Emerging Research on the Relational Benefits in Sharing Economy Services: A Bibliometrics Analysis

The sharing economy has reshaped service delivery through digital platforms such as Grab, Uber, and FoodPanda, enabling seamless interactions between users and gig workers. Within this two-sided service model, relational benefits—particularly confidence and special treatment benefits—play a pivotal role in fostering trust, loyalty, and sustained engagement. However, research in this domain remains fragmented, lacking a cohesive conceptual foundation. This study conducts a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of 170 articles published between 2020 and 2025 using the Scopus database and VOSviewer software to map key trends, authorship patterns, institutional and geographic contributions, and keyword co-occurrences. Results reveal a surge in research following the COVID-19 pandemic, peaking in 2023, driven by shifts in digital labour and increased platform reliance. Key themes include trust, satisfaction, loyalty, and platform engagement, while emerging areas such as insurance-linked incentives, technological integration, and policy regulation remain underexplored. Analysis also highlights the prominence of specific institutions (e.g., Griffith University, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya) and countries (notably the United States and China) in advancing this field. This study consolidates scattered scholarship and proposes future research directions, including the reconceptualization of confidence benefits within digital labour contexts, the assessment of insurance schemes, and the examination of technological and regulatory moderators. These insights aim to guide the design of more inclusive and sustainable benefit structures for gig workers in evolving platform-based ecosystems.