How much social innovation is behind the online platforms of the sharing economy?: An exploratory investigation and educing of clusters in the German context

The paper aims to generate insight about conceptualization of the sharing economy. With a field research of 76 online platforms associated with the German sharing economy (SE) a generalized conceptualization is formed. With the inferred attributes and developed categories, clusters are built. The German sharing economy is outlined as conglomerate of business models that are effecting classical consumption by online platform-using business organizations, peer-to-peer consumption without business intermediates, and hybrid forms between commercial and non-commercial users. Within these and their frequency, conclusions about possibilities for alternative consumption and social innovations are discussed. A minority can be directly linked to alternative consumption that acts without business intermediates or without monetary reward. Seldom cases can be interpreted as social innovations, because improvements in social concerns are enabled through online platform technology. The frame of the German economic system for the sharing economy is considered briefly to underpin assumed developments and effects, which led to the actual status and will influence the sharing economy's future. The study is theoretically based on the resource-dependence-approach and on related fields. Concluding hypotheses are derived from our results for further research on SE.