The aim of this research study was to establish a framework for the relationships between the sharing economy and the Sustainable Development Goals (hereinafter, SDGs) set by the United Nations. There are 17 SDGs with 169 targets, which, in the scientific literature, are classified into sustainability dimensions: economic, social, and environmental. Thus, the objective of the current research was to perform an economic assessment of the sharing economy in the context of SDGs by analyzing European Union countries with a particular emphasis on their economic growth. Although the sharing economy has been analyzed from different aspects in recent scientific articles, the impact of this phenomenon on national economies in the framework of SDGs is lacking. Firstly, based on the latest research on the sharing economy from the perspective of sustainable development, a theoretical model of the sharing economy was developed in this study. Secondly, SDG indicators in the economic dimension and other key economic growth variables for European Union countries were collected. Thirdly, a cluster analysis was performed to determine the impact of the sharing economy on European Union countries in terms of SDGs in the economic dimension. The current study contributes to the existing research by analyzing the sharing economy from the perspective of sustainable economic development and highlights that this business model positively impacts countries’ economic sustainability in terms of SDGs.
The Sharing Economy in the Framework of Sustainable Development Goals: Case of European Union Countries