The Sharing Economy in Europe: From Idea to Reality

Miguel, Cristina et al. Book Part — Published Version The Sharing Economy in Europe: From Idea to Reality Suggested Citation: Miguel, Cristina et al. (2022) : The Sharing Economy in Europe: From Idea to Reality, In: Miguel, Cristina Avram, Gabriela Klimczuk, Andrzej Simonovits, Bori Balázs, Bálint Česnuitytė, Vida (Ed.): The Sharing Economy in Europe: Developments, Practices, and Contradictions, ISBN 978-3-030-86897-0, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, pp. 3-18, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86897-0_1 This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/249158 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. 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If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 1 The Sharing Economy in Europe: From Idea to Reality Cristina Miguel, Gabriela Avram, Andrzej Klimczuk, Bori Simonovits, Bálint Balázs, and Vida ˇ Cesnuityt˙e Introduction The ‘collaborative economy’ (or ‘sharing economy,’ as it is widely called) is best known for facilitating peer-to-peer exchanges through the means of digital platforms and mobile communication. As Gansky (2010)put it, the sharing economy is an idealised state characterised by the shift from ownership to renting, bartering, or gifting. Some authors argue for ‘collaborative economies,’ as this is an umbrella term incorporating many different stakeholder categories, business models, and forms of work, C. Miguel (B) Department of Applied IT, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden e-mail: [email protected] G. Avram University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland e-mail: Gabriela.A[email protected] A. Klimczuk SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Warsaw, Poland e-mail: [email protected].pl © The Author(s) 2022 V. ˇ Cesnuityt˙e et al. (eds.), The Sharing Economy in Europe, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86897-0_1 3 4C. Miguel et al. from Airbnb and Uber to urban gardening collectives and online patient communities. According to Avram et al. (2017), two groups of narratives stand out in relation to the collaborative economy, one focussing on social innovation and the aspiration to replace the current paradigm with more sustainable economic and environmental models that favour sharing access to goods and services, and a second, more widely spread one, that centres on the idea of market-focussed digital innovation able to disrupt existing business models and generate new economic activity. The sharing economy has been described as a disruptive socioeconomic system that represents a major challenge to traditional economic models, which generally focus on hyper-consumption and private ownership (Botsman and Rogers 2010;Gansky2010; Castells et al. 2012;Howard2015). The sharing economy emerged around the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and related recession period. As Selloni (2017) pointed out, developments in technology and consumers seeking new ways to manage their finances in the context of the global economic downturn that followed the financial crisis came together and facilitated the nascent and emergent sharing economy. The sharing economy allowed cautious and financially constrained consumers to better manage their time, resources, budgets, and experiences. It also allowed those with resources to share and generate an additional and valuable income stream at a time when many incomes were either flat-lining or falling in real terms (Martos-Carrión and Miguel 2021). The goal of this book is to provide readers with an original and comprehensive approach to the phenomenon of the sharing economy B. Simonovits Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary e-mail: simono[email protected] B. Balázs Environmental Social Science Research Group, Budapest, Hungary e-mail: [email protected] V. ˇ Cesnuityt˙e Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania e-mail: v[email protected] 1 The Sharing Economy in Europe: From Idea to Reality 5 by covering themes around its conceptualisation, development, mapping across economic sectors, and country-specific case studies. This is an edited collection of chapters on the topic of the sharing economy that is still under discussion. Most of the authors of the chapters are participants in the COST Action CA16121 ‘From Sharing to Caring: Examining Socio-Technical Aspects of the Collaborative Economy’ (abbreviated as ‘Sharing and Caring’). The idea for the development of this book emerged as a consequence of the collaboration of researchers from numerous countries in this COST Action. This research network is funded by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Association. The main objective of the Action is to develop a European network of actors focussing on the development of collaborative economy models and platforms and on social and technological implications of the collaborative economy through a practice-focussed approach. The ‘Sharing and Caring’ COST Action started in March 2017 and ended in September 2021. One of the initiatives of this research network was to collect and edit a series of country reports on the state of the art of the collaborative economy in the participating countries that could be useful for the COST Action participants and the general public. The first edition of the country reports collection was initiated in 2017 and published online in May 2018 (Mosconi et al. 2018). A second edition, initiated in 2019, was published on the Action website as an e-book in the autumn of 2021 (Klimczuk et al. 2021). This book builds on information originally included in the country reports. The first nine chapters include original research, further analysis, and synthesis. Also, seven country reports were selected and are expanded as thematic case studies in this edited collection. Therefore, the book was constructed in a way that makes it distinctive and unique in comparison to other publications related to the topic of the sharing economy. The Topic and Context The development of the sharing economy was fostered by the advance of new media technologies (e.g., Web 2.0, GPS) and the 2008 financial crisis (Martos-Carrión and Miguel 2021). Lawrence Lessig (2008) 6C. Miguel et al. was probably the first author who used the term ‘sharing economy’ in his book Remix, where he defined the sharing economy in terms of the lack of interest in monetary gain to participate. Sharing economy activities may involve monetary exchange (e.g., Airbnb, BlaBlaCar, Car2go), or the exchange can be altruistic (e.g., CouchSurfing, OLIO, TimeBank). Nevertheless, sharing economy platforms mainly function as digital marketplaces where supply and demand are matched, either for economic compensation or for any other type of value exchange. Thus, rather than running in order to foster altruistic sharing, these new business models imply commodity exchange (Belk 2007). As Castells et al. (2012, p. 12) pointed out, the sharing economy is ‘an alternative economy sector (not necessarily excluding for-profit production) based on a different set of values about the meaning of life.’ The sharing economy has also been described as the collaborative economy (e.g., Bauwens et al. 2012;Owyangetal.2013) and collaborative consumption (e.g., Botsman and Rogers 2010; Germann Molz 2014; Hamari et al. 2016; Selloni 2017). According to Owyang et al. (2013, p. 4), ‘the collaborative economy is an economic model where ownership and access are shared between corporations, start-ups, and people. This results in market efficiencies that bear new products, services and business growth.’ Building on Botsman and Rogers (2010), Germann Molz (2014) explains that collaborative consumption is based on access rather than ownership and highlights the importance of digital platforms to facilitate the exchange of goods and experiences (e.g., ratings and reviews). In a similar vein, Hamari et al. (2016, p. 2047) argue that collaborative consumption is ‘a peer-to-peer-based activity of obtaining, giving, or sharing access to goods and services, coordinated through community-based online services’ where users can be providers, consumers, or both, the so-called ‘prosumers’ (Lang et al. 2020). The fragmentation of the literature in a multitude of disciplines and research traditions most often leans back to one umbrella term, defined by Belk (2007) as ‘an alternative to the private ownership that is emphasised in both marketplace exchange and gift-giving. In sharing, two or more people may enjoy the benefits (or costs) that flow from possessing a thing’ (p. 127). To get to grips with the fragmentation, Frenken and Schor (2019) argued that the sharing economy has three 1 The Sharing Economy in Europe: From Idea to Reality 7 defining characteristics: consumer-to-consumer interaction, temporary access, and physical goods. Earlier, Frenken et al. (2015)definedthe sharing economy as ‘consumers granting each other temporary access to under-utilised physical assets (‘idle capacity’), possibly for money.’ As for the multidimensionality of the term, Habibi et al. (2016) came up with the sharing economy continuum based on Belk (2007), ranging from pure sharing (see Belk’s 2007 examples on that, e.g., mothering originally) to pure exchange (e.g., buying bread). While pure sharing can be labelled as non-reciprocal, personal and love and caring are key concepts. The pure exchange can be labelled as reciprocal, impersonal, and money is a key element (for more details, see Habibi et al. 2016, p. 4). Still, the depictions of the sharing economy remain rather contradictory and conceptually vague, especially in defining the purpose. The main questions that the authors seek to answer in the book are the following: 1. How is the sharing economy understood nowadays? What are the social, business, and political aspects of this concept? What are the occurrences and interpretations of the sharing economy that can be observed in theory and practice? 2. What are the roles played by the sharing economy in the sharing and redistribution of goods and services across the population in order to maximise their functionality, monetary exchange, and other aspects important to societies? 3. What is the place of the sharing economy in connection to various policies? How do the contexts of public policies, legislation, digital platforms, and other infrastructure interrelate with the development and functioning of the sharing economy? 4. What are the contradictions in the development and recent trends in the sharing economy? Which sectors and characteristics of the sharing economy emerge as the most prominent in European countries? 5. What are the experiences and achievements in the sharing economy creation and practice that are characteristic to European countries? 8C. Miguel et al. In terms of the scope of the analysis, the unique feature of our project is that our European perspective is based on local information and knowledge gathered through the multidisciplinary team of the COST Action’s local researchers coming from 36 countries. However, it is important to note that we apply varied perspectives on a given topic, and our analysis is not comparative in a strict methodological sense. The timeframe of the analysis covers basically the past ten years, and we aim to assess the main trends, issues, and contradictions of the various sharing economy platforms operating since 2010. In geographic terms, we are focussing on the European countries that are members of our COST Action, namely, Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Slovenia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. In essence, in this book, we record inherently contradictory tendencies in the sharing economy. From a critical social science point of view, our analysis demonstrates a shift in the motivational basis of the sharing economy. The sharing economy has been moving away from local and solidarity-based sharing, gifting, bartering, commoning (nonmarket-based ways of supply), and drifted easily towards commercialised and business-like activities. Under the auspices of ‘sharing economy business model,’ the market-logic has been introduced into ever new spheres of life and therefore—even if unintentionally—led to an extractivist, precarious society based on unsustainable practices, new inequalities, and extraction of human and natural resources (Belk 2014; Schor 2014; Bradley and Pargman 2017). Such inborn contradictions of the sharing economy are also illustrated by the growing differences and tensions in relations between users and providers of goods and services, the motivations for sharing between sectors, and socio-demographic dissimilarity within user groups (Böcker and Meelen 2017).Asamainexpectation towards the sharing economy, we contend that decoupling from growth could be a critical social promise of the sharing economy so that it could avoid being entirely insensible to socio-ecological problems. 1 The Sharing Economy in Europe: From Idea to Reality 9 Outline of the Book The content of the edited collection consists of eighteen chapters divided into three main parts (Parts II–IV) plus sections containing an Introduction (Part I) and a Conclusion (Part V). The Introduction is dedicated to familiarising the reader with the key topics and issues analysed in the book. The second part of the volume provides a discussion of the concept of the sharing economy as well as a secondary analysis of public policies, programmes, strategies, and legislative documents on the sharing economy. The third part analyses the sharing economy evolutionary practices in selected economic sectors such as mobility or accommodation, among others. The fourth part of this book includes case studies of selected European countries and is based on a selection of best practices, desk research, and the so-called ‘short stories’ collected within the framework of COST Action. Finally, the Conclusion includes the most significant features, achievements, and issues of the contemporary sharing economy in European countries and future-oriented observations, directions for further research, and recommendations. Each chapter contains an introduction, substantial sections, summary, references, suggested readings, and relevant websites, as well as the author’s biographies. In the first of the three main parts (Part II), the authors focus on the sharing economy conceptualisation, public policies and legislation, and developments that are led by discussions, contradictions, and tensions in European cities. Chapter 2, authored by Cristina Miguel, Esther Martos-Carrión, and Mijalche Santa, takes up the challenge of conceptual clarification of the sharing economy term. The authors based their chapter on 20 top references, which included definitions of the sharing economy and identified the peculiar core properties of the sharing economy. Ten principles are abstracted: (P1) Redistribution of assets; access over ownership; (P2) The Internet and innovative technologies are the core of the sharing economy; (P3) The sharing economy is a market-based system; (P4) The sharing economy is crowd-based; (P5) The sharing economy is built on decentralised networks; (P6) The sharing economy enables peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions while empowering individuals; (P7) The sharing economy 10 C. Miguel et al. is a socio-economic system that disrupts traditional economic systems; (P8) Trust among strangers enhances social value. Trust is mostly based on reputation systems; (P9) Prosumers play an important role in peer production; and (10) The sharing economy emphasises collective experiences, co-creation, and sustainable lifestyles. Finally, Chapter 2defines the sharing economy according to these principles. In Chapter 3,Bła˙zej Koczetkow and Andrzej Klimczuk analyse the sharing economy from a public policy perspective. Firstly, the text focuses the attention on the development of the sharing economy as a driver of both positive economic effects and public problems (e.g., labour market, traditional market sectors). Second, the chapter identifies possible actions for regulating different sharing economy activities. The chapter discusses the role of soft law, stakeholders’ networks, self-regulation, and standardisation. Kosjenka Dumanˇci´c and Natalia-Rozalia Avlona, in Chapter 4, address the legal definition of the sharing economy and consider problematic the lack of a general European Union legal framework for the sharing economy, apart from a European Commission Communication from 2016. The main objective of this chapter is to discuss the issues related to the lack of clear regulation of sharing economy activities at the EU level. The chapter analyses the contradictory regulations of some sharing economy activities in various European countries. The lack of harmonisation in the regulation of the sharing economy in different European countries is analysed within the framework of two case studies: Uber and Airbnb. In the next main part of the volume (Part III), the authors cover analyses of sharing economy evolutionary practices in selected economic sectors: mobility and transportation, peer-to-peer accommodation, food supply chains, financial services, education, knowledge, and data sharing, as well as in the solidarity and care sectors. In Chapter 5, Agnieszka Lukasiewicz, Anikó Bernát, and Vera Diogo analyse the main shared mobility services in Europe, such as car-based sharing models, bike-sharing, and electric scooter sharing. In particular, Chapter 5provides a discussion of different car-based sharing models, which include: (1) car-sharing (e.g., public such as Car Sharing Rome, or private such as Share Now); (2) ride-hailing, which parallels taxi 1 The Sharing Economy in Europe: From Idea to Reality 17 of the Association for Information Science and Technology 67 (9): 2047–59. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23552. Howard, Billee. 2015. We-Commerce: How to Create, Collaborate, and Succeed in the Sharing Economy. New York, NY: Perigee Books. ING. 2015. ING International Survey: Sharing Economy 2015: What’s Mine Is Yours—for a Price: Rapid Growth Tipped for the Sharing Economy. Amsterdam: ING. Klimczuk, Andrzej, Vida ˇ Cesnuityt˙e, and Gabriela Avram, eds. 2021. The Collaborative Economy in Action: European Perspectives. Limerick, Ireland: University of Limerick. Lang, Bodo, Elsamari Botha, Jeandri Robertson, Joya A. Kemper, Rebecca Dolan, and Jan Kietzmann. 2020. ‘How to Grow the Sharing Economy? Create Prosumers!.’ Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ) 28 (3): 58–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2020.06.012. Lessig, Lawrence. 2008. Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy. New York, NY: Penguin Press. Martos-Carrión, Esther, and Cristina Miguel. 2021. ‘Sharing Economy: History, Definitions and Related Concepts.’ In The Sharing Economy: Perspectives, Opportunities and Challenges, edited by Babak Taheri, Roya Rahimi, and Dimitrios Buhalis. Oxford: Goodfellow Publishers. Forthcoming. Mosconi, Gaia, Agnieszka Lukasiewicz, and Gabriela Avram, eds. 2018. Member Countries Report on the Collaborative Economy: COST Action CA16121. Accessed May 20, 2021. http://sharingandcaring.eu/sites/default/ files/files/CountriesReport2018.pdf. Owyang, Jeremiah, Christine Tran, and Chris Silva. 2013. The Collaborative Economy: Products, Services, and Market Relationships Have Changed as Sharing Startups Impact Business Models. To Avoid Disruption, Companies Must Adopt the Collaborative Economy Value Chain. San Mateo, CA: Altimeter Group. Accessed May 20, 2020. http://www.collaboriamo.org/ media/2014/04/collabecon-draft16-130531132802-phpapp02-2.pdf. Schor, Juliet. 2014. ‘Debating the Sharing Economy.’ Accessed May 20, 2021. https://greattransition.org/publication/debating-the-sharing-economy. Selloni, Daniela. 2017. CoDesign for Public-Interest Services. Cham: Springer International Publishing. Stephany, Alex. 2015. Business of Sharing. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Timbro. 2018. Timbro Sharing Economy Index. Stockholm: Timbro. 18 C. Miguel et al. 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