Collaborative Economy Index: a quest for robust and impartial composite indicator of collaborative economy

Abstract

Collaborative, platform, sharing. All of these terms try po encapsulate similar phenomenon: collaborative consumption that pertains to non-traditional consumption patterns where individuals utilize goods and services sourced from other individuals on the Internet, rather than from the market. Similar are the challenges that researchers and policy makers are faced with when trying to capsulate collaborative economy performance of certain entity (such as region or country). The process of integrating various indicators into one single value is often based on the composite indicators approach. A range of issues are raised throughout the process of composite index creation, with the choice of indicators and weighting scheme being the ones most frequently cited in the literature. Our paper will add to the growing body of papers on the topic of collaborative economy indexes and address the key slippery slopes of the process.