With the radical growth in the ubiquity of digital platforms, the sharing economy is here to stay. This Handbook explores the nature and direction of the sharing economy, interrogating its key dynamics and evolution over the past decade and critiquing its effect on society.

This Handbook grapples conceptually and practically with what the sharing economy - which includes entities ranging from large for-profit firms like Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, Taskrabbit, and Upwork to smaller, non-profit collaborative initiatives - means for law, and how law, in turn, is shaping critical aspects of the sharing economy. Featuring a diverse set of contributors from many academic disciplines and countries, the book compiles the most important, up-to-date research on the regulation of the sharing economy. The first part surveys the nature of the sharing economy, explores the central challenge of balancing innovation and regulatory concerns, and examines the institutions confronting these regulatory challenges, and the second part turns to a series of specific regulatory domains, including labor and employment law, consumer protection, tax, and civil rights. This groundbreaking work should be read by anyone interested in the dynamic relationship between law and the sharing economy.

Providing a comprehensive overview of the urban sharing economy, this Modern Guide takes a forward-looking perspective on how sharing goods and services may facilitate future sustainability of consumption and production. It highlights recent developments and issues, with cutting-edge discussions from leading international scholars in business, engineering, environmental management, geography, law, planning, sociology and transport studies.

This open access book considers the development of the sharing and collaborative economy with a European focus, mapping across economic sectors, and country-specific case studies. It looks at the roles the sharing economy plays in sharing and redistribution of goods and services across the population in order to maximise their functionality, monetary exchange, and other aspects important to societies. It also looks at the place of the sharing economy among various policies and how the contexts of public policies, legislation, digital platforms, and other infrastructure interrelate with the development and function of the sharing economy. The book will help in understanding the future (sharing) economy models as well as to contribute in solving questions of better access to resources and sustainable innovation in the context of degrowth and growing inequalities within and between societies. It will also provide a useful source for solutions to the big challenges of our times such as climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and recently the coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19). This book will be of interest to academics and students in economics and business, organisational studies, sociology, media and communication and computer science.

This book explains Europol’s online sharing platforms efforts in three major cybercrime areas: ransomware, money laundering with cryptocurrencies, and online child sexual exploitation that Europol has already pushed private and public actors to cooperate. Since the global financial crisis, online sharing economy platforms have made a significant impact on use of under-utilized resources. People who have a car (Uber) or a spare room (Airbnb) began to share their under-used assets with others for extra income. The success achieved by these online platforms that enable efficient use of limited resources raised a new discussion on whether a similar governance model can be implemented by public administrations where public resources are insufficient. Cybercrime is one of these fields where most law enforcement agencies have not got enough resources to tackle these crimes. They need the human and technical resources of the private sector for a safer society. This book, for the first time, seeks the answers to this question. It examines the feasibility of online sharing economy platforms to enhance public-private partnerships to tackle cybercrime. The European Union Policing Agency, Europol, is the first police organization to adopt a similar model to interact with policing agencies and private industry. Drawing on extensive research, the book offers crucial insights for policymakers, researchers, and the public interested in new trends in sharing economy, innovative governance models, public-private partnerships, and cybercrime investigations.

This book is a practical handbook for entrepreneurship in tourism related industries. The book will provide students and prospective entrepreneurs with the knowledge, know-how and best practices in order to assist them in planning, implementing and managing business ventures in the field of tourism.

In the past two decades, research on electronic commerce and platforms has thrived. Tremendous academic research has been conducted on this specific concept. Over the last decade, with the rise of applications and mobile technology, that stream of research has extended to the collaborative economy, more colloquially known as the sharing economy. The commonality between e-commerce and collaborative consumption being that they both occur online and rely predominantly on platforms. The Handbook of Research on the Platform Economy and the Evolution of E-Commerce is a comprehensive reference book offering a holistic perspective of the platform economy by connecting the e-commerce and collaborative economy streams into a common framework. As such, this integrated perspective offers a clearer understanding of the key trends in research and in managerial action, as well as an agenda for future studies and practice. This handbook emphasizes how the digital transition will create an increased merging between physical and digital activities, as well as the challenges and opportunities pertaining to this trend. Covering topics including sharing economy, Marketing 4.0, and digital applications, this book is essential for marketers, managers, executives, students, researchers, and academicians.