The impact of the institutional environment digitalization on the sharing economy development

Abstract

The spread of the sharing economy and the growing interest to this concept is caused by the transformation of business models, which is due to the redistribution of the importance of the economic, social and environmental goals of consumers, manufacturers and suppliers of goods and services. Institutional factors of doing business have a particular importance. At the same time, the rise of digital technology has become a catalyst for the transformation of the rules and regulations establishing transactions between economic agents of various levels. The aim of this study is to determine the impact of institutional environment digitalization on the sharing economy development as a basis for its further regulation. The novelty of the research lies in identifying regularities in institutional environment digitalization. The article describes various aspects of analyzing the sharing economy, reveals a narrow and broad interpretation of the studied term based on the fact that the sharing economy is a part of the digital and platform economy. It is shown that the sharing economy is also at the intersection of the access economy, platform economy and community-based economy. Two key approaches to sharing economy are defined: technological with the focus on sharing economy driven by the digital technologies and socioinstitional with the transformations of rules and standards regulating the interaction of economic agents within this model. Correlation-regression analysis is applied to test the hypotheses about the influence of institutional environment digitalization typical for formal and informal institutes, as well as the network relations on the development of the sharing economy. The European Index of Digital Entrepreneurship Systems (EIDES) and The Timbro Sharing Economy Index were used as an information base for the study. The research arrives at a nonlinear regression model showing the significance and impact nature of the development of network relations and social media on the sharing economy. Hypotheses about the influence of the digital component of formal and informal institutions have been refuted. The article justifies the need for the development of inclusive institutes to regulate sharing economy, which will stimulate the solution of social, economic and environmental problems in the society. The theoretical significance of the study lies in expanding the provisions of economic theory in the field of studying the transformation of economic relations under the changes in external and internal socio-economic conditions and the institutional environment development for sharing economy. The practical significance lies in the possibility to apply the conclusions and recommendations to improve socio-economic regulating policy for sharing economy at the macro-, meso- and micro-levels of economy. The results obtained in the research may be of interest to the specialists analyzing the transformation of economic relations and the problems of the formation and development of sharing economy. Further research will relate directly to the issues of institutional design of the sharing economy, as well as the study of the application potential to solve socially significant problems at various levels of management.