Do hybrids impede sustainability? How semantic reorientations and governance reforms can produce and preserve sustainability in sharing business models

Abstract

The sharing economy is a hotbed of hybridity and sustainability owing to the reduction in transactions costs that create information, trust, and trade. However, the hybridization also challenges the sustainability of sharing business models, a tension often criticized but rarely addressed. This paper identifies and solves three challenges of hybridization. First, we show that there is no deterministic link between organizational missions and sustainability outcomes. This means that not-for-profits or social businesses are not necessarily more sustainable than for-profits. Second, all business models set different default goal priorities, but face the same governance challenge of achieving sustainability. Third, to meet this challenge, all business models can use the same governance strategies of creating value—rule reforms that implement credible commitments to overcome social dilemmas. Understanding and managing these three hybridity challenges are an essential task for the strategic management of sustainable business models in the sharing economy.