Business Development in the Sharing Economy: A Business Model Generation Framework

Abstract

Recent success stories such as those of Airbnb or Uber have proved that the Sharing Economy has evolved from a niche phenomenon to an independent economic sector. Against this backdrop, it is widely recognized that business models—although a research field still based on a highly-fragmented body of knowledge—constitute one of the most important factors to create such success stories. By leveraging the extant literature, a framework for business model generation is proposed, which is specifically tailored to the domain of the Sharing Economy. Hence, this work's contribution is multifaceted: Literature is synthesized to cope with the current fragmentation and used to study state-of-the-art business model (generation) approaches. Furthermore, shortcomings in the application of current business model (generation) frameworks with regard to the Sharing Economy are pointed out. The merit of this research is the presentation of a consolidated framework for business model conceptualization and generation in the Sharing Economy.