Table 1 Summary of controversies and challenged legitimacy of sharing economy
From: Managing the innovation legitimacy of the sharing economy
Controversy domains | Dark side of sharing economy and examples |
|---|---|
Regulatory and legal issues | • Employee identification (e.g., Uber identifying their workers as independent contractors • Limited release of data for policy decisions (e.g., Airbnb refusing to release rental listings) • Possible violations of anti-trust laws (e.g., Uber’s surge pricing model) |
Tax and labor issues | • Missed tax revenues (e.g., Uber, Airbnb) • Poor employee treatment and working environment (e.g., Uber’s workers with lack of protections and violence against drivers) |
Consumer concerns | • Incidental situations with risks and lack of safeguards for customers (e.g., rape and murder allegations, unmet health and safety regulations) |
Social inequality | • Imbalanced distributions of gains across those with capital and without capital • Racial inequality from discrimination |
Politics and lobbying | • Lobbying and PR to legislators and regulators • Allure of exclusive access to internal data offered to academic researchers |
Economic and societal impact | • Increasing competitions rather than increasing demand • Macroeconomic concerns (e.g., changing communities and worsening living situations in concentrated service areas) • Reduced use of public infrastructure that will adversely affect the benefit of shared burden |
Is sharing really sharing? | • Questions about sharing economy whether it is no different than traditional capitalism in the end (e.g., commodifying and monetizing traditional forms of peer interaction) |