Call for Papers: Business Models for the Sharing Economy

This special issue invites authors to submit papers that explore the logic, theoretical foundation, structural and relational mechanisms as well as the various barriers, facilitators and consequences of BMs in the sharing economy by analyzing diverse actors (e.g., incumbent firms, entrepreneurs), institutions (e.g., platforms, ecosystems) and contexts (e.g., B2B markets, collective consumption, sustainability initiatives) in the three above mentioned topic areas. We invite comprehensive reviews, conceptual and empirical analyses, and case studies to describe and deepen this understanding for BMs in the sharing economy.

Topics and questions of interest include, but are not limited to:

Managing the entrepreneurial vs. incumbents’ transition to sharing economy business models

• What is the influence of sharing-based BMs on nascent and/or corporate entrepreneurship and what are determining factors from an entrepreneurial perspective?

• How can entrepreneurs ideate and scale-up sharing economy BMs?

• What are the opportunities for incumbent firms to utilize the advantages of the sharing

  economy for sustainable competitive advantages, and how can these be identified?

What is the (immediate and long-term) impact of COVID-19 on the sharing economy

and it BMs?

Digital technologies and sharing economy business models

• Which digital technologies drive the sharing economy, and how?

• How are new digital technologies (e.g., Blockchain, IoT, Artificial Intelligence) related

  to BMs in the sharing economy?

• How can digital platforms help to organize sharing economy BMs?

What is the impact of organizational digital transformation on the emergence of sharing

economy BMs?

Sharing economy business models and sustainability

• How do innovations in sharing economy BMs relate to economic, social, and environmental sustainability?

• What are potential negative consequences of sharing economy BMs for sustainability and how could these be mitigated?

• What are the consequences and actions of regulation of sharing economy BMs (such as for Uber in Germany, eBay or Airbnb cities worldwide)?

• What may be alterative incentives to improve sustainability outcomes of sharing economy BMs?

• How can sustainable BMs and BM innovations in the sharing economy be categorized? How do these sustainable BMs create and capture value?

• How do sharing economy BMs enable or generate barriers for environmental and social sustainability?

Guest Editors: