is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there’s nothing left to take away.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Welcome to this book!
By reading the table of contents, you have probably noticed the diversity of topics we are about to discuss. The purpose of the Sharing Economy and Big Data Analytics, as the title suggests, is to provide a good reference source in these two fields, which have emerged in the digital context. These two fields are so vast that a book ten times larger could not cover everything.
From a theoretical and practical point of view, this book adds new knowledge and expands the growing body of literature in the field of the Big Data-based sharing economy. It examines why the new data analysis techniques are needed for sharing economy companies.
These reasons are not only related to the implementation of advanced technologies, enabling the capture and the analysis of large amounts of available data, but also to the extraction of value to better guide, optimize the decision-making process and operationalize the company’s various activities.
These questions will be primarily based on the following points:
– How did the different players give meaning to the concept of sharing? Or, in another way, how have they been able to develop their business models in a way that competes and/or coexists with existing models?
– How is the value captured, created and delivered, and how is this value co-created in regard to the interaction of multi-purpose players in this sharing context? Or, how does the ecosystem of sharing logic work, and what are the impacts, as well as the economic, social and environmental challenges?
– What is the role of Big Data and the set of data analysis techniques and algorithms in value creation in an economy based on sharing? How do these algorithms and new analytical techniques affect the ecosystem of the sharing economy?
The objective is to show the power of Big Data analytics and explain why it is so important for the sharing economy. Especially if we notice, thanks to the exploration carried out on the whole literature, that a few studies have simultaneously addressed these two fields. This is the full potential of this book, which will serve as a reference for readers in order to understand the role of Big Data analytics as a critical success factor for sharing economy companies.
This book therefore discusses the why and the how, in order to help the reader understand these two parallel universes. For each chapter, we have chosen a different aspect which we find interesting, while hoping that these aspects will serve as points of entry into these two exciting universes.
Soraya SEDKAOUI
Mounia KHELFAOUI
October 2019
Introduction
Knowledge is acquired through experience, everything else is information.
Albert Einstein
The discussion regarding sharing is very eloquent, it evokes a feeling of kindness and solidarity in each of us. It is used to express a desire to share a part of what we have with others: we can share a meal, an apartment or a car.
But can we share everything?
“I ask nothing more than to share my sorrows and joy.1”
Sharing is an interface between individuals, it concerns both concrete and abstract things. In this way, we can share our pain, our joy, our love and even our life. Sharing helps to alleviate the suffering of people in need who are living in poverty. When we give part of what we have, we eradicate the selfishness that lies dormant within us and awaken hope of our human values in others.
The notion of sharing is not a human invention, but a reality that has accompanied man since the dawn of time. It is the result of needing to live in a community and strengthen social ties; because living in a society where sharing prevails strengthens security and trust between individuals.
Following the economic crises that shook the world economy after the Industrial Revolution, we became aware of the multi-dimensional nature of these crises (economic, social, environmental) and the value of reviewing the business models adopted so far.
“Sharing” has thus become the emblem of the new business model that we tend to call “the sharing economy”. It is defined as an activity to procure, provide or share goods or services via digital technology or, more precisely, “digital platforms”.
The sharing economy is part of the sustainable development perspective, the purpose of which is to rationalize the exploitation of underutilized resources or assets.
This business model owes its reputation to Internet performance: digital platforms, even if individuals have been engaged in sharing activities for thousands of years.
Over time, digital platforms have become more efficient and now govern a wide range of business transactions: C2C, C2B and also B2B.
But what about the spirit of sharing in the sharing economy?
Criticisms about the sharing economy focus on the lexical amalgam encountered in the activities of start-ups in this field. Thus, when a company like Airbnb is considered as a highly prized example of the sharing economy by the majority of individuals, where is the principle of sharing in the rental or paid reservation of an apartment by this platform?
There is controversy over the concept of the sharing economy, because other concepts are related: the collaborative economy, the platform economy, the demand economy, the independent economy, the gig economy, etc.
To avoid this confusion, we can say that the sharing economy is about the use of underutilized resources, which are not free of charge, because the shared products or services can be both paid and free.
In this context, the spirit of sharing or collaboration is a metaphor that satisfies the beliefs of a new standard of economic thought that is at odds with traditional models.
Even if this displeases some people, we will improperly call it the “sharing economy” and the “collaborative economy”.
I.1. Why this book?
Our most beautiful adventures are our thoughts.
Victor Cherbuliez, 1864
This is a relevant question that we had to ask ourselves before embarking on this “delightful” adventure!
On the one hand, the idea for this book was born from our personal beliefs. As researchers, it is our responsibility to question and analyze the phenomena that challenge us.
On the other hand, and without a doubt, our training courses have a lot to do with the choice of this theme. This is the meeting of two disciplines: environmental economics and data sciences. Therefore, we initially started from the interest of these two disciplines.
The environmental economy has undergone a remarkable expansion over the past forty years, coinciding with
