Sharing Economy at the Base of the Pyramid: Opportunities and Challenges

This book explores how ?the sharing economy models present opportunities and also pose challenges in achieving sustainable development at the base of the pyramid. 

Through a 3S Framework (sharing, socialization, and social intermediation) and Reformative-Transformative classification, this book demonstrates how sharing economy models offer the potential for more inclusive and sustainable development.

The book includes case studies on sharing economy models that offer products and services for free or at prices more affordable than traditional options, while also finding ways toward economic sustainability and inclusive growth. This book identifies how local resources, community social capital, and bricolage could be leveraged in the development of sharing economy models that take into account the specificities of particular communities while ensuring that the solutions can be quickly modified and replicated. Further, this book highlights that sharing economy models leverage the digital revolution to take advantage of cheaper computational capacity and global connectivity, while rapidly adapting to engage with those that have less digital literacy at the base of the pyramid.

This edited book aims to present analyses of sharing economy models at the base of the pyramid, identifying characteristics that can be particularly important for sustainable development and barriers that would need to be overcome to realize its full potential. The chapters in this book are contributed by a wide range of academics and scholars who are experts in the field.

Israr Qureshi is a Professor at the Research School of Management, Australian National University (ANU), Canberra. He is a member of ANU Institute for Climate, Energy & Disaster Solutions, and an associate editor at Business & Society, Information Systems Journal, and MIS Quarterly. He was a member (Civil Society Group) and observer (Technical Working Group) on the recently concluded Australian Sustainable Finance Initiative.  ?Israr is currently involved in multiple research projects that investigate various social value creation through social intermediation, social entrepreneurship and digital social innovation. Israr’s extensive research and pro bono advising of social enterprises and ventures in the base of the pyramid contexts helped him understand the potential of social intermediation, social entrepreneurship and digital social innovation in transforming society.

Babita Bhatt is a Lecturer at the Research School of Management, Australian National University. Her research interest lies at the intersection of community, civil society and organizations. Her research expertise is in hybrid organizations, particularly social enterprises that are working in resource-constrained and socially challenging contexts. Her research mainly explores how organizational hybridity affects the social impact of social enterprises and what type of governance structures and mechanisms would result in more inclusive outcomes. Through several projects in China, India and the Philippines, she has acquired expertise on the issues related to resource acquisition, scalability, and sustainability of social enterprises. Her work has been published in Organization Studies, Journal of Business Ethics, European Journal of Marketing, and Information Systems Frontiers. She has received funding from various research agencies in Canada, Hong Kong and India.

Dhirendra Mani Shukla is an Assistant Professor at Indian Institute of Management Udaipur. He received his doctoral degree from Indian Institute of Management Lucknow. His research interests include social entrepreneurship, innovation, social networks, strategic alliances, and interorganizational relationships. His work has been published in Journal of Business Research, Management Decision, and Journal of Management & Organization. His projects on social networks and entrepreneurship have received funding from MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development, India) and ICSSR (Indian Council of Social Science Research) under prestigious granting initiatives such as SPARC and IMPRESS. His work on interorganizational relationships and innovation received the Scholars Exchange Grant from ICSSR under Indo-Swiss joint research programme in social sciences.