Socio-technological system of sharing economy

Abstract

Sharing economy is a system which functions successfully provided that technological and social subsystems complement each other forming an indivisibly combined cohesive structure. The premise of balancing social and technological aspects is proposed in the socio-technological theory. Social issues call for social innovation to fulfil the needs and requirements of the society as well as individual citizens. The goal of this paper is to fill the gap in the extant literature by proposing a comprehensive framework of sharing economy based on the socio-technological theory. This study carried out a systematic literature review of works on sharing economy and socio-technological theory in order to develop a conceptual framework. There were identified different social motives associated with each of the subsystems; interplay between them was established. This study contributes to the increasing research by presenting a holistic view of sharing economy through the theoretical lens of socio-technology keeping society as well as consumer needs and requirements at its focal point.