Core Elements Affecting Sharing Evidence from the European Union

Abstract

Sharing activities are receiving greater attention due to increasing popularity in recent years. This article focuses on how the use of digital sharing platforms by customers to share products and services helps to increase the saving of natural resources and support sustainable development. In the paper, the authors investigated the main elements affecting ICT based sharing. (1) Literature review: The theoretical part starts with the revision of definitions of sharing activities; descriptions of the links between sharing and sustainable development, policy recommendations, and relevant regulation in the field. Further on, the study emphasises key elements, including ICT ones, that are important for sharing. Finally, the authors investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic affected sharing activities in previously published studies. (2) Methods: During empirical research, the authors revised a list of 33 variables, among which are 16 indicators describing network infrastructure, internet literacy and online shopping. The study uses data for each of the 27 EU countries from 2011 to 2020. The authors investigated correlations between macroeconomics and other variables to determine key variables for the regression model. (3) Results: The authors constructed a dynamic regression model that can be applied to predict the number of participants visiting digital sharing platforms in the European Union (EU). (4) Conclusions: The study shows that, when seeking to forecast the number of visits to digital sharing platforms, it is necessary to use values of main macroeconomic and ICT variables. Among these variables, ICT based indicators are highly dominating.

Sharing Economy Development: Empirical Analysis of Technological Factors

“…This study aims to determine the main technological variables which are important for accelerating sharing activity. Most of these methods are mentioned by Lingaitien ė et al (2022) [60]. The authors of this paper integrated several quantitative methods for the first time to get higher quality research results which are important for constructing the panel regression model.…”

“…Many authors examine the services provided on different internet platforms such as Uber, Airbnb, Gumtree, eBay, Amazon, and others [58][59][60]68,70,71,[73][74][75][76][77]. Lingaitien ė et al (2022) examined customer habits using digital sharing platforms when they need to share products and services that help save natural resources and support sustainable development [60].…”

“…Many authors examine the services provided on different internet platforms such as Uber, Airbnb, Gumtree, eBay, Amazon, and others [58][59][60]68,70,71,[73][74][75][76][77]. Lingaitien ė et al (2022) examined customer habits using digital sharing platforms when they need to share products and services that help save natural resources and support sustainable development [60]. Kirchner and Schüßler (2019) described the role of online profit-seeking platforms for ride-hailing, housing rental, shopping, repair, and other services in the SE, with the help of which conventional services have been transferred to the online space [73].…”