دانلود رایگان مقاله اشتراک گذاری و مصرف مشارکتی آنلاین

ABSTRACT

Sharing is a phenomenon as old as humankind, while collaborative consumption and the “sharing economy” are phenomena born of the Internet age. This paper compares sharing and collaborative consumption and finds that both are growing in popularity today. Examples are given and an assessment is made of the reasons for the current growth in these practices and their implications for businesses still using traditional models of sales and ownership. The old wisdom that we are what we own, may need modifying to consider forms of possession and uses that do not involve ownership.

6. Conclusions

The average car in North American and Western Europe is in use 8% of the time (D. Sacks, 2011). The average electric drill is used 6 to 13 min over its lifetime (Earth Share, no date). Sharing makes a great deal of practical and economic sense for the consumer, the environment, and the community. It may also make a great deal of sense for businesses that are sufficiently flexible, innovative, and forward thinking. Botsman and Rogers (2010) suggest that collaborative consumption could be as important as the Industrial Revolution in terms of how we think about ownership. Everyday some of the bravest and brightest thinkers are dreaming up the next Internet startup intended to bring its creators a fortune. Against this backdrop it would be folly to ignore sharing and collaborative consumption as alternative ways of consuming and as new business paradigms. Few industries are exempt from potential disruptive change within the sharing economy. While universities have been slow to embrace online teaching, university academics have long participated in a cornucopia of shared knowledge. Rather than work individually and keep our knowledge secret, we are happy to publish it and give it away to anyone who is interested. This is the open model of science that replaced the medieval scientist trying to keep discoveries secret and thereby condemning fellow scientists to all start from scratch (David, 2005). What then should we make of universities rushing to patent discoveries before allowing them to be published? Surely nothing good. When knowledge and learning are auctioned off to the highest bidder we all stand to lose. Shaking lose of the former wisdom that, “You are what you own” and converting to a new wisdom, “You are what you share,” indicates that we just may be entering the postownership economy.