Vilma Karoblienė “The Impact of the Sharing Economy on the Country’s Sustainability”

Author, institution: Vilma Karoblienė, Kaunas University of Technology

Science area, field of science: Social Sciences, Economics (S 004)

Scientific Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Vaida Pilinkienė (Kaunas University of Technology, Social Sciences, Economics, S 004).

Scientific Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Alina Stundžienė (Kaunas University of Technology, Social Sciences, Economics, S 004).

Dissertation Defense Board of Economics Science Field:

Prof. Dr. Vytautas Snieška (Kaunas University of Technology, Social Sciences, Economics, S 004) – chairperson;
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Asta Baliutė (Kaunas University of Technology, Social Sciences, Economics, S 004);
Prof. Dr. Daiva Labanauskaitė (Klaipėda University, Social Sciences,
Economics, S 004);
Prof. Dr. Antonio Luis Mihi Ramirez (University of Granada, Spain, Social
Sciences, Economics, S 004);
Prof. Dr. Jelena Stankevičienė (Vilnius University, Social Sciences, Economics, S 004).

The public defense of the dissertation will take place in the Rectorate Hall at Kaunas University of Technology (Donelaičio 73-402, Kaunas, LT-44249, Lithuania).

The doctoral dissertation is available at the library of Kaunas University of Technology (Gedimino 50, Kaunas).

Annotation. The sharing economy brings possibilities for new business and is driven by the information technologies and Internet. The sharing economy is an economic model that operates on these essential bases: (1) access-based economy, (2) IT platform-based economy and (3) community-based economy, where underutilized assets are shared among individuals and/or companies for a fee or for free. The main aim of the dissertation is to develop a methodology, enabling to assess the impact of the sharing economy on the country’s sustainability and apply it empirically in the case of the European Union countries. The relationship of the sharing economy and the country’s sustainability have been determined at the macroeconomic level in the dissertation. The defined methodology of the impact of the sharing economy on the country’s sustainability and the constructed composite index give advantage to estimate the sustainability performance and use it for evaluating the impact of the sharing economy on the country’s sustainability. Additionally, it highlights the separate variables of the constructed index, and specific separate variables should be considered as factors that are positively or negatively reflecting the country’s sustainability. This methodology could be applied and used by the researchers in further research studies, or used as sharing economy development guidelines or other policy implications.