Exploring the role of the sharing economy in disasters management

Improvements in information and communications technologies (ICTs) have facilitated the inclusion of the sharing economy (SE) in societies more than ever. In the aftermath of recent disasters, the SE played significant roles to help the affected people and support official responders. However, the literature has not effectively explored these roles, and thus, no framework can support the systematic inclusion of the SE in disasters management. This paper aims to address the gap through a two-stage exploratory research approach. First, we conduct a systematic literature review to identify the extent to which the SE is taken into consideration in disasters. After that, we investigate the role of three Iranian SE-based companies that were involved in the 2019 Iran floods response. We collect empirical data by conducting semi-structured interviews and reviewing official reports. Our findings indicate that very few studies discuss the different roles of the SE in disasters, although SE companies have often provided effective solutions to address critical post-disaster logistics challenges. Four research propositions are presented to describe emerging roles for SE companies. The contribution of our study is twofold. First, our research identifies the different roles that the SE could play in disasters and therefore, brings a new perspective to the literature. Second, the study suggests opportunities for collaboration and partnership models from the point of origin to delivery that can support coordination and logistics in disasters.