The article entitled "Three Differentiation Strategies for Competing in the Sharing Economy" by Frey, Trenz, and Veit has been published in MIS Quarterly Executive. The sharing economy emphasizes access over ownership and is growing rapidly. In a growing number of industries, the considerable potential impact of the Sharing Economy on established companies (e.g. taxi, hotel) is already evident. These effects have led to an increasing number of established companies deciding to become involved in the Sharing Economy themselves. At the same time, a large number of Sharing Economy projects are failing. Increasing interest and prominent failures show the need to identify suitable strategies for competition in the Sharing Economy.

The article discusses possible strategies for existing companies to establish themselves via sharing approaches in the area of the Sharing Economy. Based on nine case studies on sharing organizations, the study identifies three possible strategies for companies to differentiate themselves in the sharing economy: 

(1) Differentiation through technology
(2) Differentiation through partnerships
(3) Differentiation via user experience

The study identifies the boundary conditions within which the alternative differentiation strategies can be effectively implemented and thus contributes to the understanding of competitive strategies and business models of the Sharing Economy.

Further information

Reference: Frey, A., Trenz, M., and Veit, D. 2019. “Three Differentiation Strategies for Competing in the Sharing Economy” MIS Quarterly Executive (18:2), pp. 143–156, https://doi.org/10.17705/2msqe.00013.

Article: https://aisel.aisnet.org/misqe/vol18/iss2/6

About the journal: With a target audience of researchers and practitioners, the journal focusses in-depth research that provides rich stories, unique insights, and useful conceptual frameworks for information systems practice.  (Impact factor: 2.206 (2018) - https://aisel.aisnet.org/misqe/)

An overview of publications from the i-share consortium and network can be found here: https://www.i-share-economy.org/en/publications