consumer behavior for several years. The pivot of this new trend is “collaborative consumption”, which is defined as “the set of resource circulation systems that allow consumers to use and provide valuable resources temporarily or permanently, through direct interaction with another consumer or through a mediator” (Decrop 2017).
The concept of collaborative consumption was initiated by Felson and Spaeth in 1978, long before the boom in mobile technology and social networks, with a different objective than the one that is “now attributed to the concept” (Ertz 2017).
Collaborative consumption has changed the subjective conception of the value of goods and services, well known in the currents of economic thought. Indeed, collaborative consumption is based on a new principle of “access/use rather than purchase/ownership of goods, capital or services”, by pooling their personal resources (Decrop 2017).
Collaborative consumption is considered an economic model, in that it has brought about change in society by using old values, such as giving and altruism.
By affirming that collaborative consumption is the ultimate alternative to excessive consumption, Botsman and Rogers (2010) use examples of companies “within this model” in order to highlight the specificities of the different practices and trends of this new consumption model (Bicrel 2012).
This view is shared by a large number of authors who argue that collaborative behavior is increasingly becoming a socio-economic option for the economic crises of the capitalist model and a possible response to environmental problems.
The “abandonment” of abusive consumption behavior is imminent, and even if it is does not happen today, it is starting to seep into individuals’ morals. It is now the objective of the collaborative economy.
1.2.2. The sharing economy: which economy?
Sharing, in the formal sense of the word, means “to divide a whole into several pieces in order to own it with others”. But in this case, sharing means “to take part in a whole or to benefit from a part of a service or good”.
The representation of the economy according to the sharing orthodoxy revisits the economic reality. Does it simplify it? Or does it complicate it even more? We are not ready to decide, but we can argue that this is a new “identification” or “modeling” of the economy.
The characteristic of this model lies in the novelty of the process of sharing goods and services. Indeed, exchanges follow a horizontal and decentralized trajectory between individuals, by modifying the redistribution system (Penn 2016).
The sharing economy embodies a new socio-economic system based on the exchange of goods (vehicles, housing, tools, etc.) and services (carpooling, take-back, etc.) between individuals. It may involve profit-based transactions, in other words, there is a monetary exchange, or it may involve giving, bartering or volunteer activities.
But what makes the sharing economy famous?
The thing that offers all these opportunities for exchange and makes this new business model famous is a technical instrument: the “digital platform”. The sharing economy is thus also called the “platform economy”. It is defined as being constituted by trades between “peers with platforms, acting as brokers between them” (Nicot 2017).
Platforms ensure the success of the sharing economy because they contain several features:
First, the platforms provide an algorithm for efficient matching between labor providers and users. Second, technology reduces transaction costs because platforms can also facilitate micro-transactions. Third, platforms provide services to reduce or manage the risks associated with market transactions, thereby addressing market failures, in other words, incomplete or erroneous information. (Drahokoupil and Fabo 2016)
The sharing economy is not just a fashionable phenomenon. Today, an increasing number of companies depend on the intensive use of digital platforms, which allows for an easy relationship between supply and demand, in addition to the trust required by users.
Even materialistic consumers, who are more inclined to own things, are attracted to the sharing economy, and projections show that the main sharing sectors, namely carpooling, online staffing, music and video streaming, finance and housing have the potential to increase global incomes from about $15 billion to about $335 billion by 2025. Such exponential growth is a reminder of the importance of the subject in both theory and practice (Ranjbari et al. 2018).
It also creates jobs, can support the ecological cause (shared resources, reduction of negative effects) and can remedy excessive consumption (Torfs 2016a). It contributes to the achievement of the objectives of sustainable development, namely the sustainability of the economy.
Like any economic model, the sharing economy draws on basic elements to build its theory, through the formalization of the economic phenomenon and hypotheses, so as to identify its functioning and the scope of its model.
What are the foundations of the sharing economy? What does the technical nature of digital platforms give it?
Certainly, technology has attributed a particularity to the sharing economy in terms of conceptualization, but it remains a concept based on currents of theoretical reflection.
1.3. The foundations of the sharing economy
The sharing economy is a multidisciplinary concept supported by socio-economic partners, entrepreneurs and ecological activists. A consensus on the theoretical foundations of this concept does not yet exist. However, defenders of this economy have mobilized a review of theoretical thinking in order to identify collaborative practices: the free market economy and P2P economy, the gift economy and the service economy (Borel et al. 2015). These three elements will be addressed in the following sections.
1.3.1. Peer-to-peer (P2P): a revolution in computer networks
The advent of the Internet has changed the way humans behave in relation to their ways of consuming. The prowess of IT has not only shaken up “the way in which purchases are made between online sales professionals and a consumer. Web 2.0 and its myriad of social networks are changing our relationships with others and also our way of consuming” (Evroux et al. 2014).
Box 1.1. The social web
Unlike web 1.0, web 2.0 is a platform that provides more opportunities for disseminating and sharing information. The consumer is no longer just a passive consumer, but becomes active and participates in the “making” of information.
The tremendous expansion of the social web is embodied in peer-to-peer (P2P) technology, with the initial sharing of media, music and video files. The proper meaning of the word peer-to-peer is “node-to-node”. In this process, the interconnected nodes share resources with each other without using a centralized administrative system. In other words, each node of the computer network is both client and server, unlike the old client-server model.
Figure 1.1. P2P diagram (Evroux et al. 2014). For a color version of this figure, see www.iste.co.uk/sedkaoui/economy.zip
The success of the P2P system as a social phenomenon has important economic (rights and taxes) and moral (knowledge
