The Organization of Digital Marketplaces: Unmasking the Role of Internet Platforms in the Sharing Economy
Research output: Contributions to collected editions/works › Chapter › peer-review
Standard
Organization outside Organizations: The Abundance of Partial Organization in Social Life. ed. / Göran Ahrne; Nils Brunsson. Cambridge University Press, 2019. p. 131-154.
Research output: Contributions to collected editions/works › Chapter › peer-review
Harvard
APA
Vancouver
Bibtex
}
RIS
TY - CHAP
T1 - The Organization of Digital Marketplaces
T2 - Unmasking the Role of Internet Platforms in the Sharing Economy
AU - Schüßler, Elke
AU - Kirchner, Stefan
PY - 2019/7/11
Y1 - 2019/7/11
N2 - The platform economy enables socio-technical infrastructures that facilitate new forms of internet intermediation between buyers and external sellers. Several prominent and successful examples of such digital infrastructures depict themselves as a part of the so called “sharing economy”. We posit here that the key to understand the social structures of sharing economy platforms is to analyze them as digital marketplaces created and operated by market organizers. In this article we address these issues by approaching the problem of market order creation and the elements of market order as a question of the organization of markets by drawing on two exemplary cases, Lyft and Airbnb. We first consider efforts of market organizers to create new market orders on their digital marketplaces by mobilizing participants and resources. Second, we analyze what elements of organization these market organizers install to continuously operate their digital marketplaces. In all we show that although they use the rhetoric of sharing, internet platforms in the sharing economy generate enormous profits by establishing order on digital marketplaces using the five elements of organization.
AB - The platform economy enables socio-technical infrastructures that facilitate new forms of internet intermediation between buyers and external sellers. Several prominent and successful examples of such digital infrastructures depict themselves as a part of the so called “sharing economy”. We posit here that the key to understand the social structures of sharing economy platforms is to analyze them as digital marketplaces created and operated by market organizers. In this article we address these issues by approaching the problem of market order creation and the elements of market order as a question of the organization of markets by drawing on two exemplary cases, Lyft and Airbnb. We first consider efforts of market organizers to create new market orders on their digital marketplaces by mobilizing participants and resources. Second, we analyze what elements of organization these market organizers install to continuously operate their digital marketplaces. In all we show that although they use the rhetoric of sharing, internet platforms in the sharing economy generate enormous profits by establishing order on digital marketplaces using the five elements of organization.
KW - Management studies
KW - organization
KW - markets
KW - digital marketplaces
KW - sociology
KW - sharing economy
KW - market creation
KW - mobilization
KW - organization
KW - markets
KW - digital marketplaces
KW - sociology
KW - sharing economy
KW - market creation
KW - mobilization
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/bebfddc0-ac9b-31d6-9c09-7df0253bc883/
U2 - 10.1017/9781108604994.006
DO - 10.1017/9781108604994.006
M3 - Chapter
SN - 9781108474986
SN - 1108474985
SP - 131
EP - 154
BT - Organization outside Organizations
A2 - Ahrne, Göran
A2 - Brunsson, Nils
PB - Cambridge University Press
ER -