Inherently unstable? Scaling, mission drift, and the comparative performance of community-based platforms in the sharing economy

Abstract

Digital platforms have enabled sharing among strangers as a means to satisfy economic needs. This development was expected to allow traditional, community-based sharing to be taken to a much larger scale, providing a mechanism to address a variety of societal and environmental concerns. However, this early optimism seems misguided, as commercial sharing economy platforms are increasingly criticized for their negative societal consequences and ambiguous environmental impact. Testing claims made in the literature, we investigate whether this mission drift in community-based platforms can indeed explain this shift towards an increasingly commercial orientation in the sharing economy. Building on a comprehensive geographical mapping, the quantitative analysis of our granular dataset does not support these claims. Rather, we find that community-based platforms perceive increased scaling potential while avoiding mission drift. By complementing these quantitative findings with an in-depth case study, we explain the underlying mechanisms allowing for this alternative scaling strategy of community-based platforms.