platforms2share

Which opportunities do cooperative models and blockchain technology offer to the platform economy? What are other potential pathways toward a more sustainable platform economy?

Today, new digital platforms for sharing, swapping and other ways of collaborative consumption are widely associated with positive economic, ecological and social effects. At the same time, existing platforms like Airbnb and Uber are increasingly criticized in public debate for having negative effects on people, local economies and our planet. As a counter model, new decentral models combining alternative organizational forms (such as platform cooperatives) and new technologies (such as Blockchain technology) are discussed and tested. These and other alternative models promise to better reach social-ecological goals and offer potential to transform the sharing and platform economy. 


News

 
On October 23rd 2019, the platforms2share research colloquium took place at the University of Mannheim. The research group and the quests discussed current findings and next steps.
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To develop a comprehensive and holistic picture of current research on the sharing economy, researchers from different disciplines presented their work at the 5th International Workshop on the Sharing Economy at the University of Mannheim in 2018. Dominika Wruk, member of platforms2share, Achim Oberg and Indre Maurer have published the Best Paper Proceedings to the workshop, that comprises a selection of short papers. The volume is published with Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
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Dominika Wruk from platforms2share together with her co-authors Achim Oberg, Jennifer Klutt & Indre Maurer developed an approach to analyze how business models and values are linked. Applying this approach in the context of the sharing economy, they found two strategies to link models and values: Grassrots initiatives mainly address sustainability values while platform-based organizations mainly address economic values. It will be interesting to see, whether platform cooperatives represent a hybrid model by linking a platform business model to sustainability values.
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Alle News
How are sharing organizations’ business models linked to values?
How do we get a comprehensive understanding of the sharing economy?
platforms2share Research Colloquium: Fruitful discussions at first colloquium in Mannheim