IMP research is often treated as an empirical perspective describing complexities of repeated business-to-business exchanges and their embeddedness. While building on some common understandings and concepts, this paper asks: How homogeneous is the IMP research? This paper uses cluster analysis to capture the roots and various sub-groups of IMP research as means to depict the question of homogeneity (i.e. a core focus in the research) or heterogeneity (i.e. using references from other fields or specific to sub-fields) of the IMP thought. In this scientific work in progress paper we introduce how we design to use bibliographical methods in order to harvest data from an extensive amount of IMP-related articles written from the 1970’s onwards. In this first attempt to reveal IMP we used overall 294 articles yielded to 10,615 co-citation relationships. A threshold of minimum number of citations of a cited reference was set to five (5) to capture such references that have been cited in multiple publications. We introduce visual mapping of defined subject area clusters and as an example we describe shortly clusters. Perhaps not surprisingly our findings suggest that IMP research is not so homogenous, with at least four clear clusters of IMP-research each utilizing different key references.

Gigs define temporary works performed by individuals in various settings (Bogenhold, Klinglmair, & Kandutsch, 2017; Healy, Nicholson, & Pekarek, 2017; Horney, 2016; Lehdonvirta, 2018). Coined in the 1920s, its long tradition relates to music and art performers and their acting on stage. It represents some sort of temporality, meaning that the exact same task may not appear again, at least not in the same surrounding. Recent trends in business life have redefined work (cf. Öberg, 2012), have brought forth such concepts as freelance and gig economies to portray individuals as self-employed and the mentioned temporality of task (Gandini, 2016; Janofsky, 2015).

At the rise of the sharing economy, that is, peer-to-peer based exchanges accomplished by digital platforms (e.g., Belk, 2014), the providing parties’ operations could well be seen as gigs intermediated online, but facilitated offline in temporary exchanges with users. The development of the sharing economy includes an increased plurality in ways to operate though (Mair & Reischauer, 2017), not the least underlined by how the peer-to-peer exchanges have sometimes turned into ways to earn living by the providing parties. This paper sets to investigate this phenomenon by particularly focusing on how various stakeholders – internal and external actors with direct or indirect influence or participation in the exchanges (cf. Freeman, 1984) – comprehend this development. The purpose of the paper is to categorize various stakeholders’ viewpoints and their influence on the understanding of gigs in the sharing economy.

Empirically, the paper departs from two social-media data sets: one describing Uber, the other one Foodora, as two examples of sharing economy platforms. The data sets comprises more than 30,000 social media posts. The paper analyses how the providing side of these platforms is reported on in social media also taking into account who (type of stakeholder) posts about them. Preliminary findings indicate how the providing side, albeit both studied platforms would be characterized as highly commercialized, demonstrate quite different results related to those work conditions actually at hand. While this being the case, the data reveals a shared pattern of negative connotation across stakeholder groups, with them influencing one another across the social media. The negative descriptions do, as opposed to learnings from traditional stakeholder theory, indicate expressions well beyond stakes and influences by the particular stakeholder group: a user may well engage in talks about legal regulations, for instance, while it would had been expected to mostly engage with services provided, payments, and deliveries.

The paper contributes to previous research in several ways: Firstly, the sharing economy literature is still mainly focused on the user side of sharing, meaning that this paper fills an empirical hole in its perspective. Secondly, the methodological approach taken allows for a broad, but also integrated capturing of individual stakeholders’ understanding of the phenomenon. Hence, it includes both the definition of various stakeholder groups and how they may influence one another. Thirdly, and as the theoretical contribution, the paper provides understanding for stakeholders, their influence and participation in digital settings, and particularly how influences and viewpoints of stakeholders become separated from their participation.

This paper assesses the role of social media to enable collective action, that is, parties’ attempts to change behaviour in such a manner that a common goal is achieved. It studies collective action in the light of the sharing economy and some parties’ attempts to reverse the commercialisation of the sharing economy and (partially) recreate it as a collaborative economy. This paper draws social media data for almost 36 months, from 14 March 2016 to 11 February 2019, generating a dataset of 11,553 social media posts for the sharing economy, from which a subsequent dataset consisting of 533 social media posts with reference to the collaborative economy was derived. Findings point at how the collective actors were caught between conflicting interests and chose to prioritise the marketing of their own services, rather than supporting the collective action movement. Increased transactional behaviours and difficulties to reach through counteracted the collective action idea. Based on these findings, we contribute to previous research by discussing ways in which digital technology facilitates or hinders collective action in the context of digitalisation.

The sharing economy increasingly gains momentum in several business sectors. This paper sets to investigate the interconnectivity among platforms in the sharing economy through reporting on how new platforms are created with reference to previous ones. The paper points out a seamless, unobtrusive, imitation pattern of spread of the sharing economy business model. It could be seen as information or availability based focusing on reproducing activities in ever new resource settings. Contributions are made to IMP research in the sense of continuing the discussion on how the sharing economy can be understood from the IMP perspective, and it broadens the discussion to include the network level. Imitation as a mechanism of spread raises new insights to understand how current business landscapes transition into a new logic of operations.

This paper aims to assess the impact of the sharing economy on ways in which online commerce is evolving. By utilising Social Media Analytics to systematically track the developments of the sharing economy visà-vis online commerce, we analyse an empirical material of 8,755 user-generated content covering a time period of 24 months. Our findings illustrate that the sharing economy fuels platforms focusing attention to sharing commerce but also platforms engaged in social commerce and more general forms of e-commerce. Furthermore, our findings show the sectors in which sharing commerce, social commerce and general forms of e-commerce have become particularly prevalent. The paper contributes to previous literature by providing a systematic empirical contribution on the impact of the sharing economy on the evolution of online commerce and by conceptually explaining why the sharing economy gives rise to a relatively wide plethora of online commerce initiatives.

The sharing economy has evolved and spread to various sectors of the economy. Its early idea linked to the creation of more sustainable uses of resources. Since then, the development of the sharing economy has included a professionalization with self-employed suppliers rather than peers, and the question is whether the platforms following this development maintain the focus on sustainability. This paper describes and classifies the sustainability connotation of sharing economy platforms. It analyses 121 platforms derived through social media analytics to figure out whether they describe themselves as sustainable. The findings suggest that the sustainability connotation closely connects to specific sectors such as fashion, on-demand services and logistics. Meanwhile, the dominant role model platforms do not communicate about being sustainable. These findings contribute to previous research through (1) giving a systematic empirical account on the way various sharing economy platforms describe themselves in terms of sustainability, (2) pointing out the differences among the platforms, and (3) indicating the diversity in sustainability connotation among various sectors of the economy.

Purpose: Using the case of Foodora, this paper aims to assess the impact of technological innovation of an emerging actor in the sharing economy through stakeholders' perceptions in the market and non-market domains.

Design/methodology/approach: Using a methodological approach called social media analytics (SMA) to explore the case of Foodora, 3,250 user-generated contents in social media are systematically gathered, coded and analysed.

Findings: The findings indicate that, while Foodora appears to be a viable provider in the marketplace, there is mounting public concern about the working conditions of its employees. In the market domain, Foodora manages its status as an online delivery platform and provider well, but at the same time, it struggles with its position in the non-market sphere, suggesting that the firm is vulnerable to regulatory change. These insights highlight the importance of simultaneously exploring and balancing market and non-market perceptions when assessing the impact of disruptive innovation.

Originality/value: This study offers originality by providing an integrative approach to consider both the market and non-market domains. It is also novel in its use of SMA as a tool for knowledge acquisition and management to evaluate the impact of emerging technologies in the sharing economy.

Purpose: Digitally intermediated peer-to-peer exchanges have accelerated in occurrence, and as a consequence, they have introduced an increased pluralism of connotations. Accordingly, this paper aims to assess user perceptions of the interplay between the sharing, access, platform, and community-based economies.

Design/methodology/approach: The sharing, access, platform, and community-based economies have been systematically tracked in the social media landscape using Social Media Analytics (SMA). In doing so, a total material of 62,855 publicly posted user-generated content concerning the four respective economies were collected and analyzed.

Findings: Even though the sharing economy has been conceptually argued to be interlinked with the access, platform, and community-based economies, the empirical results of the study do not validate this interlinkage. Instead, the results regarding user perceptions in social media show that the sharing, access, platform, and community-based economies manifest as clearly separated.

Originality/value: This paper contributes to existing literature by offering an empirical validation, as well as an in-depth understanding, of the sharing economy's interlinkage to other economies, along with the extent to which the overlaps between these economies manifest in social media.

Purpose: This article explores the various stakeholders' perceptions of the ways digital work is organised within the sharing economy and the social implications of the transformation of work.

Design/methodology/approach: Applying social media analytics (SMA) concerning the sharing economy platform Foodora, a total of 3,251 user-generated content was collected and organised throughout the social media landscape in Sweden over 12 months, and 18 stakeholder groups were identified, discussing digital work within seven thematic categories.

Findings: The results show that the stakeholder groups in the Swedish context primarily expressed negative views of Foodora's way of organising digital work. The social media posts outlined the distributive and procedural justice related to the working conditions, boycott and protests and critical incidents, as well as the collective bargaining of Foodora.

Originality/value: By utilising a novel SMA method, this study contributes to the extant literature on the sharing economy by providing a systematic assessment concerning the impact of the sharing economy platform on the transformation of work and the associated social consequences.

Artificial intelligence (AI) expects to increasingly transform ways in which business is conducted. With change follows a need to question current ways of acting and interacting. Yet, the past becomes the frames through which the future is understood. By drawing on Predictive Brain Theory, which shares the same fundamental underpinnings as the Bayesian brain hypothesis, but uses insights from machine learning and neuroscience, the paper conceptualizes that prospective sense making as a skill to update in-flux network pictures are increasingly required for business managers, which the paper reflects on in the light of AI. The paper provides a novel approach to business managers’ mental capacity in understanding change and in their ability to adapt to structural shifts that require an update on gone-solid assumptions about the business environment, while linking this to AI both as a motor of change, and as challenging the human thought with machine learning.