Framing the sharing economy: Toward a sustainable ecosystem

The sharing economy has been a controversial phenomenon since its inception. This study employed the frame analysis method to examine and understand how the sharing economy is conceptualized in the news media discourse. A total of 340 online news articles regarding the sharing economy published between 2011 and 2017 were selected from 13 U.S. news entities. Six issue-specific frames and seven interest groups were identified to organize the whole public discourse of the sharing economy. Based on the frame analysis results, an ecosystem framework was proposed to display the underlying structure of the sharing economy. The findings reveal that the sharing economy is in its early stages and the ecosystem is not yet in healthy shape. Therefore, three strategies were suggested to pave the way for sustainable development of the sharing economy ecosystem: alignment to mutual interests, collaboration for shared success, and commitment to social responsibility.