Special Issue of Journal of Business Research (JBR)
The Dark Side of the Sharing Economy
Guest Co-Editors: Schaefers T., Leban M., & Woisetschläger D.
Deadline: 15 September 2022
Traditionally, marketing was focused on exchanges that involved the transfer of ownership. However, digitalization has given rise to exchanges that provide temporary access instead of permanent ownership. This idea has been themed the sharing economy, defined as “a scalable socioeconomic system that employs technology-enabled platforms to provide users with temporary access to tangible and intangible resources” (Eckhardt et al., 2019, p. 7). Sharing economy business models include mobility services (e.g., car and e-scooter sharing), fashion rentals, software-as-a-service, shared office space (e.g., WeWork), outcome-based contracts for industrial equipment, and different peer-to-peer offers (e.g., Airbnb, Uber). The possibility of shared access has transformed various aspects of consumers’ lives, as it offers alternatives to conventional, ownership-based consumption (Bardhi and Eckhardt, 2012). Additionally, it has also given rise to more complex interactions between different actors involved in value creation, such as platform providers, peer service providers, and customers (Benoit et al., 2017; Xu et al., 2021).
The sharing economy is often considered to lead to positive societal outcomes, such as easier access to resources, a more efficient utilization of idle capacities, enhanced market recirculation of goods, or a greater sense of community. However, the lack of ownership may call into question basic premises and theoretical viewpoints of customer behavior. There have been increasing practitioner accounts of the dark side of the sharing economy, where access-based services fail to deliver on the promise of enhancing the welfare of consumers, firms, and society. This includes, among others, the occurrence and spreading of consumer misbehavior (Schaefers et al., 2016), consumers’ contamination concerns (Hazée et al., 2019), discrimination by peer providers (Lee et al., 2021), and disadvantaged gig economy workers (Gleim et al., 2019). Accordingly, Eckhardt et al. (2019, p. 20) name the paradoxes and dark side of the sharing economy as one of three important areas of future research and “encourage marketing scholars to […] develop frameworks that account for not only the possible benefits of the sharing economy but also its potential drawbacks.”
With this special issue on “The Dark Side of the Sharing Economy”, we intend to instigate scholarly discussions on negative aspects of the sharing economy from various perspectives. This could include examinations of consumer-related phenomena (e.g., consumer misbehavior); of provider-related aspects (e.g., technology use to prevent negative consequences); of interactions in the triad of platform providers, peers service providers, and customers (e.g., opportunistic behavior); or of topics related to the broader societal impact (e.g., sustainability challenges). We welcome both conceptual and empirical articles from various disciplines, such as marketing, service research, psychology, or sociology. Submitted papers should clearly address theoretical and managerial implications of the dark side of the sharing economy.
A non-exhaustive list of potential topics is provided below. Additionally, we are open for research that focuses on other dark side aspects of the sharing economy.
List of potential research topics (non-exhaustive)
General perspective:
– Which different dark sides of the sharing economy exist?
– Who is responsible for different negative externalities of the sharing economy (e.g., customers, providers, platform operators)?
– Which business models or industries have a higher likelihood of having customers and providers engage in unethical practices?
Consumer perspective:
– Classifications or taxonomies of consumer misbehavior in the sharing economy
– What are the drivers and barriers of consumer misbehavior?
– When and how does consumer behavior contagion occur?
– What are the psychological mechanisms underlying consumer misbehavior (e.g., justification, normalization)?
Provider perspective:
– How can sharing economy providers reduce negative outcomes (e.g., consumer misbehavior)?
– How can providers resolve the fallout of negative consequences (e.g., misbehavior recovery)?
– To what extent should providers tolerate negative outcomes (e.g., consumer or employee misbehavior)?
– How can technology (e.g., cameras, sensors, AI) be employed to detect and prevent misbehavior by consumers, employees, or other individuals?
– Do shared products need to be different to reduce negative consequences?
Platform interaction perspective:
– What are the dark sides in the relationships between platform operators, peer providers/platform complementors, and customers?
– How is cooperation between actors (e.g., platform operator, peer provider, customer) preventing and/or enabling opportunistic behavior?
Society perspective:
– What are the sustainability effects of sharing economy business models (e.g., are shared goods treated worse and therefore wear out faster)?
– What are the net societal effects of sharing economy business models (e.g., does shared mobility reduce or increase traffic?)
Guest Editors:
Tobias Schaefers, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
Marina Leban, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
David Woisetschläger, Technical University Braunschweig, Germany
Manuscript submission information:
Papers targeting the special issue should be submitted through the JBR submission system, submission guidelines can be found at the journal’s Guide for Authors
Important dates:
Submission system open: 15th June, 2022
Deadline for submissions: 15th September, 2022
More info here.
