ABSTRACT
The concept of the sharing economy has become increasingly popular in the past few decades in response to major technology and societal shifts. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book follows the idea that the sharing economy relies in today’s digital and digitised world on multi-sided platform-based intermediation of assets and service provision. The impact of rapid digitisation in contemporary society adds a new dimension to this activity – one that is moving beyond the pace of the everyday reality of economic relationships and entrepreneurial activities. The book posits that the processes associated with these three perspectives of entrepreneurial activity and the sharing economy are determined by the same generic elements that apply for ‘traditional’ entrepreneurship outside the platform-based sharing economy.
