ABSTRACT
The sharing economy encompasses a diverse range of practices, activities, and business models where resources are borrowed, lent, shared, bartered, rented, and swapped, often in innovative ways revolutionized by digital technologies (see Information and Communication Technology). The monetized and non-monetized sharing of underutilized products or assets is a common practice within social networks. However, while applications of the sharing economy have become ubiquitous, the term’s definition and the scope of businesses and practices it covers remain contested. Most agree that at its core, the sharing economy is about severing the link between ownership and access and that its novelty (vs. traditional sharing) is in reliance on digital technologies. Beyond that, however, there is much debate regarding what is truly “sharing” and whether a specific activity or business model falls within its scope.
