Purpose In order to guide sustainability research on the sharing economy, the purpose of this paper is to develop a comprehensive framework that captures the wide range of activities and business models that are considered to be part of the sharing economy. Design/methodology/approach Based on a systematic literature review and a content analysis, existing typologies are identified and analyzed for their conceptual intersections. Finally, categorizations from 43 documents are integrated into one framework. Findings Four main dimensions are identified as being used in different contexts to characterize sharing systems and were combined to form one comprehensive typology: shared good or service, market structure, market orientation, and industry sector. Originality/value The proposed typology is able to distinguish sharing activities based on their similarities and differences. Social, economic, and communicational avenues for the term “sharing” are merged into a conceptual foundation of the sharing economy. This enables researchers, practitioners, and policy makers to position their projects in the broad field of sharing. By discussing inherent tensions with regard to sustainability of the sharing economy, the offered categorizations can help to guide future research and policy intervention. Last but not least, professional managers should find valuable ideas for new business models.

The dissemination of decentralized renewable energy generation, storage and smart metering devices has led to the need for new business models and coordination mechanisms in the energy sector. At the same time, the emerging sharing economy focuses on using digital platforms to coordinate value creation on a decentralized level. While sharing concepts have already been applied to specific energy technologies and microgrids, a more general understanding of what the sharing economy means in the context of the energy sector is still missing. This paper aims to bring these two topics together and to analyze their interfaces and overlaps. For this purpose, this paper draws from existent scientific publications, reports, blog posts, and websites as well as company workshops to discuss which activities and characteristics of the sharing economy might be applicable to the energy sector. Results show that there are significant overlaps in characteristics of the sharing economy and of the transitioning energy system. Furthermore, a broad range of business models within the energy system were found to be based on sharing resources. The findings of this study open up a range of new research and business opportunities at the interface of the sharing economy and the transitioning energy system.

Peer-to-peer energy (p2p) communities connect electricity consumers and producers on platforms allowing them to trade energy with each other. By synchronizing local production and consumption, connecting decentral actors, and creating new markets, they can promote a more sustainable energy system. A multicase study and expert interviews were conducted to investigate how the business models of these organizations operate and what value they may provide to stakeholders and the energy system. It was found that, due to current legislation, organizations in Germany mostly facilitate virtual, supraregional p2p energy communities. While these do not offer all the benefits of local p2p energy communities, they do facilitate a range of advantages to stakeholders and the overall energy system. Finally, it is concluded how sustainable business models can offer “system transition value,” driving the dissemination of new technologies, the redesign of markets, and the education of customers to foster a more sustainable energy system.

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Our society currently faces complex ecological, social, and economic challenges that require collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches. Although interest in interdisciplinary research is growing, it is still confronted with significant obstacles stemming from difficulties in establishing a common understanding. While others have evaluated interdisciplinary in a top-down funding-oriented ex ante manner or a result-oriented ex post manner, this focus paper intends to create a framework that enables the measurement of interdisciplinary understanding within a group. Therefore, using the case of the interdisciplinary Boysen-TU Dresden Research Group, a framework for measuring interdisciplinary understanding (MIU) is presented. The basis of the framework is the development of dimensions based on the specific composition and requirements of the interdisciplinary group. With this framework, two main contributions are provided. First, interdisciplinary understanding within a research group can be measured with respect to the defined dimensions. Through discussions on the differences of the understanding of projects over the dimensions, it is possible to establish a common understanding of projects. Second, the interdisciplinarity within a group or interdisciplinary distance between two specific research projects can be evaluated in order to identify possible difficulties in understanding, as well as recognizing potentials for interdisciplinary research. The MIU framework and the dimensions established in this paper can be adapted and transferred to any interdisciplinary research group to improve joint understanding of researchers and enable them to tackle complex techno-societal problems of the future.