, the development of the sharing economy has included a professionalization with self-employed suppliers rather than peers

social media analytics to figure out whether they describe themselves .

Thesefindings contribute to previous research through (1) givinga systematic empirical account on
the way various sharing economy platforms describe themselves interms of sustainability, (2)
pointing out the differences among the platforms, and (3) indicating thediversity in sustainability
connotation among various sectors of the economy.

Research suggests how the sharing economy may posi-tively impact sustainability by reducing consumption-
inducedresource depletion when consumer products are shared insteadof owned individually (Bartenberger and
Leitner, 2013).

sharingeconomy has been suggested to offer the potential of transitioningsocieties into a post-ownership economy
(Belk, 2014).

Users (thussometimes overlapping with producers) would also be motivatedby factors other than profit, including
altruistic values related tosharing, helping others and contributing to a more sustainable wayof life (Bauwens and
Kostakis, 2014; Gullstrand Edbring et al., 2016;Prothero et al., 2011; Sacks, 2011).

This comes about as theseparation and transfer would no longer mean that present re-sources are
used more efficiently, but rather acquired for the pur-pose of consumption.

The shared economy provides an opportunity to a new form of sustainability through shaping
behaviours to a “User and producer” economy

-Eg. DiDi ChunXing – Cars are used not just for personal travel but also a working platform.

In determining shared economy platforms on sustainability/non-sustainability – Newer and smaller

platforms are more eager to present themselves as sustainable for the restrictive legal and
environmental requirements that business have to adhere to. Whereas the more dominating
platforms do not describe themselves as sustainable.

Sustainability in shared economy first spread to newer developing business models to later turn to
those sectors that

Firstly, and as described above, the platforms may develop from sustainability oriented tonot
referring to any sustainability orientations as they develop.Societal pressure, professionalization,
and the entrance of com-panies to the sharing economy would explain this development.

Furthermore as sustainability is increasing becoming a prerequisite business models are forced to

adopt sustainable development as the society requires from them

Expectations for the future would be thatsustainability orientations of sharing economy platforms
would continue as the sharing economy spreads into new sectors, but then be based on legal
requirements connected to these specific sectors,while further developments of individual platforms
may put sus-tainability orientations beyond (and even as part of) such legalrequirements at risk
Benkler (2004) describes sharing concept as reciprocal benevolence based on social behavior.
Similarly, Belk (2007) describes the concept of sharing which embodies the property distribution
process to others for a limited amount of time without getting legal rights for that property. “Sharing
is an alternative to the private ownership that is emphasized in both marketplace exchange and gift
giving. In sharing, two or more people may enjoy the benefits (or costs) that flow from possessing a
thing” (Belk 2007:127).

Matzler et al. (2015) suggested that shared economy might represent a serious threat to established
industries.

Harding et al. (2015) emphasized that collusion and monopoly remained to be concerned.

shared economy plays an important role in solving the unemployment problem, although the
marginal effect decreases as the size of sharing economy increases (Zervas et al., 2014).

Binninger (2015) showed that shared economy is capable of generating a more general sustainable
model by establishing collective and probably more lasting sustainable behaviors