The measurement of the economic, social and environmental impact of Peer to Peer online platforms: The case of collaborative consumption

Abstract

Over the last decade, the rise of peer-to-peer online markets has become a major sociocultural and economic phenomena and been described as a collaborative or sharing economy. However, understanding their impact has been mired in controversy and disagreement. Proponents of the sharing economy hail its potential to be a panacea for many of the world’s problems, but more critical perspectives point to research that undermines these claims. The rapid growth of this type of activity has placed public administrators in particular under pressure to develop appropriate policy and regulation. However, policy development is severely hindered by a lack of data and suitable measurement techniques. Work to develop appropriate data measurement tends to focus on economic measurement at the expense of social and environmental impact. This research paper seeks to contribute to understanding this problem area by taking a comprehensive triple impact perspective (economic, social and environmental) of the object of study. Employing a Delphi technique, the research developed forty-seven impact indicators across the three areas of measurement. A lo largo de la ultima decada, el crecimiento de las plataformas de intercambio entre iguales, descritas como economia colaborativa, represento un de los fenonenos economicos y socio-culturales mas importantes. Los defensores de la economia colaborativa resaltan su potencial para convertirse en la panacea de los grandes problemas mundiales, mientras que las perspectivas criticas apuntan a investigaciones que contradicen estas ideas. El rapido crecimiento de este tipo de actividad ha puesto a la administracion publica bajo la presion de tener que desarrollar medidas de regulacion adecuadas. Sin embargo, el desarrollo de regulacion en este sentido adolece gravemente de la falta de datos y de tecnicas adecuadas para medir el impacto. Los intentos por medir este impacto estan por lo general concentrads en producir indicadores economicos, a expensas de la medicion del impacto social y medioambiental. Esta investigacion trata de contribuir a esta cuestion desde una perspectiva holistica que estudia el triple impacto (economico, social y medioambiental) de este objeto de estudio. Recurriendo a un estudio Delphi esta investigacion ha desarrollado 47 indicadores de impacto en estas tres aereas de medicion.