An Abductive Analysis of Debates on the Impact of the Sharing Economy: A Systematic Review in a Sustainable Framework

The sharing economy (SE) is a new production and consumption model that improves social efficiency through the usage-based acquisition of idle resources. Owing to its friendly economic and environmental attributes, the SE spans various regions, industries, and backgrounds worldwide. Given the complex and controversial outputs of the SE, there is an unmet need to perform a comprehensive and systematic survey of its impacts. We systematically review the recent studies of the multi-dimensional effects of the SE, including its profound impacts on the economy, society, and environment, from the WoS database via NVivo. A comparison of the positive, negative, and conditional attitudes among each dimension and an abductive analysis of the contradictions’ underlying causes by deconstructing each conclusion into the cognitive background, empirical path, and supporting evidence is implemented to sort out the current debates. It is shown that the impacts on the social dimension are most debated, while the influences on the environment reach the strongest consensus. Notably, the effects on the economy are mostly hierarchical. Furthermore, the differences in the ontologically guiding ideology of sustainable development, the definitions of the SE, socioeconomic backgrounds, individual preferences, group interests, and empirical approaches co-trigger the varied conclusions and disputes. Hence, this study promotes a systematic and dialectical understanding of the SE’s benefits and pitfalls, which is of significance to fundamental investigations and practical applications.