How sustainable is the sharing economy? On the sustainability connotations of sharing economy platforms

Sammanfattning

The sharing economy has evolved and spread to various sectors of the economy. Its early idea linked to the creation of more sustainable uses of resources. Since then, the development of the sharing economy has included a professionalization with self-employed suppliers rather than peers, and the question is whether the platforms following this development maintain the focus on sustainability. This paper describes and classifies the sustainability connotation of sharing economy platforms. It analyses 121 platforms derived through social media analytics to figure out whether they describe themselves as sustainable. The findings suggest that the sustainability connotation closely connects to specific sectors such as fashion, on-demand services and logistics. Meanwhile, the dominant role model platforms do not communicate about being sustainable. These findings contribute to previous research through (1) giving a systematic empirical account on the way various sharing economy platforms describe themselves in terms of sustainability, (2) pointing out the differences among the platforms, and (3) indicating the diversity in sustainability connotation among various sectors of the economy.

Ratio Working Paper No. 362: Interest groups and the failure of transformative innovation policy – Insights from the ethanol car bubble in Sweden 2003-2013

Working paperPublikation

Björnemalm, R., & Sandström, C.

Ladda ner

Publiceringsår

2023

Publicerat i

Ratio Working paper series.

Sammanfattning

Literature on innovation policy has so far paid little attention to policy failure and the mechanisms leading to failure. We describe the Swedish bubble in ethanol cars 2003-2013 and explain why well intended policies may end up with unsatisfactory results. Directives from the European Union forced policymakers in Sweden to act swiftly and the Swedish government put in place The Pump law which forced gas stations to supply ethanol as a fuel from 2006 and onwards. In combination with targeted tax deductions for ethanol cars, a sharp increase in demand took place in 2006-2008. As these started to experience engine problems by 2009-2010, demand declined. Tax deductions were subsequently altered in order to also include cars with very low CO2 emissions, a shift that contributed further to the downfall of ethanol cars. Our data suggests that domestic car manufacturers Volvo and Saab, along with Ford benefited from the ethanol policies as their combined market share for green cars surged from 12 to 75 percent 2005-2008. Ethanol was competitive in the political domain as the fuel was backed by the Centre Party and the associated farmers’ lobby group, but lacked economic, technological and environmental competitiveness. Our findings suggest that innovation policies aimed at supporting new technologies against vested interests may instead end up extending established interests as policies are put in place under the influence of various stakeholders.

Towards a typology of sharing economy business model transformation

Artikel (med peer review)Publikation

Öberg, C.

Publiceringsår

2023

Publicerat i

Technovation, 123, 102722.

Sammanfattning

The development of the sharing economy has resulted in a plethora of sharing economy business models. This paper takes its motivation from the increased variety of sharing economy business models to develop a typology of sharing economy business model transformations. It does so through creating a timeline of the sharing economy development, capturing business model configurations as activity systems along that development, and tracing mechanisms affecting sharing economy business model transformations. The paper thereby interlinks the sharing economy development on the phenomenon level with transformations of its business models. The paper contributes to past research by presenting a systematic account of the development of the sharing economy and its resulting business model configurations and by developing a typology focusing on the types of changes that have transformed the sharing economy business models and resulted in the plethora of business models.

The article can be accessed here.

Social media analytics for innovation management research: A systematic literature review and future research agenda

Artikel (med peer review)Publikation

Geissinger, A., Laurell, C., Öberg, C., & Sandström, C.

Publiceringsår

2023

Publicerat i

Technovation, 123, 102712.

Sammanfattning

New trends in innovation management may require new research methods. Social media analytics (SMA)—a method for capturing and analyzing data from user-generated content published on online platforms—has emerged as a complement or even alternative to more traditional research methods. This article systematically reviews and assesses the use of SMA and its potential for innovation management research. Our results show that use of SMA is still in an emergent phase, although it has become increasingly popular over the past decade. Our literature review illustrates that SMA provides new opportunities for innovation management scholars to enhance customer-, market-, technology-, and society-focused innovation research in several ways. In this paper we develop a research agenda and suggest areas for future research using SMA in innovation management.

The article can be accessed here.

Sammanfattning

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