Social and economic ties in the freelance and sharing economies

Abstract

New ways of organizing businesses, such as the freelance and sharing economies, may bring entirely new meaning to those fundamental ideas that are believed to underpin business exchanges. Through the lens of social and economic ties, this paper sets to address how these new ways of organizing business change the view on business exchanges. The purpose of the paper is to discuss the role of social ties in the freelance and sharing economies. The paper adopts a multiple case study approach to illustrate the structural, cognitive, and relational dimensions of social and economic ties in the freelance and sharing economies. Findings point at how networks are increasingly emphasized, while at the same time, the relational dimension of social ties is altered for transactional platforms. There is also the disconnection between the economic ties and the social ties as the payment and delivery solutions become more and more complex. Un-socialization, a new meaning of trust, and a second platform-driven cycle of entrepreneurship indicate new ideas to current understandings of business exchanges and entrepreneurship.