Abstract
The platform economy is the embodiment of the activities carried out by its influential players, which by their very nature are new markets, facilitating the matching of suppliers and customers. A new market entails access to or even joint use of underused assets, provision of new working places, and simplification of human life with online transactions and services, which serves the assumption that the platform economy is able to undertake sustainable development and may meet a number of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) introduced in 2015. First, this paper aims to study whether the platform business model entails sustainability as its integral core concept. Second, it attempts to assess if platform companies from two selected industries—ride-sharing services and EdTech—meet SDGs comparably better than their predecessor linear companies in transportation and education. The study carries out an empirical analysis of eight companies. The results indicate that platform companies demonstrate a relatively lower commitment to SDGs compared to linear transnational firms, which can be explained by the level of maturity of platform companies and their still mostly non-public nature.
Highlights
Back in 2000, 189 countries signed the Millennium Declaration, committing to achieve a set of 8 goals: (1) eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, (2) achieve universal primary education, (3) promote gender equality and empower women, (4) reduce child mortality,(5) improve maternal health, (6) combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, (7) ensure environmental sustainability, and (8) develop a global partnership for development, by2015
These became known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) [1]
In 2008, the United Nations launched the Business Call to Action (BCtA) initiative, which was aimed at accelerating progress towards the above stated goals in low and middleincome nations with the help of private sector, which at that time was mostly regarded as a non-priority stakeholder [2]
Summary
Back in 2000, 189 countries signed the Millennium Declaration, committing to achieve a set of 8 goals: (1) eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, (2) achieve universal primary education, (3) promote gender equality and empower women, (4) reduce child mortality,(5) improve maternal health, (6) combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, (7) ensure environmental sustainability, and (8) develop a global partnership for development, by2015. Back in 2000, 189 countries signed the Millennium Declaration, committing to achieve a set of 8 goals: (1) eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, (2) achieve universal primary education, (3) promote gender equality and empower women, (4) reduce child mortality,. In 2008, the United Nations launched the Business Call to Action (BCtA) initiative, which was aimed at accelerating progress towards the above stated goals in low and middleincome nations with the help of private sector, which at that time was mostly regarded as a non-priority stakeholder [2]. In 2015, within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all UN member states, 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were introduced as an urgent call to action by all countries. Seventeen goals set 169 global targets with deadlines and 232 global indicators, which would review the progress of SDG actions against global targets. The introduction of goals was preceded by a rather long period of negotiations, consultations and dialogues between national governments, representatives of the business community, non-governmental organizations, and educational and public institutions [3,4]
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