Defined as a two-sided market based on the use of underutilized assets (Botsman, 2013), the so-called "sharing economy" is disrupting traditional value chains and revolutionizing consumption patterns worldwide. Platforms that enable the sharing of housing (e.g., Airbnb), cars (e.g., DriveNow, Uber), and parking spaces (e.g., ParkatmyHouse) are showing steep growth. The benefits of the sharing concept form the basis for its growing popularity. Consumers can have access to goods, services, and experiences from which they were previously excluded. In addition, the reuse of idle capacity can have a positive impact on sustainability. In addition, shared experiences associated with sharing contribute to better social networking.

Despite this positive potential, however, significant challenges remain. These risks are largely rooted in the ambiguity of the emerging relationships between the parties involved. For example, companies in the traditional economy are subject to strict regulations, while transactions by private parties in a sharing context have been poorly defined and regulated. Given these information asymmetries, sharing decisions are often made under conditions of uncertainty. Consequently, reducing uncertainty and fostering trust between the parties involved are critical to the sustainability of the sharing model. With this in mind, the following research questions are explored: What are the uncertainties in the context of the sharing economy? Where is the need for trust most pronounced? What mechanisms are effective in reducing uncertainty and increasing user trust in the sharing economy? What are the roles of the regulator but also platform provider in the new sharing economy? What are the consequences of regulation in the sharing economy for different actors? How can a new "social contract" be designed in the sharing context? 

Preliminary work 

Abramova, O., Krasnova, H., Tan, C.-W. (2017) “How Much Will You Pay? Understanding the Value of Information Cues in the Sharing Economy”, European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 2017), Guimarães, Portugal. 

Abramova, O., Shavanova, T., Fuhrer, A., Krasnova, H., Buxmann, P. (2015) “ Understanding the Sharing Economy: The Role of Response to Negative Reviews in the Peer-To-Peer Accommodation Sharing Network?“, 23rd European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 2015), Münster, Germany 

Abramova, O., Krasnova, H., Shavanova, T., Fuhrer, A., Buxmann, P. (2016) “Impression Management in the Sharing Economy: Understanding the Effect of Response Strategy to Negative Reviews”, Die Unternehmung, 70(1), 58-73.