Open AccessDoes Sharing Economy Have a Moral Capital? Comparing Semantic Networks in Social Media and News Media
Author(s) -
Elanor Colleoni,
Nuccio Ludovico,
Laura Illia,
Ravindran Kiron
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of management and sustainability
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1925-4733
pISSN - 1925-4725
DOI - 10.5539/jms.v11n2p1
Subject(s) - moral economy , social capital , capital (architecture) , individual capital , social media , business , moral disengagement , sharing economy , financial capital , economics , political science , market economy , human capital , law , archaeology , politics , history
Sharing Economy organizations appear to enjoy positive moral capital associated with supporting local entrepreneurs, the economy, and the environment. However, they operate in a regulatory limbo allowing them to engage in business practices that would not be permitted in other sectors. Hence a question remains: Does Sharing Economy (SE) have a moral capital? To explore whether the sharing economy has a moral capital, we explored the discussions around Uber after a number of scandals in 2017 in news media and on Twitter. Our findings show that news media play a critical role in developing and maintaining a positive moral capital of Uber, while the general public on Twitter tend to be more negative and do not afford SE much moral capital.