sustainability Article Conceptualizing the Sharing Economy through Presenting a Comprehensive Framework Meisam Ranjbari * ID , Gustavo Morales-Alonso and Ruth Carrasco-Gallego ID Department of Organization Engineering, Business Administration and Statistics, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28006 Madrid, Spain;
[email protected] (G.M.-A.);
[email protected] (R.C.-G.) * Correspondence:
[email protected] Received: 22 May 2018; Accepted: 2 July 2018; Published: 5 July 2018 Abstract: In recent years, through the advances in technology and highlighting the sustainability concepts in different aspects of human lives, the sharing economy has become an interesting topic for researchers, and also, many businesses claim to be active in this environment. However, a comprehensive definition, which is generally accepted, does not yet exist in the literature. In this paper, through a systematic literature review, analysis, and coding, a comprehensive definition, and also, an inclusive framework is presented for the sharing economy. This can help scientists and businesses to clarify which companies or parts of their activities fall into the SE category, and which do not. Such clarification in a small scale is done for five companies at the end of the paper. Keywords: sharing economy (SE); sustainability; idle capacity; collaborative consumption; under-utilized assets; online platform; access versus ownership 1. Introduction Sharing economy (SE) as a conceptual term has been in the media for a number of years [1,2]. Many factors, such as the growth of internet applications and smartphones, globalization and urbanization, the global economic crisis, shifts in the general attitudes, and higher attention towards sustainability in consumption, have led to the advent of the sharing economy in recent years [3–6].