proposing digital networks of support for local solidarity and resourcefulness, showing how CSCW knowledge on coordination and collaboration has a role in achieving these ends

The Sharing Economy through the Perspective of Digitalization

A recent, novel approach to describe the controversial phenomenon of the “sharing economy” is to view it from the perspective of the digital transition of society (i.e., digitalization). The core idea of conceptualizing the emerging platform-enabled sharing activities as a byproduct of digitalization is that – in comparison with traditional sharing – they can incorporate a broad range of shareable resources (digital transition of technical sharing) and operate beyond personal relationships and small groups (digital transition of social sharing). The technical aspect of sharing refers to the characteristic of a resource being shareable; the social aspect of sharing addresses the patterns and rules of social interactions, including economic transactions, for practicing and legitimating the act of sharing. In addition, there is the coordination aspect, which refers to the enabling role of digital platforms in coordinating processes and operationalizing sharing in largescale communities and matching supply and demand at near-zero transaction costs. Given these dimensions of sharing (technical, social, and coordination dimensions), the Digital Sharing Economy (DSE) can be defined as “a class of resource allocation systems based on sharing practices which are coordinated by digital online platforms and performed by individuals and possibly (non-) commercial organizations with the aim to provide access to material or immaterial resources. Digital sharing systems operate in the space between traditional sharing and the formal market economy” (Pouri and Hilty, 2021). According to this definition, the DSE has created new practices and patterns of sharing that are placed in the space between the two extremes of traditional sharing (lower extreme) and the formal market economy (upper extreme). This space is populated by sharing models that can be highly diverse. This diversity relates to gaining access to a wide variety of material/immaterial resources and denotes the variety of exchange patterns in relation to the access provided. Overall, free sharing (i.e., sharing without reciprocity or compensation), reciprocal sharing, compensation-based sharing, and price-based sharing services occupy the spectrum covered by the DSE. This spectrum of sharing practices has a corresponding implication for pricing: pricing mechanisms in the DSE allow for a range from free services (an element taken from traditional sharing – the lower extreme) to price-based services (an element taken from the formal market economy – the upper extreme). In between, there exists a variety of sharing practices that may involve reciprocity or compensation. Where pricing applies, the price of sharing remains lower than that of equivalent services offered in the formal market due to the effectiveness of social collaboration and sense of community in the provision of access. An important transitional modification to sharing is found in the DSE whereby both the technical and social aspects of sharing are transformed through the digital coordination of processes. Sharing in this sense may or may not be compatible with the mere intention of benefiting others that often resonates with altruism and pro-social activities practiced in traditional sharing. Instead, it may be accompanied by a mash-up of varying motivations and individual needs. In particular, sharing can be primarily based on gaining access to resources in the very technical sense. At a descriptive level – which avoids mixing normative analysis into describing the phenomenon – the DSE is a type of economic behavior with a strong, effective social dimension that distinguishes the DSE from conventional, formal markets

The Sharing Economy: Friend or Foe?

The sharing economy is spreading rapidly worldwide in a number of industries and markets. The disruptive nature of this phenomenon has drawn mixed responses ranging from active conflict to adoption and assimilation. Yet, in spite of the growing attention to the sharing economy, we still do not know much about it. With the abundant enthusiasm about the benefits that the sharing economy can unleash and the weekly reminders about its dark side, further examination is required to determine the potential of the sharing economy while mitigating its undesirable side effects. The panel will join the ongoing debate about the sharing economy and contribute to the discourse with insights about how digital technologies are critical in shaping this turbulent ecosystem. Furthermore, we will define an agenda for future research on the sharing economy as it becomes part of the mainstream society as well as part of the IS research repertoire

Exploratory study to explore the role of ICT in the process of knowledge management in an Indian business environment

In the 21st century and the emergence of a digital economy, knowledge and the knowledge base economy are rapidly growing. To effectively be able to understand the processes involved in the creating, managing and sharing of knowledge management in the business environment is critical to the success of an organization. This study builds on the previous research of the authors on the enablers of knowledge management by identifying the relationship between the enablers of knowledge management and the role played by information communication technologies (ICT) and ICT infrastructure in a business setting. This paper provides the findings of a survey collected from the four major Indian cities (Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai and Villupuram) regarding their views and opinions about the enablers of knowledge management in business setting. A total of 80 organizations participated in the study with 100 participants in each city. The results show that ICT and ICT infrastructure can play a critical role in the creating, managing and sharing of knowledge in an Indian business environment