BLURRING BOUNDARIES BETWEEN PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION IN PLATFORM-BASED LABOR MARKETS. AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

We follow recent research (e.g. Mair and Reischauer, 2017) showing that the global sharing economy has activated economic and socially significant underlying forces, altering current markets. Using the data from BLS, ChunkofChange, Edison Research, Marketplace, National Technology Readiness, The Office for National Statistics (UK), and Statista, we performed analyses and made estimates regarding annual on-demand economy spending (billions), the proportion of the gig economy, and the share of generational groups who think that the gig economy is good thing for everyone in the U.S. Empirical and secondary data are employed to support the claim that sharing economy entities operate a digital platform that enables workers to share resources. Culture shapes the option of organizational configurations and gives a reason for the heterogeneity of sharing economy entities. The sharing economy is a network of markets in which workers utilize diverse types of compensation to carry out the reallocation of and access to resources, facilitated by a digital platform administered by a company. A sharing economy entity supplies the infrastructure that people employ to distribute resources. The underlying forces of the sharing economy entail processes of market transformation, may encompass mechanisms of market emergence, and may comprise deliberate and unexpected effects of organizations' behavior. Sharing economy entities adhere to rule-like instructions ascendant in their cultural setting, resemble widespread requirements in their economic systems, and use manifold routines to assimilate digital platform users.