A sustainability perspective for sharing economy business model and its unintended effects

The sharing economy business model (SEBM) creates a new type of business that offers goods and services more efficiently than traditional exchange markets. This study conducts a systematic literature review complying with the PRISMA protocol to enhance our comprehension of the SEBM through three key contributions. First, it performs a descriptive analysis of the included publications to offer the overall picture of publication outlets, country and sector contexts, and the methodological designs. Second, and more importantly, it identifies and categorizes the negative and positive unintended effects of SEBMs through a sustainability perspective by performing two thematic analyses that encompass themes and subthemes. And finally, it develops an integrated framework for SEBM and its unintended effects, incorporating both dimensions of the business model and pillars of sustainability. This framework facilitates the discussion of findings, identifies gaps in the literature, and provides directions for future research. • The sharing economy is not necessarily a sustainable mode of consumption. • The unintended effects of sharing businesses on sustainability need more investigation. • The PRISMA protocol provides a procedure to conduct a systematic literature review. • A thematic analysis provides a comprehensive understanding of classification.