Unravelling the dark side of sharing economy – Managing and sustaining B2B relationships on digital platforms

Sharing economy is often characterized by an interplay of underutilized resources sharing, information technology facilitation, peer to peer process, and intermediary intervention. In a business to business sharing economy, two or more businesses with common interests follow the principles of collaboration and access share resources to create mutual value. While it benefits the parties involved, there have been concerns about this exponentially growing phenomenon. This special issue focuses on contributing to the business to business (B2B) marketing literature on sharing economy, exploring the concerns, and finding ways to address the existing lacunae. The objective of this introductory article is to nudge the academic literature on sharing economy by (1) integrating the fragmented B2B scholarship on sharing economy, (2) creating a larger framework for understanding the tenets of sharing economy based on real life evidences and (3) summarizing the articles covered in this special issue that explore and recommend ways to face the challenges that have emerged in the present context.