POLICY, LEGAL AND REGULATION RESEARCH IN THE SHARING ECONOMY: A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS AND SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

The sharing economy has changed the way we think about services, assets, and ownership. This phenomenon has shaped a new economic model which emphasises sharing over property ownership. Shared platforms such as Airbnb, Grab, and Uber are increasing in size and popularity exponentially, causing certain political and legal issues associated with such growth. In this regard, this paper aims to investigate the evolution of policy, legal and regulatory research in the sharing economy from the year 1995 to the year 2020 and focuses on new research topics in this field. To achieve this goal, the study utilised extensive bibliometric analysis to identify and analyse 343 articles published in SCOPUS indexed journals from 2004 to 2020. The result shows that research on the sharing economy has increased since 2000. However, the total number of publications in SCOPUS journal relating to policies and regulations still lags behind as compared to the publications in other disciplines. Most of the published research is in the form of concept papers and empirical research. Nevertheless, it is still inadequate. This study summarises the evolution of publications over time and outlines the interests of current research and the potential directions for future research, including addressing policy and organisational research issues in the sharing economy