The evolutionary development of sharing economy

Abstract

Sharing economy as well as consumption and resource use models associated with it are forms of interaction between economic agents that involve the application of digital technologies. At the same time, sharing economy goes through several development stages, which determine the specifics of its implementation and penetration. The purpose of the paper is to identify and describe the stages in the sharing economy development. Methodologically, the research relies on institutionalism, digital economics, and sharing economics. Methods of systematisation and comparative analysis are used. The study reveals five stages in the sharing economy development: basic, technological, platform, social and advanced – that differ in terms of spread and level of digital technologies and initiate and support emerging institutional changes. The paper proves that external factors such as the appearance of IT giants and the COVID-19 pandemic affected the change of stages in the development of sharing economy. Digitalisation promoted the evolution of new sharing economy tools and altered the nature of goods and services consumption. The findings are of practical value since they can be used in forecasting the outcomes of sharing economy projects.