Will You Flourish In Our Access Economy?

The Access Economy is a business model where goods and services are traded on the basis of access rather than ownership: it refers to renting things temporarily rather than selling them permanently. 

The term arose as a correction to the term sharing economy because major players in the sharing economy, such as Airbnb, Zipcar, and Uber, are commercial enterprises whose businesses do not involve any sharing.

This model uses a technology platform, often accessed via mobile phone, to connect suppliers willing to rent assets (e.g., apartments for rent or cars for transportation services) with consumers. This movement was worth around $26 billion a year in 2015.

Elevate Your Think

The Harvard Business Review has argued that it's important for businesses in this space to think of themselves as being in an access economy. In a 2015 article called "The Sharing Economy Isn't About Sharing at All", authors Giana M. Eckhardt and Fleura Bardhi write,

This insight − that it is an access economy rather than a sharing economy – has important implications for how companies in this space compete. It implies that consumers are more interested in lower costs and convenience than they are in fostering social relationships with the company or other consumers.

The article goes on to argue that a major difference between Uber and its competitor Lyft is that Uber understands the difference: "Uber positions itself squarely around its pricing, reliability, and convenience" with their tagline as being "Better, faster and cheaper than a taxi", while the tagline of the much-less-successful Lyft is, "We're your friend with a car."

In essence, Eckhardt and Bardhi concludes that:

The access economy is changing the structure of a variety of industries, and a new understanding of the consumer is needed to drive successful business models. A successful business model in the access economy will not be based on community, however, as a sharing orientation does not accurately depict the benefits consumers hope to receive. It is important to highlight the benefits that access provides in contrast to the disadvantages of ownership and sharing.

There are many related concepts and alternate names currently being used for the access economy. They include:

• Sharing economy
• On-demand economy
• Circular economy
• Collaborative economy
• Uberisation
• Gig economy
• Peer-to-Peer (P2P) economy
• Reputation economy
• Trust economy