Abstracts Economics

Mapping the Effects of Peer-to-Peer Sharing Economy Platforms on Society: A Grounded Theory study towards the creation of a conceptual model of the effects of peer-to-peer sharing economy platforms on values, actors and institutional arrangements:

by JB Westerbeek

Peer-to-peer platforms in the sharing economy have the potential to empower citizens and their development possibly leads to economic growth, environmental sustainability and social cohesion in society. However, these platforms put pressure on existing institutions and lead to problems on issues as consumer protection, working conditions and fair competition. Policymakers need to come with a suiting approach to both benefit from the positive effects, but simultaneously mitigate the negative effects. It is however hard to find this best approach and to make a trade-offs between different effectuated values, since it is hard to comprehend the development of these platforms and no theoretical overview of the effects is present in theory. The objective of this study is to compose this theoretical overview of the effects of peer-to-peer sharing economy platforms, in terms of effectuated values, involved actors and possible arrangements to mitigate negative effects. The theoretical overview must be suited for use by policymakers in making trade-offs to determine the best reaction towards these platforms. In order to create this theoretical overview a grounded theory approach was used. In this grounded theory approach a multitude of (semi-)academic sources was coded to find the relevant effectuated values, involved actors and possible arrangements. Categories of the found concepts were combined in a structured conceptual model that was validated using expert interviews and a theoretical comparison. The result of this approach is a substantive theory on the effects of peer-to-peer sharing economy platforms. The model discerns three different levels of effectuated values, depending on the scale and frequency of peer-to-peer transactions on a platform. These different levels of effectuated values are structured on the basis of their relevance for four different types of actors. Besides this five groups of possible policy options are identified. The created model gives a mapping of the effects of peer-to-peer sharing economy platforms and can be used by policymakers to assess the effects of these platforms in specific cases or on a more general level. Future work could focus on the improvement of the model by adding the mechanisms behind and links between the effects on values. Besides this, future studies could focus on specific effects that are mapped in the model or could use the created model as a building block to create a formal theory on the effects of the sharing economy as a whole. Advisors/Committee Members: Ubacht, J., Van der Voort, H.G., Ten Heuvelhof, E.F..