1.
SHARING, USER ENTREPRENEURSHIP
AND ITS ORGANIZATION
1Wageningen University, Netherlands; 2University of Palermo, Italy
August 10th, 2015
Dr. Domenico Dentoni1, Dr. Stefano Pascucci1, Dr. Giuseppina Migliore2

2.
Sharing and its “frugal dimension”
2
Sharing economy…
Ex.: Airbnb; Uber; Linux.
 Joint ownership OR joint
access to goods & services
…And its “frugal dimension”:
 Prosumption
 Social production
 Commons-based peer
production
 Community-based peer
production
“Growing your food is like printing your own money”
(Finley, guerrilla gardener in South LA, 2013, TED
talk)
Nature of
shared
goods/servi
ces
Non-
exclusive
Exclusive
Non-Rival Public
Goods
Club
Goods
Rival Commercial
Sharing
Private
Good
Sharing
Lamberton & Rose (2012)

3.
Two broad research questions
3
1.How does sharing consumers’ behavior contribute
to value creation in their organizations?
2.How do organizations stimulate their sharing
consumers to contribute to value creation?
Social and/or
economic value
creation in sharing
organizations
Consumer =
participant behavior
in sharing
organizations
Organizational
mechanisms of
sharing
12
Implications

4.
Inductive method: cases, samples, data
4
DATA
THEORY
Participation & interviews on
sharing consumers’ behavior from
7 cases of “Solidarity purchasing
groups” (SPGs), Italy (2010-2013) Sharing (Belk 2010;
Lamberson & Rose
2012) and its “frugal
dimension”.
Replication of interviews from
similar 16 cases in Spain (grupos
de consumo and community
gardens) and 9 similar cases in
Netherlands (Comm. Supported
Agriculture) (2013-2014).
Secondary data and follow up
interviews on organizational
mechanisms and consumers’
behaviors across cases (2013-
2014).
Entrepreneurship and
entrepreneurial behaviors
(Shane 2010; Bird et al.
2012); bricolage.
Organizational mechanisms
governing the sharing
processes (Grandori and
Furnari 2008; Grandori and
Prencipe 2013)
• Data-theory iteration
• Purposive case/sample
selection
(Eisenhardt 1989; Suddaby
2006; Yin 2014).

5.
Findings (I): User Entrepreneurship
User Entrepreneurship (or Entr. In Consumption):
 The process of innovatively recombining
resources to seek or create opportunities that
generate user (rather than exchange) value.
.
5
Participants pursue novel
opportunities for value
creation
Definition takes into account: entrepreneurship (Shane 2010); in everyday life
context (Steyaert and Hjorth 2004); accidental entrepreneurship (Shah and Tripsas
2007); user value in management (Bowman & Ambrosini 2000; Priem 2007)
Participants recombine
resources through sharing
them with others
WHAT participants do:
 Procure food
 Organize storage & distribution
 Organize finance
 Organize knowledge sharing, leisure
events
 Seek new members or promoting
this form of consumption
HOW participants do:
 Use and recombine time & labor
 Use and recombine social capital
 Use and recombine financial capital
 Use and recombine physical capital

6.
(II): Organizational mechanisms of sharing
6
Relationships take into account: Grandori and
Prencipe (2008); Grandori and Furnari (2013)
Prevalence
of…
Sharing of
decision/represe
ntation rights:
- Co-decision on
food & inputs
- Co-access to
resources
Sharing of
ownership
rights:
- Residual
claimants
- Transfer rights
- Exclusion rights
Market-Like
elements
Bureaucratic
elements
Communitarian
elements
CSA Netherlands; some SPGs in Italy
Some Spanish grupos de consumo
SPGs; Spanish community gardens
Distinctive practices:
- Must pool money
- Pay per food
production &
distribution unit
Distinctive practices:
- Must pool time
- Formal governance
- Formal division of
tasks
Distinctive practices:
- Must pool knowledge
& values
- Informal governance
- Informal division of
tasks

7.
(II): Organizational mechanisms of sharing
7
Relationships take into account: Grandori and
Prencipe (2008); Grandori and Furnari (2013)
Prevalence
of…
Sharing of
decision/represe
ntation rights
Sharing of
ownership
rights
Market-Like
elements
Vertical
Leadership
Vertical
Leadership
Bureaucratic
elements
Shared
Leadership
Shared
Leadership
Communitarian
elements
Creativity Creativity
CSA Netherlands; some SPGs in Italy
Some Spanish grupos de consumo
SPGs; Spanish community gardens
Distinctive practices:
- Must pool money
- Pay per food
production &
distribution unit
Distinctive practices:
- Must pool time
- Formal governance
- Formal division of
tasks
Distinctive practices:
- Must pool knowledge
& values
- Informal governance
- Informal division of
tasks
Vertical/Shared leadership and creativity are different forms of
entrepreneurial behavior (Bird et al. 2012)

8.
(II): Organizational mechanisms of sharing
8
Relationships take into account: Grandori and
Prencipe (2008); Grandori and Furnari (2013)
Prevalence
of…
Sharing of
decision/represe
ntation rights
Sharing of
ownership
rights
Market-Like
elements
Vertical
Leadership
recombining
resources within
the organization
Vertical
Leadership
recombining
resource outside
organization
Bureaucratic
elements
Shared
Leadership
recombining
resources within
the organization
Shared
Leadership
recombining
resource outside
the organization
Communitarian
elements
Creativity
recombining
resources within
the organization
Creativity
recombining
resource outside
the organization
CSA Netherlands; some SPGs in Italy
Some Spanish grupos de consumo
SPGs; Spanish community gardens
Distinctive practices:
- Must pool money
- Pay per food
production &
distribution unit
Distinctive practices:
- Must pool time
- Formal governance
- Formal division of
tasks
Distinctive practices:
- Must pool knowledge
& values
- Informal governance
- Informal division of
tasks
Vertical/Shared leadership and creativity are different forms of
entrepreneurial behavior (Bird et al. 2012)

9.
Propositions and… “so what?”
9
!
!
!
ENTREPRENEURSHIP*
IN*CONSUMPTION*
SHARING*
Prevalence!of!
Market/Like!
Elements!
Prevalence!of!
Bureaucratic!
Elements!
Prevalence!of!
Communitarian!
Elements!
Vertical!Leadership!
Shared!Leadership!
Creativity!
P1**+*
P3**+*
P2**+*
P4**+*
P5**+*
P6**+*
Distribution!of!
Decision!Rights!
Distribution!of!
Ownership!Rights!
Networking!
Organizing!
Social and/or
economic value
creation
Implications

10.
Final points & discussion
10
1. “Sharing” as co-access and/or co-ownership:
 Wide variety of forms, contexts and vocabulary
 This paper aims to understand how individual participants contribute to
“frugal forms” of sharing
2. Entrepreneurship in consumption plays key role in sharing:
 Entrepreneurship -> Sharing Performance?
Or sharing -> entrepreneurship?
 Can entrepreneurship be “user value-based”? Is it useful for consumers’
quality of life? Can it be learned? Can this learning be applied outside
the sharing economy?
3. Organizational mechanisms help explaining what sharing really entails:
 How do they change participants’ behavior through feedback
mechanisms of value creation?

11.
Thank you!
This is still a working paper: your
feedback is tremendously appreciated!
11
Dr. Domenico Dentoni - domenico.dentoni@wur.nl
Dr. Stefano Pascucci and Dr. Giuseppina Migliore