Theoretical dilemmas, conceptual review and perspectives disclosure of the sharing economy: a qualitative analysis

Ambidextrous structures paving the way for disruptive business models: a conceptual framework

Today companies are facing challenges to survive due to substantial transformations induced by digital technologies, ever-changing consumer demands, and environmental uncertainties. Thus, companies need to be innovative to sustain competitive advantages. Scholars and practitioners have recognized the potential of disruptive innovations as a key factor for a company’s competitiveness. Yet, such innovations often challenge established companies due to the tensions between their traditional business model and the newly emerging business model required for disruptive change. The theory of ambidextrous organizations has offered a variety of solutions to tackle these barriers referring to the alignment of exploration and exploitation within an organization’s structure. Current literature, however, faces inconsistencies regarding how this can be achieved. With this study, we therefore aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of how ambidextrous structures enable incumbent companies to reduce the barriers to disruptive business models. On the basis of a systematic literature review, we analyze and compare potential structures and their characteristics proposed in the ambidexterity literature. Drawing on our review, we conceptualize a framework linking the different organizational structures to the barriers associated with disruptive business models. Our framework identifies a range of seven structures which can resolve the barriers and thus support managers in their structural decisions on how to align exploration and exploitation to pave the way for disruptive business models.

A Systematic Literature Review on Pricing Strategies in the Sharing Economy

As an emerging business model, the sharing economy has gained a large amount of academic attention; the pricing problem in the sharing economy has also been widely investigated. Aiming to capture the current state-of-the-art research on pricing strategies in the sharing economy and foreseeing directions for future research, this article conducts a systematic literature review and content analysis of 158 articles from the Scopus and Web of Science databases. As a result, first, this review proposes an extended definition covering B2C and C2C models and a model structure covering the entire supply chain, based on which 158 articles are categorized into nine sub-models covering 30 scenarios. Second, the general characteristics (i.e., research fields, time and journal distributions, research themes and scenarios) and technical details (i.e., theories, methodologies, approaches, models, and conclusions) of the 158 articles are reviewed and summarized by the pricing party, business mode, and scenario. Finally, this review proposes some future research directions of existing scenarios from the perspectives of information asymmetry, market competition, and empirical approaches, and discusses some extensions, including uninvestigated scenarios and COVID-19-related topics; correspondingly, this review suggests some analytical models and empirical approaches that can be employed to fill these gaps. The proposed research directions and corresponding approaches can be references for future research.