Sharing Economies

Introduction

With the contemporary world being the stage for many organizations to expand and many new start-ups to come in to play and with nearly all of the said businesses planning to one day go international, it is safe to assume that the concept of sharing economies is becoming problematic in the sense that it allows consumers to collaboratively share and exchange goods from each other and not require the services of an organization who will provide it at a higher price. Many contemporary business professionals have dubbed sharing economies as the third revolution that is to take place after the agricultural and industrial revolutions and the impact it may develop in the future is evident. For example, the app Travelocity has taken the entire travel agents industry out with a single algorithm. Apps like Uber and Air B&B are rivalling the established taxi companies and hotel chains. Recently, in 2015, a modified version of Uber to suit Sri Lanka called PickMe was released. (Echelon, 2015) Therefore, it is certain that the sharing economies model is already making its way to the Sri Lankan community.


Figure A– Source: https://futurelab.assaabloy.com/en/security-in-the-sharing-economy/



Review of Literature


(Davies, Donald, Gray, & Knox-Hayes, 2017) have highlighted the issues surrounding sharing economies. The first of which is the abnormal conditions of employability. The authors go on to say that platforms such as Uber just connect a willing seller with a willing buyer and nothing more. Employees are not given any benefits such as health care or insurance which they would have if they were to work at a traditional organization.

(Kovács, Morris, Polese, & Imami, 2017) have similarly generalized the sharing economy to just be “informal cash”, where the only entity achieving growth and sustainability is the platform that puts users and buyers together and the persons who consider themselves to be employed are merely just making money out of one-off gigs. 

To criticize the authors’ viewpoint on the matter, most people who use such apps to have an occupation are typically less skilled than majority of the workforce, do not have a tertiary education and were merely freelance workers who made money using one-off gigs. It seems so that the sharing economy is standing in for a bigger issue where such people may not have been able to find work and find a means of gaining income in the first place. Therefore, things such as employee rights should not be the primary focus of the sharing economy. The concept of sharing economies has the potential to balance out the competitive landscape in order to provide incomes to those who were unable to before. However, organizations should understand how this changes the competitive landscape in their specific industry and adapt accordingly.


Conclusion and Implications for Marketers


The above discussion has ensured that the concept of sharing economies is here to stay, and the organizations’ environments are changing to adapt to its impact.

·       Marketers must revisit the fundamentals which are the customer, product, place, price, promotion, process, and physical evidence to redefine their target market segments in order to ensure that they are not marketing to a segment who has now moved away from the scope of the business. This would assist in saving many organizational resources such as time, monetary resources and human resources.

·       It is also crucial to re-evaluate the organization’s competitive advantage to ensure that it is sustainable and develop new ones if they are not. The strength of the consumer-organization relationship is key in such a turbulent competitive landscape and the marketers are held accountable.  

·       Using algorithms of the sharing economies model to mix and match the best marketer or firm is a productive way for marketers to take use of the sharing economies model. For example, a marketer who is passionate about baking would be more engaged and perform better if they were crafting a marketing campaign for a bakery. In a similar way, individuals will be matched with gigs that let them maximize their talent and productivity.


Articles Reviewed


Davies, A., Donald, B., Gray, M., & Knox-Hayes, J. (2017). Sharing economies: Moving beyond binaries in a digital age. Cambridge Journal of Regions Economy and Society, 10(2), 209-230.

Kovács, B., Morris, J., Polese, A., & Imami, D. (2017). Looking at the ‘sharing’ economies concept through the prism of informality. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 10(2), 365-378. doi:10.1093/cjres/rsw04

Works Cited



SHARING ECONOMY FIRM GETS RS750 MILLION VALUATION THREE MONTHS AFTER LAUNCH. (2015, October 10). Retrieved from Echelon: http://echelon.lk/home/big-idea-sharing-economy-sharing-economy-firm-gets-rs750-million-valuation-three-months-after-launch/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

User Generated Content vs. Corporate Generated Content

Image
Introduction User Generated Content (UGC) refers to any brand related subject matter that has not been created inside professional practices (Christodoulides et al.,  2012 ), while Corporate Generated Content (CGC) is created and published by organizations. At contemporary times, consumers have increasingly begun to trust UGC substantially more than CGC. This is a current issue in marketing as organizations have no control over UGC and possible unfavourable remarks made regarding a brand are negatively associated with successfully communicating a brand message and capturing the target market. As appealing to the target market enables customer acquisition, retention and growth, failure to communicate the brand message appropriately would make the organization experience stagnant growth, strategic incompetency and below-average returns. Therefore, marketers of this day and age are expected to find a means of effectively managing UGC and use it for the betterment of the or...
Read more

Marketing and Feminism

Image
Introduction Marketing and feminism gravitate in two different, yet allied fields. Therefore, they have often intersected. One such instance was when issues arose while segmenting consumers according to the binary genders and stereotypical gender assumptions that made women inferior to men were made. (Catterall, Maclaran & Stevens, 2013) Throughout time, marketing campaigns that utilized women as mere objects evoked. In light of the situation, many feminists have pointed out the ill-portrayal of women in advertisements, the illusion of feminism in organizations which is erroneously crafted and the problematic nature of them. Marketing has the ability to create normality as many women try to identify with similar figures around them. As this could potentially inflict psychological damage upon women and limit them to a stereotypical role, marketers have been accused as the causers of this situation and not conducting their duties responsibly. Consumers have even gone on to boy...
Read more