The Role of the Sharing Economy Model in the Development of the Smart City Concept: A Critical Literature Review

The concept of the sharing economy, aligning with the third generation of smart cities (smart city 3.0), termed the sharing smart city, has become a fundamental instrument in the creation of intelligent urban environments. However, there remains a lack of a cohesive global discourse on the sharing smart city, as well as a clear, standardized definition of the concept. This contributes to a wide range of interpretations regarding what constitutes a sharing smart city and the appropriate methods for its implementation.

This publication adopts a descriptive approach, with its primary objective being to substantiate the potential of the sharing economy in driving the development of smart cities. The analysis was conducted through a critical review of the relevant academic literature. The literature database was developed using two international, interdisciplinary electronic bibliographic databases: Web of Science and Scopus.

The analysis of the selected articles resulted in their classification into four primary categories: A, B, C, and D. The study demonstrated that scholarly interest in the impact of the sharing economy on the transformation and development of smart cities is a relatively nascent research area, emerging primarily in the last decade of the 21st century. As a result of the analysis, five key thematic areas were identified. Additionally, an attempt was made to define the concept of the sharing smart city and to develop a conceptual model. It has also been demonstrated that both concepts – the sharing economy and smart city – intersect in areas such as creative community, digital technologies, and sustainable development.