Knowledge Sharing Practices for Corporate Sustainability: An Empirical Investigation of Sharing Economy Firms in Japan

Qualitative studies of sharing economy research are mostly descriptive case studies in the context of the United States and Europe. Although Asian economies are vibrant and expanding, rarely sharing economy research focuses on Asian contexts. Furthermore, quantitative analysis of sharing economies is rare. For this reason, our research aim is to examine the corporate sustainability of sharing economy companies through qualitative and quantitative analyses. It also shows how knowledge-sharing practices affect corporate sustainability in the context of emerging sharing economy firms in Japan. The contribution of this paper is threefold: (1) to provide a conceptual framework for sharing economy practices in general; (2) to present a specific research model in a Japanese context; (3) to report the qualitative case study findings and discuss the empirical results of testing of hypotheses with statistical validation. The research results suggest that the knowledge creation context has a positive effect on both explorative and exploitative knowledge-sharing practices. Explorative knowledge sharing has a positive effect on sustainability which in turn shows a negative effect on financial performance in the short run but a positive impact in the long run. Theoretical and managerial implications provide valuable insight into how sharing economy firms achieve sustainability goals. Future research issues are also summarized.