Accommodation sharing may gentrify neighbourhoods and contribute to over-tourism; ridesharing can lead to congestion; and bikesharing and e-scooters have led to an overcapacity of underutilised assets (search “bike graveyards in China”!).
“We must be deliberate and strategic in how we design sharing economy business models to ensure improved sustainability performance,” says Steven Curtis.
Yet, the sharing economy is defined and operationalised differently by actors across society, which has implications for entrepreneurs, managers, policymakers, consumers, and citizens. How is car rental different from carsharing via ShareNow? How is a taxi service different from ridehailing via Uber? How are hotels or apartment leasing different from short-term accommodation rental via Airbnb? All of these examples facilitate access over ownership, largely the unifying characteristic of the sharing economy, but car rental, taxi service, or hotels would not be considered part of the sharing economy.
Why? Steven Curtis suggests that sharing platforms should facilitate temporary access to an existing stock of goods in a two-sided market. In this way, the sharing platform improves material efficiency and increases the intensity of use of space, mobility, and goods that otherwise would be idle.
However, sharing economy business models struggle to remain financially and socially viable, scale operations, and/or retain prosocial and environmental motivation. In fact, popularised claims suggest that 70-90% of business models fail. Therefore, Steven Curtis proposes knowledge and tools to support the design and implementation of sharing economy business models for sustainability.
“Past academic research and media attention tend to focus on unicorns such as Airbnb and Uber. There is greater need to explore the diverse permutations of business models within the sharing economy, especially considering sustainability”, says Steven Curtis.
About the dissertation:
Monday 14 June, Steven Curtis, the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics, Lund University, defends his thesis entitled Sharing Economy Business Models – Addressing the Design – Implementation Gap. The defense will take place online at 14.15. The faculty opponent is Professor Frank Boons, Director of the Sustainable Consumption Institute, University of Manchester.
For more information, please contact:
Steven Curtis
Phone: +46 700 - 597274
E-mail: steven [dot] curtis [at] iiiee [dot] lu [dot] se