Sharing Economy Platforms in the Face of Crises: A Conceptual Framework

Paul Belleflamme, Muxin Li and Anaïs Périlleux
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Muxin Li: Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research (IGIER), Università Bocconi, Via Roberto Sarfatti, 25, 20136 Milano, Italy

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 14, 1-21

Abstract: We propose a conceptual framework to analyze how crises dynamically affect the operations, performance, and strategic choices of digital platforms and how these effects impact their sustainability. Drawing on the theory of two-sided platforms, we propose a framework that considers two key dimensions: (1) the nature of shocks affecting each side of the platform and (2) the time horizon of their impact. We apply this framework to evaluate how sharing-economy platforms responded to the COVID-19 crisis, focusing on Airbnb, Uber Eats, and Prosper as illustrative cases.

Keywords: digital platforms; sharing economy; sustainability; network effects; crisis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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