Sharing Economy and Big Data Analytics

2An Opportunity for the Business World

‘Sharing’ is an uncommon usage in the economics literature, though it is common in some of the anthropology literature. I choose it because it is broader in its application than other, more common, but narrower terms for associated phenomena—most importantly, ‘reciprocity’ or ‘gift’. I hesitate to use ‘reciprocity’ because of its focus on more or less directly responsive reciprocated reward and punishment as a mechanism to sustain cooperation in the teeth of the standard assumptions about collective action.

Benkler (2004)

2.1. Introduction

The concept of a sharing economy is becoming increasingly important and is being finely integrated into societies. Although not explicitly used, it is implicitly practiced because it is based on social relations and religious ethics in most cases.

The new production method that characterizes sharing is independent of the price that has governed business transactions to date. It is more efficient than price-based and government-funded systems (Benkler 2004). The success of sharing practices is attributed to the fact that they are carried out between individuals who are unrelated (in other words, individuals who do not know each other), but who still form an effective large-scale exchange system (Benkler 2004).

As far as the sharing economy is considered an economic model, what will be the implications of this economy? The scientific debate on the implications of the shared economy is based on issues ...