Abstract
The central agenda of this study is to assess the current state of affairs on research pertaining to the South Asian sharing economy. As per PwC assessment, Asians are more receptive to these economies in comparison to Americans and Europeans. However, in terms of research, most of it is focused on developed markets rather than emerging ones. This chapter initiated a comprehensive review of research on the South Asian sharing economy by following the updated 2020 guidelines issued by PRISMA. After exclusions, only a handful of studies were found dealing with the sharing economy in South Asia. Moreover, no studies on Bhutan, Afghanistan, and Maldives were found. Lack of theoretical foundations in included studies was a point of concern. Mixed method studies were also scarce among the papers reviewed. A comprehensive review of research on the South Asian sharing economy is absent in extant literature, and this study contributed to filling this gap.
TopMethodology
The PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) system was used for conducting the systematic review in this paper. In 2020, PRISMA guidelines were robustly updated for the first time since its inception in 2009 (Page et al. 2021). Assessment of the South Asian sharing economy began through extraction of publications from Mendeley, a research database developed by Elsevier that hosts top-notch, indexed articles (Bhoi 2018). Since Mendeley only catalogues articles indexed in Scopus, Web of Science, etc., non-indexed articles are automatically excluded. This increases the efficiency of searching and reduces the chances of encountering low-quality articles. Initially, the following keywords were searched: “sharing economy” and “South Asia” “Sri Lanka” “Nepal” “Bangladesh” “Pakistan” “India” “Maldives” Afghanistan” “Bhutan”. Synonyms linked to the South Asian sharing economy were also searched such as “ride-sharing” “rent-sharing” “food delivery” “crowd-shipping”, etc.
Figure 1. Flow diagram of systematic literature review on the south asian sharing economy
As depicted in Figure 1, the preliminary search yielded a crop of 97 articles. Upon examination of titles, abstracts and keywords, this batch was trimmed down to 59 articles to exclude duplicate, non-relevant and non-English articles. Eventually, further exclusions were made after a deeper examination of the article texts. Many of the articles were based on closely neighbouring South-East Asian countries like Vietnam, Taiwan, Philippines, etc. Thus, articles focusing on these countries were excluded as they are not part of South Asia (Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Maldives). Additionally, many papers were also excluded since they dealt with non-relevant topics like regular economies or general sharing across South Asian countries. Ultimately, after extensive examinations and exclusions, 31 articles were finally included for this study. The overview of the findings from these articles has been presented below.
Key Terms in this Chapter
PRISMA: PRISMA stands for Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. It is an evidence-based minimum set of items for reporting in systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
Marketing: Marketing refers to the activities of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.
Consumer Behavior: Consumer behavior is the study of consumers and the processes they use to choose, use (consume), and dispose of products and services, including consumers’ emotional, mental, and behavioral responses.
Sharing Economy: The sharing economy refers to a system where individuals connect through online platforms to take advantage of other’s resources.