The Sharing Economy: Business Cases of Social Enterprises Using Collaborative Networks

This paper describes the sharing economy business cases of social enterprises using the collaborative networks in the platforms of production, consumption, and redistribution. These three cases (Orgdot's producer network, “Designers & Makers” in the fashion industry, Purun Bike Sharing's bike sharing network, and Bigwalk's donation network) show that exploiting the ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) for social enterprise innovation can be a new driver for the success of the sharing economy business. The sharing economy model can provide social enterprises with the opportunities to overcome their market problems because social value can be fully embedded in the process of their sharing economy cycles. Using innovated and proactive platforms, collectively known as the “ICTs based sharing economy” can be a new business model to the social entrepreneurship. Also, social enterprise operations that are able to create both social and economic value are considered “double bottom-line” organizations, while other public organizations are mainly “single bottom-line” organizations. These findings have practical and strategic implications for the development and transfer of social values.