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
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On October 22nd, platforms2share co-organized an event that aimed to support a local initiative of former Deliveroo riders. The event brought together former Deliveroo riders and supporters at SUPERMARKT Berlin in order to discuss the next steps of building a local food delivery network and for getting it off the ground. | |
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platforms2shareHow are sharing organizations’ business models linked to values? Paper presented at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2019Dominika 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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In their exploratory study, the platforms2share researchers find that sharing organizations receive attention, resources and legitimation from a „disruptive field“ of organizations including tech-media and venture capitalists – a field that initiates and support technological innovation which potentially disrupt existing fields and industries. So far, the field pays attention to dominant models in the sharing economy such as Airbnb or Uber. The authors published the chapter in the renowned series „Research in the Sociology of Organizations“. | |
