Impacts of the Sharing Economy on Urban Sustainability: The Perceptions of Municipal Governments and Sharing Organisations

Abstract

By changing the institutionalised practices associated with resource distribution, the sharing economy could support sustainable urban transformations. However, its impacts on urban sustainability are unknown and contested, and key actors hold different perceptions about them. Understanding how they frame these impacts could help solve conflicts and outline what can be done to influence the development of the sharing economy in a way that fosters urban sustainability. This study explores the diversity of these frames across actors (sharing economy organisations and municipalities), segments (accommodation, bicycle, and car sharing), and cities (Amsterdam and Toronto). A framework of the impacts on urban sustainability was developed following a systematic literature review. This then guided the analysis of secondary data and 51 interviews with key actors. Results show that accommodation sharing is framed most negatively due to its impact on urban liveability. Bicycle sharing is surrounded by less conflict. Still, in Amsterdam, which has a well-functioning bicycle infrastructure, it is viewed less positively than in Toronto. Car sharing is the most positively framed segment in Amsterdam as its potentials to lower emissions align with municipal sustainability agendas. Practical insights for negotiations between sharing economy organisations and municipalities to advance urban sustainability are proposed.

Institutional Strategies in the Ridesharing Economy: A Content Analysis Based on Uber’s Example

“…Additionally, the findings from the historical analysis have highlighted Uber's alleged commitment to sustainability in environmental, technological, economic and social terms. It is in those terms that the impact of the sharing economy on sustainability has recently been conceptualised and analysed in the literature (e.g., Cohen and Kietzmann [34]; Plepys and Singh [39]; Enochsson et al [33]). Other studies have identified private car ownership as main cause of negative externalities.…”

“…By framing itself as a 'technology company' rather than a taxi company, Uber stressed the importance of ICT and apps in ridesharing services. To the extent that technology helps utilize idling resources as part of collaborative consumption [33,34], ridesharing companies such as Uber may help to facilitate sustainable mobility systems. While measuring idle capacity utilization is beyond the scope of the current study, it is worth emphasizing how Uber's rhetoric on this subject has proved accommodative towards Brussels' strategy on low emission mobility [96].…”

“…The recent literature has addressed the impacts of the sharing economy on sustainability [1,33,34], particularly in environmental, technological, economic and social terms. Some studies examined more specifically the sharing economy in urban contexts of sustainability (e.g., Gao and Li [35]; Zvolska et al [36], Enochsson et al [33]), while other studies have recently investigated the aspects of Mobility-as-a-Service (e.g., Jittrapirom et al [37]; Narayanan et al [38]). At this stage, research needs further elaboration, though it is not void of challenges in terms of methods and data [39].…”

Quality of Life and Community Wellbeing of Members Associated With Village Savings and Loans Associations as a Model of Sharing Economy in the Least Developing Countries: A Case of Mzuzu City in Northern Malawi, Southern Africa

“…Having such global social-economic impacts, this new concept of sharing economy has attracted the attention of many scholarly contributions and industry professionals from all fields of learning and business. Recently, studies have been conducted in the fields of tourism where they tried to explore the experience of sharing economy in accommodation ( Zhang and Fu, 2020 ), and others tried to explore the impacts of sharing economy on urban sustainability ( Enochsson et al, 2021 ). In addition, other studies have explored the developments of the local public sector sharing economy ( Cheetham and Lever, 2021 ), whereas, others have further explored the use of sharing economy on social inclusion and wellbeing ( Davlembayeva et al, 2020 ), and whether Sharing Economy Platforms (SEPs) enhances the relation of sustainable innovations in the business ecosystems ( Rong et al, 2021 ), etc.…”

Life Cycle Assessment of Free-Floating Bike Sharing on Greenhouse Gas Emissions: A Case Study in Nanjing, China

“…As a new transport mode and part of the sharing economy, shared transportation is the innovation of the green development pattern, supporting sustainable urban transformations [15,16]. Free-floating bike sharing (FFBS) is a part of shared transportation and a short-term bike rental service, which is connected to the internet through smart phones to help users park the dock-less bikes almost anywhere in the service area and enable smooth door-door transport without being limited by station infrastructure [17][18][19].…”