Sharing economy research shifts toward environmental sustainability

A bibliometric review of sharing economy research published from 2012 through 2023 identifies a significant shift in publication trends toward environmental sustainability, with “sustainability” emerging as the central tenet of scientific output in the field. The study assesses the Web of Science literature using scientific productivity analysis, international collaboration evaluation, co-citation analysis and thematic clustering. Review authors Shuning Liu and Yi Zhu describe the sharing economy as a multifaceted, interdisciplinary research domain that was initially grounded in economics and the social sciences.

It later expanded into digital science, urban planning, information technology and tourism. Their analysis examines how this development relates to sustainable development and the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs. The review focuses on how published scholarship has developed rather than evaluating the performance of a particular sharing economy platform, policy or business model.

Its scope covers scientific literature indexed in the Web of Science database between 2012 and 2023. The stated purpose is to consolidate existing studies, clarify the field’s theoretical and practical contributions to the SDGs and identify a focused agenda for future research. Four bibliometric components form the technical basis of the review.

These tools are applied to characterize the research field and its relationship with sustainability. The results show that sharing economy research has become increasingly integrated with environmental sustainability. The authors also report that the field’s contributions extend beyond its original economic and social-science foundations into areas including digital science, urban planning, information technology and tourism.

The review characterizes this broadening as evidence of interdisciplinary integration within sharing economy scholarship. Several policy objectives identified in the review are sustainable urban development, responsible consumption and production, and green economic growth. The study links these objectives to the areas in which the sharing economy literature has developed.

It presents sharing economy research as potentially able to inform sustainable development and SDG policy, identifying practical avenues for future contributions through both scientific and technological work. Because the study is a bibliometric review, its evidence concerns the distribution, collaboration patterns, citations and themes of published research. It does not directly measure environmental conditions, social outcomes or the sustainability performance of individual sharing economy activities.

Its reported finding is therefore a change in the direction and disciplinary organization of scholarship, rather than proof that a specific sharing economy practice produces a specified environmental or social benefit. The open-access review was published in Discover Sustainability on 25 September 2026. The supplied version is an early, accepted article that the journal states is citable, has a permanent DOI and may undergo further edits before being replaced by the final Version of Record.

By showing a research field moving toward sustainability themes, the review supplies a consolidated account of its evolving scope and identifies where subsequent sharing economy research may focus.

Subject of Research: Bibliometric assessment of sharing economy research trends and alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals

Article Title: Review of sharing economy studies using the bibliometrics method

Article References: Liu, S., & Zhu, Y. (2026). Review of sharing economy studies using the bibliometrics method. Discover Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-026-03457-6

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s43621-026-03457-6

Keywords: sharing economy, bibliometrics, environmental sustainability, Sustainable Development Goals, research trends, thematic clustering, co-citation analysis, international collaboration, Web of Science, Review, sharing, economy