Overview of Sharing Economy at the Base of the Pyramid

Abstract

The prevalent discourse on sharing economy presume it to be an economic system in which assets or services are shared between peers, groups, or organizations for free or for a fee. Sharing economy conceptualized as commercialzed access to idle resources has grown exponentially in both scale and scope over the past years. However, there has been relatively less attention on potential of sharing economy in addressing the needs of marginalized communities. Building on digital social innovation framework (Qureshie et al. Information Systems Journal, 31(5):1–25, 2012b), we develop a 3S framework and reformative-transformative classification that help structure and analyze sharing economy models at the base of the pyramid. The 3S framework identify three dimensions of the sharing economy that are relevant for the base of the pyramid: scope of sharing, possibility of socialization, and degree of social intermediation. Reformative-transformative classification provide lens to understand the impact of sharing economy initiatives on the base of the pyramid population.