Knowledge Management in the Sharing Economy

The purpose of this chapter is to explore the new ideas promoted by the sharing economy and to explain the novel business models operating in today’s turbulent economic environment. Sharing economy departs from the existing economic structures and focuses on ownership, by promoting flexible networking architectures and free access to sharing resources and activities. Considering Uber as a symbol of the new business dynamics, the chapter reveals some of the emerging changes and their role in shaping the new business environment. Uber comes with a new business model which is based on ownership outsourcing and the transformation of its drivers from employees into microentrepreneurs. The whole business operation is done through a powerful digital platform which provides fast connections between the managers, drivers and people using transportation services. Also, Uber introduces a price dynamics mechanism which computes the transportation costs as a function of demand and supply in that particular context and time. This system constitutes and effective core competence for achieving competitive advantage.

Since the beginning of industrialization, the pipeline business model has dominated world economies: products were created by a producer, be it a person or a company, then customers were informed that they could buy those products, and the cycle closed with the proper selling of those goods to customers. In recent years, this linear mode of doing business has started to be replaced by platforms. While platforms are not a new way of doing business—fairs are the classic platform prototype—the use of ITC in creating, managing, and accessing platforms stimulated the appearance of a different approach to this business model, providing benefits for all of the economic actors participating in the digital economy. This chapter presents some of the particularities of digital platform business models and argues in favor of their benefits by referring to a number of worldwide famous businesses, in fields from education to transportation and commerce, constructed according to these models.

This chapter presents the results of a qualitative study on the sharing economy themes such as: peer-to-peer accommodation, transportation, item-sharing and crowdfunding. The study is based on in-depth interviews conducted with 63 participants from two of Romania’s four largest university cities. The results depict country’s specifics and indicate the main reasons which motivate or impede Romanians’ participation as consumers and providers in each of the four areas. Finding a considerable level of reluctance to item-sharing, positive attitudes towards crowdfunding and an increased demand in accommodation and transportation domains (coupled with scarce internal offers), the chapter indicates the most promising domains of the sharing economy development in Romania, and highlights contextual factors related to the post-communist specificity. Offering valuable insights for researchers and entrepreneurs, this section has the merit of introducing the first report regarding the perspectives on the sharing economy development in Romania, and it is, to date, one of the few academic works offering on-topic insights from Eastern-Europe.

Ten years ago, renting a flat from a stranger instead of a room in a hotel might have been considered very unusual in some countries and, of course, not an ideal way to spend holidays. However, times have changed all over the world, and now there are a multitude of online services that offer alternatives to traditional hosting. The products and services of the sharing economy have begun to change lifestyles. The sharing economy, often called the collaborative economy or collaborative consumption, is a new form of business that is growing rapidly. This type of economy presents a challenge, mainly for producers, since, instead of producing new products, the system revolves around the exchange of goods and services that already exist. To better understand the sharing economy, it is beneficial to explore examples of how this economy works in different countries. In this paper, we concentrate our research efforts on Romania and Russia-countries that both experienced communism and are now developing their own market systems. The objective of the paper is to investigate the specifics of the sharing economy and single out successful examples in Romania and Russia. The paper begins by explaining the novelty and importance of the subject. It then depicts the sharing economy in Romania and Russia and specifies the research methodology. Finally, it reports results and findings from the presented case studies.

The aim of this chapter is to show how dynamic capability constitutes a primary engine of the sharing economy and how important this concept is in terms of enabling firms to manage their resources proactively in order to compete by forming new asset combinations. Dynamic capabilities enable businesses to adapt to changes in the environment and secure competitive advantages. They create innovation connected to the development of completely new capabilities through the exploration and path-creation of new processes, products, and services. This chapter focuses on incremental innovation and disruptive innovation. Innovation as a concept is relative to the experience and knowledge of a country, community, or group. As a recent economic innovation, the sharing economy has improved people’s access to several services and products. The sharing economy includes social innovations in addition to process, product, and service innovations. Dynamic capability emphasizes the analysis of knowledge management problems and the combination of economic and behavioral aspects of sharing economy organizations. While dynamic capabilities have been extensively discussed in the literature, the way that organizations in the sharing economy use dynamic capabilities to help fulfill the requirements of stakeholders has not been extensively investigated.

This chapter focuses on the way knowledge management could facilitate the inclusion of the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the sharing economy. It explores to which extent the NGOs are part of the new sharing economy trend, by investigating how the representatives of the NGO sector relate to the sharing economy in the framework of the umbrella organizations. Thus, our analysis connects sharing economy to knowledge management, having in mind the implications for both the umbrella organizations and the member NGOs. In this front, NGOs are knowledge intensive organizations. Knowledge and networking are at the center of the activity of any NGO. They create value through networking and sharing, therefore they match the model of the sharing economy. They are connected with the main elements associated with the sharing economy: collaboration, social networking, sustainability, ecology, community, etc. By adopting a sharing economy approach, the NGOs could be more efficient, connect better with their beneficiaries and prepare better for the challenges of the new society and economy. An insight revealed by the research is that the NGOs connected in the sharing economy tend to be more business-oriented and effective. These NGOs are concerned with ensuring the sustainability of their activity. If this process leads to a less connected and social organization, it is to be seen in the future.

Practitioners and researchers have agreed upon the fact that the culture of organizations is one of the most difficult challenges and holds the key to the success of knowledge management. The basis for formation of subcultures has been found in empirical studies to range from age and gender though to department and function within the organization and have a range of both positive and negative impact upon the performance of a range of areas in an organization. We examine how knowledge in its various forms may have an impact on the formation of subcultures on knowledge sharing, and through a quantitative approach, our explorative study uncovers five subcultures in a Hungarian higher education institution. Our findings confirm subcultural boundaries and tribes and territories in this context and we apply these findings to existing theory on the evolutionary nature of strategy implementation as a means of considering the potential impact of subcultures on knowledge management initiatives. We conclude that subcultural lenses affect the assimilation of knowledge from management in general and find that multiculturalism in this large complex organisation is likely the best approach as each subculture has its own specific range of competencies as part of an overall market orientation. As a concluding section, we offer a ‘subcultural audit’ model for practitioners that may reduce the subcultural obstacles to knowledge sharing as part of knowledge management programs.

Knowledge sharing, that is the elicitation of knowledge from experts and its transfer to potential stakeholders, has become essential for organisations to remain competitive. Knowledge sharing is particularly relevant in the current socio economic environment shaped by user connectivity and business convergence, where collective knowledge means value for customers and competitiveness for suppliers. This research explores the importance of knowledge sharing within and between organisations, in order to contribute to current efforts to devise effective mechanisms for engagement. The paper describes a qualitative research based on two case studies from the transport sector and the utility services respectively. It was found that regardless of the nature of the business it was essential that individuals, groups and decision makers within the organisation had a common understanding of the key issues driving the business. In order to reach such a joint view, a collaborative, people-based approach to knowledge sharing proved valuable in both case studies. The paper describes both cases and draws some lessons to be learned by the knowledge management research and practice communities.

Knowledge exchange generally leads to mutual benefits, but unintentional knowledge transfer may have negative consequences for the original knowledge owner. Knowledge loss may be caused by, e.g., key employees leaving, and if key knowledge assets are obtained by competitors, it may harm the competitiveness of the firm. As the dynamics of overall knowledge mobility are rather abstract and difficult to grasp, this study first reviews the debate on the relevance of knowledge mobility and protection for competitive advantage. To identify the dimensions of knowledge mobility we seek explanations for how and why knowledge moves, what kind of knowledge moves, and where and how knowledge flows occur. Based on earlier literature and empirical evidence from qualitative research, we develop a categorization of dimensions of knowledge mobility. In particular, we suggest that intentionality of knowledge mobility reveals other dimensions of the type, modality, and locus. This categorization allows a sharper analytical evaluation of the nature of the connection between knowledge mobility and protection.

Academic research community almost unanimously agrees upon the benefits of knowledge management, but practitioners seem to be more suspicious of it. One major reason for their hesitant stance could be the lack of available empirical evidence regarding the relationship between knowledge management and business performance of companies. The purpose of this study is to address that research gap by empirically demonstrating how knowledge management practices influence market performance of companies. This is done by analyzing survey data collected from 259 Finnish companies. Our results highlight the key role that knowledge-friendly managers have at the helm of company’s knowledge management journey, and point out knowledge-based learning and development activities as effective means to improve market performance. In addition, we find out that organizational learning mechanisms should be regarded with great attention, as some on-the-job learning practices may even hamper firm performance. The results of this study develop the understanding of the knowledge management practices integral to performance of companies. It also provides validated measurement scales to study knowledge management practices and market performance of companies.

The present chapter aims to examine the role that outsourcing and business networks play for top banks in Southeastern Europe (SEE). From a theoretical perspective, the first part of the chapter briefly examines the concepts of outsourcing and business networks, as well as their application in the banking industry, in an era of continuously changing technologies. The next section is dedicated to the banking sector in SEE, in order to identify the main characteristics that lead to competitive advantages through outsourcing and business networks. The third section provides an empirical analysis aimed at identifying whether or not SEE banks use these business processes in their daily activities, what their main reasons for applying these processes are, and what primary forms of inter-organizational collaboration are practiced in the banking system. Based on a set of cross-national empirical cases of top SEE banks, the chapter finally proposes a methodological framework for analyzing outsourcing and business networks in the respective industry, as well as some conclusions about enhancing the competitive advantages of the explored companies.

This paper addresses the topic of knowledge management (KM) in the public sector. More precisely, we explore some conceptual, methodological and technical possibilities for the implementation of a national online data aggregator covering multiple areas, such as economic development, health, education, sustainable development, R&D, science and technology in Romania. The data aggregator is a means of ensuring knowledge transfer, science popularization and, most importantly, facilitating evidence-based policy making. The aggregator will support policy and decision makers in identifying and exploiting the country’s competitive advantages in a European and global setting. The urgency of the topic results from the well-recognized gap between the production of scientific evidence and the use of that evidence by policy-making bodies, public administration, and designated agencies (Jacobs et al., BMC Health Services Research, 12(1), 1–9, 2012). Closing the gap is possible via knowledge transfer and the dissemination and implementation of research. However, one must take into consideration that “policymakers operate on a different hierarchy of evidence than scientists, leaving the two groups to live in so-called parallel universes” (Brownson et al., American Journal of Public Health, 99(9), 1576–1583, 2009). Having large amounts of data available is insufficient. The limited technical and individual capabilities of policymakers to operate with “big” data need to be expanded through a tool for drafting well-grounded strategies and policies. Starting from the aforementioned shortcomings in knowledge management for the public sector, the case study we put forward in this paper refers to the creation of an innovative online data aggregator to enhance the evidence-based policy making capabilities of the Romanian government. Upon completion, the aggregator will be the first of its kind in the CEE. The data aggregator is the main output of a EU-funded project—“State of the Nation: developing an innovative instrument for supporting evidence-based policy making in Romania”—jointly implemented by the Romanian Government and the National University for Political Studies and Public Administration (Bucharest).

The purpose of this chapter is to present and analyze potential risks connected with knowledge that organizations operating in the sharing economy might potentially face. The chapter concentrates on knowledge risks resulting from the characteristics of the sharing economy, which encourages individuals and organizations to share their goods and services with each other. Sharing, however, does not only lead to benefits, but to risks as well. Against this background, the chapter discusses such risks as: risk of knowledge loss, risk of knowledge leakage, risk of knowledge spillover, or knowledge outsourcing risks. Apart from the examination of knowledge risks, it also discusses knowledge types, potential sources of the risks and controllability/influence on companies. The chapter contributes to a better understanding of the knowledge risks faced by organizations operating in the sharing economy, their characteristics and relations. The proposed list of knowledge risks in conjunction with the mentioned characteristics can be viewed as a promising step to a rigor development of this field of research, which in turn will complement our understanding of knowledge management.

In today’s business environment, the fast-shrinking innovation cycle has availed new types of deals fit to mitigate business friction and accelerate the pace of innovation. After a first stream of disruptive tech-driven businesses which reshaped the P2P landscape and created “the sharing economy”, industrial mash-ups set themselves up as highly transformative actors, remodeling industries in a groundbreaking manner. Along with the extension of the principles of the sharing economy to the organizational level, an “emerging industrial sharing economy” steadily streams, substantively reforming the corporate ecosystem. The focus shifts from P2P to B2B flows, by means of leading-edge technologies, such as the IoT, social media, cloud computing, data mining, big data analytics, business intelligence, etc. Challenging the status quo, the interplay between technology and industrial assets promises to generate a genuine disruption in economic efficiency and productivity in various industries, especially in the asset-intensive sectors. In this way, the business landscape is expected to witness the dawn of novel actors tying together services from dynamic networks of collaborators which remap the organizational agility and capabilities, and create value via capitalizing underutilized assets, sharing specialized knowledge and building trust within the overall ecosystem. Industrial mash-ups will, thus, lay the foundation of knowledge networks which invite both people and companies to collaborate, interact, and learn from each other. What would have been once deemed as a crazy new idea, it is nowadays transforming the corporate environment, conceptually and practically puzzling the way we see the world around us.