Sharing Economy

Responsible Researchers: Olga Abramova, Prof. Dr. Hanna Krasnova

The arrival of the new “sharing economy” has revolutionized consumption habits across a wide range of goods and services. Platforms that facilitate peer-to-peer sharing of housing (e.g., Airbnb, 9flats, Roomorama), cars and drivers (e.g., UBER, Lyft, RelayRides, Breeze), parking places (e.g., ParkatmyHouse), household devices (e.g., Zilok), books (e.g., Chegg), and bicycles (e.g., Spinlister) have witnessed a stunning growth, with consumers learning to enjoy the benefits of possession without the daunting responsibility of ownership. The unique characteristics of the sharing economy, such as the absence of the ownership transfer, focus on services, and tighter interaction between parties are likely to transform the nature of existing and give rise to new uncertainties the customer is facing, compared to e-commerce or traditional economy.  This stream of research aims to explore uncertainty in the sharing economy context and to estimate the effectiveness of uncertainty-reducing tools provided by the platforms.

Main Areas

• Uncertainty-reducing Signals on the Sharing Economy Platforms
• Sharing Economy and Regulation