The financial attractiveness of sharing business models

The sharing economy can be considered a real, relevant, and tangible opportunity rather than a temporary distraction, a passing fad, or a threat (BCG, 2017). Great examples of the potential of sharing has been demonstrated by Airbnb in the hospitality industry and Uber in the mobility industry. According to the CB Insight the most valuable private company in the world is Uber, valued at $68B. Airbnb, since its start in 2008, has raised more than $3 billion and in its March 2017 funding round, was valued at about $31 billion (CNBC, 2017). Both the companies are examples that online platforms and sharing concept can be powerful drivers of business model and value innovation. Between 2013 and 2016 the amount of venture capital investment in sharing economy companies grew from $US 3 billion to $US 30 billion (Rinne A., World Economic Forum, 2017). According to BCG Report (2017) in 2010, 85 companies raised $US 130 million, while in 2016 420 companies raised over $US23.4 billion. However, the total size of the sharing economy is much harder to estimate because most of the platform providers are private. However, in the general context of sharing economy although some start-ups have enjoyed great success, many others have failed (Cheng et al., 2016) showing that the concept and the potential of sharing economy need to be properly understood. Against this background, this study aims to explore the interaction between business models dimensions and financial attractiveness. In particular, the main aim of the research is to identify which are the dimensions of business model that drive the obtainment of funds. To reach this aim we first selected from the literature the main dimensions of sharing business models and the related variables. Then, we used these variables to classify the business models of 160 sharing platforms identified from the Crunchbase database. Finally, a one-way ANOVA was performed to infer results.