To Örebro University

This paper aims to assess the impact of the sharing economy on ways in which online commerce is evolving. By utilising Social Media Analytics to systematically track the developments of the sharing economy visà-vis online commerce, we analyse an empirical material of 8,755 user-generated content covering a time period of 24 months. Our findings illustrate that the sharing economy fuels platforms focusing attention to sharing commerce but also platforms engaged in social commerce and more general forms of e-commerce. Furthermore, our findings show the sectors in which sharing commerce, social commerce and general forms of e-commerce have become particularly prevalent. The paper contributes to previous literature by providing a systematic empirical contribution on the impact of the sharing economy on the evolution of online commerce and by conceptually explaining why the sharing economy gives rise to a relatively wide plethora of online commerce initiatives.

Digital entrepreneurship may result in institutional turbulence and new initiatives are frequently blocked by vested interest groups who posit superior financial and relational resources. In this paper, we explore the role of cities in facilitating digital entrepreneurship and overcoming institutional resistance to innovation. Drawing upon two historical case studies of digital entrepreneurship in the city of Stockholm along with an extensive material on the sharing economy in Sweden, our results suggest that cities offer an environment that is critical for digital entrepreneurship. The economic and technological diversity of a city may provide the field conditions required for institutional change to take place and to avoid regulatory capture.