This initiative is part of Sharing Cities Sweden, a national program for the sharing economy in cities.
The initiative addresses "ecologies of business models", where the concept of ecologies is a metaphor of the dynamics of natural ecosystems. The project aims to increase the understanding of how new business models reinforce existing ones or how they potentially jeopardize them.
The initiative will have an empirical focus on digital platforms. Examples of these include Uber, Citymapper, Zeelo, Mobike which are said to have the potential to change the market development in relation to urban development. Platforms may have different business models and the fact that several digital platforms operate in the same city enables a comparative analysis to understand the emerging ecologies of urban sharing business models.
Such analysis can in turn point to the real impact of new business models and the links between business models in different cities. For example, to what extent does a car sharing business model reduce or increase the environmental impact of passenger transport? Our strategic project specifically aims to provide an empirical test of new conceptual frameworks for "business model ecologies".
The initiative will analyze business model ecologies in Gothenburg, Malmö, Stockholm and Umeå (Sweden) and also in Manchester (UK).
