Sharing Economy and Big Data Analytics

Soraya Sedkaoui, Mounia Khelfaoui

• Publisher: Wiley-ISTE
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781786305060
• eBook ISBN: 9781119694991
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Mathematics
• Subtopic: Probability & Statistics
• Index: Mathematics

The different facets of the sharing economy offer numerous opportunities for businesses? particularly those that can be distinguished by their creative ideas and their ability to easily connect buyers and senders of goods and services via digital platforms. At the beginning of the growth of this economy, the advanced digital technologies generated billions of bytes of data that constitute what we call Big Data.

This book underlines the facilitating role of Big Data analytics, explaining why and how data analysis algorithms can be integrated operationally, in order to extract value and to improve the practices of the sharing economy. It examines the reasons why these new techniques are necessary for businesses of this economy and proposes a series of useful applications that illustrate the use of data in the sharing ecosystem.

PART 1
The Sharing Economy or the Emergence of a New Business Model

1
The Sharing Economy: A Concept Under Construction

What cannot be eschew’d must be embraced.

William Shakespeare

The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act V, Scene 5

1.1. Introduction

For more than 20 years, society’s behavior has changed in terms of daily consumption.

In the interest of economic rationality, people, without knowing each other or being part of the same family, agree to live together, travel in the same vehicle, work in the same space and participate in common projects. They decide to join forces in activities such as production, distribution and consumption.

In other words, they have a new approach to economics, which involves collaboration and a spirit of sharing: it is commonly referred to as “the collaborative economy” or “the sharing economy”.

A question challenges us: why did this concept appear?

Several factors have contributed to the advent of the sharing economy: the development of IT tools and mobile technology (smartphones, tablets), the globalization of the economy, the global economic crises and the environmental watch fueled by ecological awareness of the negative externalities of economic activity.

Indeed, we are witnessing a deterioration in the efficiency of the resources used. Demailly and Novel (2014) agree with this idea, arguing that: “For those in the sharing economy, it is nothing more or less than an underutilization of material goods, capital, and therefore an economic and environmental waste.”

We cannot consider the theme of sharing as recent, since the exchange of goods and services has existed, in many different ways, for a very long time: agricultural mutual cooperatives, insurance mutual and agricultural cooperatives already existed before the 21st Century. In other words, the idea of enjoying the good or service without owning it was part of people’s consumption strategies.

Also, the expansion of the sharing economy responds to the contemporary demands of people concerned about the quality of the environment and the degradation caused by the fierce economic activities on natural resources since the Industrial Revolution.

The sharing economy is a social phenomenon, in that it has allowed ordinary people to use their surplus resources in many forms and to consume in a mutual and altruistic way.

It is also environmental, because the sharing economy makes it possible to absorb excess capacity (infrastructure needs, car needs, etc.), reduce the exploitation of natural resources, and meet the needs of those that are most disadvantaged in society.

So, what is the “instrument” that has enabled the expansion of this economic phenomenon?

The notion of the sharing economy is in its conceptualization phase and does not yet have a consensus on its definition. It only dates back to the early 1990s. Indeed:

Collaborative economics is a concept carried by successful essayists such as J. Rifkin, R. Botsman or F. Turner, activists like Mr. Bauwens, media like Shareable in the United States, think tanks and do tanks like OuiShare in France, or by some entrepreneurs and start-up managers, and even more and more large companies. (Massé et al. 2015)

The conceptualization of the sharing economy is incipient, its advantages and disadvantages are not yet well defined. Although it is well received, it does not have an epistemological definition. In an ironic note, Bostman says: “The sharing economy lacks a shared definition.”

The sharing economy has become a global phenomenon. Thus, can it represent an economic model that competes with the traditional economy? What are the advantages of this new economy? Will it contribute to the sustainability of the economy?

1.2. From simple sharing to the sharing economy

The act of sharing is natural for us, it responds to a tangible satisfaction (exchange of goods and services), but also to self-satisfaction, to the extent that we put our humanity into practice in the relationships that unite us.

Human beings learn to share from an early age. As time goes by, the sense of ownership gives way to a sense of sharing. Moreover, it is religious beliefs that have inculcated the desire to escape the grip of self-centeredness within us. Monotheistic religions call for sharing through their main foundations and practices.

Thus, the concept of sharing is interpreted in society in several ways: cooperatives, mutual associations, volunteering, etc. The spirit of sharing was embodied in the development of digital technology, which has grown tremendously in recent years:

In cities, new digital technologies are revolutionizing the way we use transportation, housing, goods and other services […] The sharing economy has disrupted virtually every sector, creating a multitude of markets based on platforms that connect individuals, businesses and communities. (Hodkinson 2017)

To understand the shift from the concept of “sharing” to that of the sharing economy, let us immerse ourselves in the history of its origin, its foundations and its practices.

1.2.1. The genesis of the sharing economy and the break with “consumer” society

Etymologically speaking, the word “to share” comes from the Latin partes agere: partes means “to make equal parts” and agere means “to push” and “to activate”. As a result, the concept has existed since antiquity and combines the two meanings: to divide an entity for a specific purpose. This can be a sharing of inheritance to benefit all heirs, or a sharing of power to delegate certain responsibilities.

In the notion of the “sharing economy”, each of the two words has kept its specificity.

Sharing always means leaving a part of something that belongs to us to one or more people, no matter how this action is carried out. It is the combination of the two words that makes the difference.

Indeed, the sharing economy has become the apanage of the solidarity economy and has experienced a staggering growth in recent years thanks to the development of information technology and mobile technology. Via software, or more precisely platforms, business transactions and meetings between suppliers and service providers are growing exponentially.

The term “sharing economy” was first added to the Oxford Dictionary in 2015. Similarly, the scientific literature on the concept is relatively new. Researchers looked at different aspects of the sharing economy using different names.

Among the names used, we can mention:

• – peer-to-peer economy;
• – collaborative economy;
• – collaborative production and collaborative consumption;
• – access economy;
• – consumption based on access;
• – local economy;
• – peer production based on commonality and mesh size;
• – product-system service and on-demand economy;
• – wholesale economics;
• – platform economy.

Nevertheless, the term “sharing economy” is the most commonly used term in the literature (Ranjbari et al. 2018).

“We believe that the economy of sharing can be the defining story of the 21st Century if we come together to build it.” These are the words of Natalie Foster, co-founder and executive director of Peers.org. The defenders of this ideology want to fight overconsumption and waste, create social equity and make the shared economy the “economic model of the third millennium”.

The sharing economy wants to break with the consumption practices that have occurred since the Industrial Revolution, where consumers are forced to consume excessively. It began after the Second World War and reached its peak in the years known as the Glorious Thirty.

Consumer society was born with the advent of Taylor’s theory and the launch of assembly line work. This process has resulted in an abundance of products and reduced prices, which have become accessible to all segments of society.

The bewitching power of advertising must be added to this, which manipulates the consumer at the whim of producers:

Advertising is the main instrument of manipulation, in fact, it conditions, brings a subliminal perception and influences the population subconsciously. Over the years, it has mobilized mental manipulation techniques from human sciences to encourage consumers to buy.¹

Without question, the consumer society has allowed man to satisf...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• PART 1: The Sharing Economy or the Emergence of a New Business Model
• PART 2: Big Data Analytics at the Service of the Sharing Economy
• PART 3: The Sharing Economy? Not Without Big Data Algorithms
• Conclusion
• References
• Index
• End User License Agreement