Sharing economy in the food sector: A systematic literature review and future research agenda

Abstract

In recent years, the sharing economy (SE) has proliferated in various domains, causing a shift from traditional consumption patterns. However, within the hospitality sector, studies have predominantly addressed the accommodation domain while neglecting the ‘food’ sector. This low focus may have been compounded by the lack of a standard definition of SE. Therefore, using a five-faceted standard definition, this study extends the SE lens to the food sector in the hospitality domain. A literature review was conducted to identify relevant studies on food-based SE services aligned with the five defining characteristics of SE: technology-based matching platform, access-oriented, crowdsourced supply, enhanced customer role, and economically substantive. Ninety-six articles were selected and synthesized to identify three food-sector SE services: on-demand food delivery (ODFD), meal-sharing, and food-sharing, along with their associated stakeholders (customers, service providers, complementors, and platform providers). Extant literature on each food-sector SE service was synthesized to obtain their research profile, and extract the antecedent & consequence variables, which led to research gaps. This study makes a novel contribution to the SE domain by consolidating the literature on one of its relatively unaddressed sectors, and setting a future research agenda.