Ricerc@Sapienza

Stimulated by post-2008 austerity measures, civic services and the welfare state are shrinking, while civil society is being called to provide support through bottom-up initiatives. Social innovation to design and implement urban welfare services can render underlying services more resilient to socioeconomic challenges, particularly through co-designed policies and entrepreneurial models able to reconcile competitiveness with local economies, and to counteract marginalisation.

Digital platforms have the ability to connect people, organizations and resources with the aim of facilitating the core interactions between businesses and consumers as well as assuring a greater efficiency for the business management. New business concepts, such as innovative start-ups, are therefore created based on innovation, scalability and the relationships within the community around them. The purpose of this work is to deeply understand the evolution of business models brought by innovative and dynamic companies operating through online platforms.

Objectives. The purpose of the paper is to analyze how co-creation is managed within the innovative business models of sharing economy platforms.
Methodology. Case studies analysis has been performed on three sharing economy platforms. Platforms have been selected according to the extent to which innovation driven by co-creative processes was evincible in the value proposition, in the profit formula or in the key processes and resources. The cases have been analyzed through the D.A.R.T. model that defines the four places of co-creation (dialogue, access, risk, transparency).