Mapping the development of contextual knowledge in the area of the sharing economy

Abstract

Motivation: Contemporary economics provides to the practice of the social world functioning increasingly precise knowledge about how the modern economy and economics change. Although it seems that it is knowledge necessary to make science more useful for the social world, it creates a risk of blurring the general picture of the studied problems. One of the modern phenomena analysed in economic theory and tested in economic practice is the sharing economy (SE). Because it is a relatively new subject of economic analysis, it seems important to closely follow the development of academic work concerning SE (also on the basis of the knowledge provided by the social world).

Aim: The authors of the paper have focused on achieving the following research objectives: (1) identification of literature output in the area of SE, (2) assessment of cooperation between researchers dealing with SE topics and (3) diagnosis of thematic areas related to the studied phenomenon. The basis for the works on the research objectives was a set of 1411 papers related to SE, published in 2011–2018, in the Scopus database. For the research, quantitative analysis with elements of qualitative analysis was used.

Results: Based on the research conducted, the following conclusions were formulated: (1) the current literature on the SE phenomenon is fragmentary, (2) the cooperation, if any, between researchers dealing with SE is ephemeral, (3) SE contexts are focused on specific socio-economic phenomena.