Introduction: Sharing in Modern Societies 7
insights into different ways of viewing this space, thereby adding richness to
discussions to the various contentions surrounding the sharing economy.
The writings provide the reader with an understanding on multiple
broad topics including what led to the development of the modern sharing
economy (Chapter 3, Wolf and Ritz; Chapter 4, Hellwig, Sahakian, and
Morhart), as well as the role of economics (Chapter 7, Teubner and Hawl-
itschek) and technology (Chapter 5, Harvey, Smith, and Golightly; Chap-
ter 6 Kamilaris and Prenafeta-Boldú) in its development and continued
growth. Over the past few years, the mainstream media has reported on the
regulatory challenges faced by collaborative consumption platforms such
as Uber and Airbnb as they spread to various locales in North America and
around the world. Thus, in terms of G-2-P interactions, Chasin (Chap-
ter 11) examines the case of how the city government officials in Seoul,
South Korea, play an active role in facilitating the development of the shar-
ing economy. The book also presents specific sharing and collaborative
consumption experiences from a consumer perspective in different cultural
contexts, for example, former East Germany (Chapter 3, Wolf and Ritz),
New Zealand (Chapter 8, Philip, Ozanne, and Ballantine), and Sweden
(Chapter 9, Albinsson and Perera). We, the editors, and the contributing
authors created this book because we wanted to inspire more discussion
and inspire solutions to challenges faced by various stakeholders involved
in the sharing economy. In addition, given the range of topics covered, we
hope these writings will provide the reader with new insights into the shar-
ing economy and collaborative consumption, thereby inspiring ideas for
practical applications, as well as future research.
References
Airbnb. n.d. “About Us.” https://www.airbnb.ca/about/about-us?locale=en.
Bardhi, Fleura, and Giana M. Eckhardt. 2012. “Access-Based Consumption: The
Case of Car Sharing.” Journal of Consumer Research 39 (December):
881–898.
Belk, Russell. 2014. “You Are What You Can Access: Sharing and Collabora-
tive Consumption Online.” Journal of Business Research 67 (8):
1595–1600.
Botsman, Rachel. 2011. “The Sharing Economy Lacks a Shared Definition.”
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3022028/the-sharing-economy-lacks-a-shared-
definition.
Botsman, Rachel, and Roo Rogers. 2010. What’s Mine Is Yours. The Rise of Collab-
orative Consumption. New York: HarperCollins.
Ertz, Myriam, Fabien Durif, and Manon Arcand. 2016. “Collaborative Consump-
tion: Conceptual Snapshot at a Buzzword.” Journal of Entrepreneurship
Education 19 (2): 1–23.
