Typology and Unified Model of the Sharing Economy in Open Innovation Dynamics

Abstract

The sharing economy is emerging as one of the hottest issues of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The ownership paradigm was dominant during the First and Second Industrial Revolutions, so the formation of the sharing economy was almost non-existent, but it has grown to 5% of the global GDP during the Third Industrial Revolution as the sharing paradigm became prominent. It is expected that the scale of the sharing economy will reach up to 50% of the global economy by 2025 as the online to offline convergence (O2O) phenomenon (GE, 2012). The sharing economy is generally considered complex, diverse, and simply chaotic territory due to its various meanings or types despite its importance. In short, there is a great need to do more research to develop a unified model of the sharing economy. Our study defines sharing economy as “an activity where economic agents share economic objects together to create values”. The KCERN Sharing Economy Cube Model presented in the study is a unified model where the subjects of sharing—supply, market platform, demand, etc.—share the objects of sharing—information, materials, relations, etc.—in order to engage in economic activities, both for profit and nonprofit, to create values. The model reflects all these activities and encompasses all the other definitions of the sharing economy. This study aims to systematically draw a roadmap for the national sharing economy in the ongoing Fourth Industrial Revolution era based on the integrative sharing platform economy model.