A contemporary social network analysis of sharing economy literature

Abstract

AbstractThe sharing economy concept has been firmly incorporated into various scientific fields and applied broadly in practice. This paper aims to gain a detailed insight into the contemporary intellectual structure of the sharing economy in the fields of economics, business and management. Using a two-stage approach: a critical literature review and social network analysis (SNA), the dominant research niches and under-investigated issues within sharing economy were identified, along with the most influential authors and papers. Author collaboration and citation connection of papers have also been examined. It was concluded that sharing economy knowledge is gradually approaching the stage of maturity bearing in mind the growing number of articles, the presence of emerging research niches, as well as scarcity of approaches directed to purely quantitative analysis. Additionally, it was discovered that despite the study focus on the predefined research field, sharing economy concept exhibit a remarkable level of postdisciplinarity.