The Sharing Economy: A Review and Agenda for Future Research

Abstract

In the past decade, the emergence of two new sharing business models, C2C sharing represented by Airbnb, Uber, Lyft and TaskRabbit and B2C sharing represented by Mobike, ofo and Spinlister, has led to the rise of various studies on this topic in the marketing discipline. However, the impact of the sharing economy on marketing thought and practice is still unclear. Based on scientific quantitative research and literature analysis, this paper firstly grasps the connotation of sharing economy from the definition, essence and characteristics. Secondly, the article also studies the impact of the traditional beliefs and practice of the sharing economy on marketing. According to the Theory of Collaborative Consumption, Theory of Two-sided market and Theory of Firms Operations analytical framework, From consumers (Engagement Motivation, Satisfaction and Purchase Intent), Sharing Platforms (Dynamic Pricing, Reputation Mechanism, Search Mechanism and Matching Mechanism) and Enterprises (Operations: Supply Chain/Channel, Management: Enterprise Pricing/Product Strategy) three major perspectives, sort out the progress of the sharing economy, emphasize the current problems of participating entities of the sharing economy, and provide the future research direction to promote sharing economic marketing. Finally, a set of forward-looking guiding principles is proposed for the sharing economy market participants-consumers, sharing platforms, and business operations management. In summary, this paper aims to help guide management and governance insights into the scientific practice of the sharing economy and help marketing scholars not only keep pace with the sharing economy, but also shape its future direction.