Examining the Viability of Organization-Sponsored Sharing Platforms

Abstract

Organization-sponsored sharing platforms represent the sharing economy ideal because they facilitate the peer-to-peer exchange of goods and services among members of an established community. By embedding sharing within an organization, this platform configuration infuses collaborative consumption with the moral dimension of shared values and concerns. However, the conflicting institutional logics inherent in community-based sharing create paradoxical tensions that are likely to destabilize this new organizational form. Therefore, to understand when an organization-sponsored sharing platform is viable, we conducted an empirical investigation of the Zimride by Enterprise® ridesharing platform for universities and corporations. Using qualitative and quantitative data from 25 organizations that sponsored Zimride’s ridesharing service, we found that this new organizational form is characterized by contradictions due to the market, hierarchy, and community logics of its multilevel B2B2P2P service delivery model. However, the mere presence of such paradoxical tensions did not render this sharing economy ideal infeasible. We therefore discuss when the Zimride platform was viable and how site coordinators at sponsoring organizations managed, in particular, the tension between their organizational members’ need for a heterogeneous supply of transportation options and a strong collective identity to motivate their collaborative consumption.