Sharing Economy: A Business Perspective

The developments in information technology on the one hand, and the reduced purchasing power of many people due to the global crisis as well as the increasing sustainability concerns on the other hand, have contributed in recent years to the creation of a multitude of Internet-enabled peer-to-peer platforms and the consequent rise of a new paradigm of economy, namely the sharing economy. Under this paradigm, consumers on a massive scale share and make use of underutilized resources upon payment. In this chapter, we present an overview of the sharing economy phenomenon from a business perspective by identifying the major factors guiding its emergence and growth, by presenting some important business principles that characterize the sharing economy and a classification of business models utilized in this context, together with the major revenue streams associated with them. Our general overview can be useful to researchers and practitioners to gain initial understanding of the sharing economy, its causes and effects from a business perspective.