Challenges and Opportunities for Shared Economies

Abstract

Shared economy or access economy has ushered in a new revolution. It is often mentioned that the fourth industrial revolution will be propagated by sharing economies. This study reviews the nature of shared economy and its impacts. It focuses on the challenges posed by access economy, especially in context of emerging nations. It discusses the unique nature of trust as a construct, the potential of sharing economy platforms to reduce the information barrier, the changing nature of relationship with the factors of production and most importantly, the regulatory challenges in this particular market structure.