The Relevance of Digital Sharing Business Models for Sustainability

Abstract

There is a growing discussion about the "Digital Sharing Economy" (DSE). The pervasiveness of digital platforms and the growing interest in a sharing (rather than ownership) style of consumption have allowed for sharing practices to scale up and become a widespread phenomenon. Digital sharing platforms offer a wide variety of services which appear to be more affordable, efficient, and accessible than their conventional counterparts, making them more attractive in the eyes of consumers. The DSE has manifested itself most remarkably in consumer-to-consumer (C2C) and business-to-consumer (B2C) sharing models. New business models have been created to capture and offer the values driving the emerging sharing trend.