Back in 2016, Professor Thorsten Gruber represented CSM at the 2nd International Network of Service Researchers event, organised by CTF-Service Research Center at Karlstad University. Several articles emerged from this event and were published in the prestigious Journal of Business Research.

Professor Gruber was a co-author for an interesting article that investigated collaborative consumption (CC). CC is an increasingly prevalent form of exchange that occurs within a triangle of actors: a platform provider (e.g., Uber), a peer service provider (e.g., an Uber driver) and a customer. The platform provider's main role is matchmaking, so that a customer can access assets of a peer service provider.

This article had three objectives:

1. First, this article identified three criteria to delineate CC from related constructs such as access-based consumption, sharing or renting.
2. Second, it introduced a literature-based framework explicating the roles of the actors in the CC triangle along three dimensions: motives, activities and resources and capabilities.
3. Third, it highlighted areas for further research, such as the dynamics of CC, context-dependent motives and the emergence of professional (peer) service providers.

The article can be downloaded for free here and here.

Collaborative Consumption slides and a Collaborative Consumption infographic can be found by clicking on the links. 

There is also a YouTube video that explains collaborative consumption or the sharing economy in four minutes!