Call for Papers
Achieving Sustainable Development and Energy Efficiency through Sharing Economy
Journal of Innovation & Change
Call for Papers
Title: Achieving Sustainable Development and Energy Efficiency through Sharing Economy
Short title (VSI): Sustainable Development through Sharing Economy
Guest Editor:
Marcin W. Staniewski
University of Economics and Human Science in Warsaw, Poland
m.staniewski@vizja.pl
Background and Motivation
Human activity to achieve development and economic wealth has resulted in serious issues pertaining to the ecosystem of the planet. The progress made in acquiring wealth to enrich human lives has led to increased emissions of greenhouse gases, global warming, and climate change. Over time, the debate surrounding climate change has shifted – its validity can no longer be questioned. Thus, mitigating the risks and effects of climate change took center stage. The increased production of goods and services has caused the exhaustion of non-renewable resources. Maintaining this course will not be possible without jeopardizing the future. Therefore, the current practices cannot continue. In response, sustainable solutions must be introduced to the ways we produce goods and services we consume. For sustainable development to be successful, viewing human lives as elements belonging to a larger entity is crucial. This requires a radical change in perception (Blewitt, 2012).
The main rationale for sustainable development is based on improving socio-economic wellbeing whilst fulfilling needs which require redistribution of resources, without harming the quality of life of future generations (Tomislav, 2018). In order to achieve such outcomes, it is imperative that the issue receives attention from scholars, industry players, regulators, and relevant stakeholders (Silvestre & Ţîrcă, 2019). A major contention has been the exploitation of natural resources and the consequently high carbon emissions and environmental pollution, which brings about the need for a paradigm shift to focus on sustainable development. The literature clearly indicates that CO2 emissions have to be reduced, given that they make up the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions (Ahmed et al., 2019).
The environmental crisis leads to higher resource prices, may affect sustainable economic growth, and may damage environmental systems (Liodakis, 2018). This requires economies to concentrate on innovations, technologies, and new phenomena to curtail unsustainable consumption of economic resources (Donbesuur et al., 2020). The shift will involve increased economic complexity with regards to production of goods and services which would cause disruptions in demand and supply driven by increased pressure from societal groups (Rauter et al., 2019). The adaptation will require complex decision-making, given the often-contrasting objectives of different stakeholders requiring application of innovation and knowledge transfers (Martinez et al., 2019).
The sharing economy is a new phenomenon which facilitates sustainable economic practices. It is defined as the collaboration between information, technology, and management practices to promote a new culture where resources are used more efficiently (Habibi et al., 2017). Therefore, it represents an innovative framework which creates a potential pathway towards achieving sustainable economic development and energy efficiency. The sharing economy provides a path towards sustainable development as it is built on the premise of efficient use of resources and strengthened social ties. This enhances relationships driven by non-profit motives and has an empowering effect on communities (Ciulli & Kolk, 2019).
Emergence of the sharing economy has been met with great enthusiasm, as documented in the literature, given its potential to improve outcomes leading to a more just and sustainable economy (Plewnia & Guenther, 2018). It has changed the traditional way of doing things which has brought about a new phenomenon of sharing and transacting in digital spaces. Potential gains include efficient use of resources leading to reduced overproduction and resource exploitation (Acquier et al., 2017). Furthermore, in order to reduce exhaustion of natural resources the push towards renewable energy has seen the emergence of a new business model which is based on the concepts of the sharing economy, which enhances transitioning of the energy system (Plewnia, 2019). Consequently, a new pattern of consumption emerges between strangers, which involves sharing of goods and services through coordinated acquisition and distribution in a flexible manner. This leads to efficiency gains as well as reduction in marginal costs (Pucheanu et al., 2020).
However, the promise of the sharing economy leading towards energy efficiency and sustainable development needs to be scrutinized given its application lacks any significant sustainable value creation as well as the entry of profit driven and wealth maximizing organizations in the ecosystem of sharing economy which would compromise its original intention and promise (Ciulli & Kolk, 2019; Laukkanen & Tura, 2020). Thus, this special issue provides the opportunity to investigate the potential implications that the sharing economy has on energy efficiency and sustainable economic development.
The contributions to this special issue are expected to bring new knowledge and insight to this field which will be of interest to a wide range of stakeholders, including governments, environmental economists, industry as well as international regulatory agencies.
Keywords:
- Sharing Economy
- Energy Efficiency
- Sustainable Economic Development.
- Sustainable Value Creation
- Resharing
- Digital Sharing Economy
- Environment
- Collaborative Consumption
- Platform economy
- Digital platforms
- Peer-to-Peer Economy
The timeline of this special issue is as follows:
Submission dates: November 01, 2021 to April 30, 2022.
Review process: On a rolling basis from June 2021 to September 2022.
Publication: This is a VSI; accepted papers will be published online immediately once accepted and will be included in the next available issue of the journal.
References:
Acquier, A., Daudigeos, T., & Pinkse, J. (2017). Promises and paradoxes of the sharing economy: an organizing framework, Technological Change and Social Forecasting, 125, 1-10.
Ahmed, Z., Wang, Z., & Ali, S. (2019). Investigating the non-linear relationship between urbanization and CO 2 emissions: An empirical analysis. Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health, 12(8), 945-953.
Blewitt, J. (2012). Understanding sustainable development. Routledge.
Ciulli, F., & Kolk, A. (2019). Incumbents and business model innovation for the sharing economy: Implications for sustainability. Journal of Cleaner Production, 214, 995-1010.
Donbesuur, F., Ampong, G. O. A., Owusu-Yirenkyi, D., & Chu, I. (2020). Technological innovation, organizational innovation and international performance of SMEs: The moderating role of domestic institutional environment. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 161, 120252.
Habibi, M. R., Davidson, A., & Laroche, M. (2017). What managers should know about the sharing economy. Business Horizons, 60(1), 113-121.
Liodakis, G. (2018). Capital, economic growth, and socio-ecological crisis: A critique of de-growth, International Critical Thought, 8(1), 46-65.
Laukkanen, M., & Tura, N. (2020). The potential of sharing economy business models for sustainable value creation. Journal of Cleaner Production, 253, 120004.
Martínez, J. M. G., de Castro-Pardo, M., Pérez-Rodríguez, F., & Martín, J. M. M. (2019). Innovation and multi-level knowledge transfer using a multi-criteria decision making method for the planning of protected areas. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 4(4), 256-261.
Plewnia, F. & Guenther, E. (2018), Mapping the sharing economy for sustainability research, Management Decisions, 56, 570-583.
Plewnia, F. (2019). The energy system and the sharing economy: Interfaces and overlaps and what to learn from them. Energies, 12(3), 339.
Pucheanu, F., Bugheanu, A. M., & Dinulescu, R. (2020). Impact of Sharing Economy Models on Energy Efficiency–Analysis of Ridesharing at European Level. Economics and Applied Informatics, (3), 14-23.
Rauter, R., Globocnik, D., Perl-Vorbach, E., & Baumgartner, R. J. (2019). Open innovation and its effects on economic and sustainability innovation performance. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 4(4), 226-233.
Tomislav, K. (2018). The concept of sustainable development: From its beginning to the contemporary issues. Zagreb International Review of Economics & Business, 21(1), 67-94.
Silvestre, B. S., & Ţîrcă, D. M. (2019). Innovations for sustainable development: Moving toward a sustainable future. Journal of Cleaner Production, 208, 325-332.