Which sharing are we betting on? Analysing the financial attractiveness of sharing business models

The study aims to explore the interaction between business model dimensions and the financial attractiveness of sharing economy platforms, to understand if business models with certain dimensions are more able to attract investment. The research has been developed taking into account the difference between true sharing and pseudo-sharing, to establish to which type of sharing economy platform more investment has been directed to date. The main dimensions of sharing economy business models were identified from the literature. These variables were used to classify the business models of 161 sharing platforms. A one-way ANOVA was performed to infer results. Results from the analysis show that business models that offer rational benefits; increase the utilization of durable assets; have a C2C process and adopt a transaction model, have received more funds. In conclusion, the research suggests that different sharing business models can affect the financial attractiveness and the empirical results show that “pure exchange” platforms are more financed compared with the “pure sharing” platforms.