Core Elements Affecting Sharing Evidence from the European Union
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Review report: Core elements affecting sharing evidence from the European Union
This paper presents theoretical overview of sharing activity. It also shows empirical research based on Eurostat data about visiting sharing platforms in the European Union. It is elaborated in the paper that few macroeconomic variables are critical and affect the number of visits to sharing platforms in the EU countries. These variables are: consumer price index, productivity index, total unemployment rate and the number of internet users. The main finings of this article can improve knowledge of this area. Nevertheless, there are several shortcomings that need to be addressed. Chapter number 6 is followed with chapter number 8. Please correct the numbers. I suggest renaming chapter Discussion to Results and discussion and I also advise to elaborate this chapter more. Finally, please update citations in the theoretical part of the paper.
Chapter number 6 is followed with chapter number 8. Please correct the numbers. I suggest renaming chapter Discussion to Results and discussion and I also advise to elaborate this chapter more.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you for your very thoughtful comments and valuable suggestions. We will address each of them separately.
The authors
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The introductory section must be expanded to better evidence the research gap of the study. In addition, some phrases need to be referenced in my opinion = for example, "Sharing is spreading rapidly across Europe and across a wide range of sectors"
Provide a detailed section of methodological procedures to evidence all steps carried out in the study. The study is not composed only of the regression model, so the methodological procedures section should present details regarding how all the article information was obtained, aiming for research replicability.
How information on sharing economy models, collaborative lifestyles, definitions according to the European Commission, COVID-19 impact, key elements on sharing. were obtained and analysed? It is necessary to detail all procedures carried out.
Concerning consulted papers, which terms were used in the bibliographic search? What are the scientific bases used? What period was considered? What are the criteria for inclusion and exclusion of the considered paper? The table of key elements on sharing is an interesting result, however, we need to know if all elements were covered or if there are any limitations, so procedures performed become important.
Regarding the regression model, it is important that the section describes in detail all the methodological aspects (why do the authors choose this type of regression? for example) and presents the results separately, in another section.
Regarding the discussions section, there are only three generic paragraphs, not bringing integrated and deep debates of all information existing in the article.
In short, there is interesting information in this manuscript, however, more detail needs to be provided regarding methodological procedures and discussions in this research.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you for your very thoughtful comments and valuable suggestions. We will address each of them separately.
The authors
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The article follows the scientific structure and analysis interesting variables. The authors need to change or improve the next questions:
-Theoretical framework: the authors can include more updated citations.
-Methods. It is well applied, but to obtain a whole article, I suggest to complete it with a qualitative source (in-deep interview, Delphi…), because statistics don’t guarantee results.
-Results: it will be improved with the methodological new tools.
-Conclusions: too much brief. The authors have to expand it.
The principal improvements are on Methodology, in the justification of the chosen variables and in a possible qualitative reinforcement.
In the first case, the research tries to identify come ("the main", literally) macroeconomic factors, to develop a regression model. The authors argue they selected variables from the publicly available Eurostat database for the period 10
years 2011-2020. The first question is why this period, and not 2001-2020, or 2012-2021 (more updated).
The second question is why these variables, and no other. We suggest to justify these variables, and perhaps to add new topics from other possible sources.
"To identify linear connections, the authors took 37 macroeconomic variables for the 27 EU countries and identify how the population of these countries visits 10 sharing platforms (AirBnB, BlaBlaCar, eBay, Fiverr, Gumtree, Kickstarter, Lime, Uber, UpWork, and Vinted)."
Another question is the criterion of election of these sharing platforms, because in other similar articles about collaborative economy the platforms are less or are different.
Certainly, the authors argue that "statistically insignificant variables were removed, and the procedure is applied only to 15 macroeconomic variables, whose variance probability is significant for visiting sharing platforms." But there is a bias from the initial election, not enough defended.
Furthermore, I suggest (I know it implies more work, but it is my humble obligation to add it) to confirm the results with a qualitative tool. It can be a small and pragmatic Delphi, better than in-deep interviews.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you for your very thoughtful comments and valuable suggestions. We will address each of them separately.
The authors
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Congratulation for the adjustments done. The manuscript content was improved.
Author Response
Thank you
Reviewer 3 Report
The paper has improved, attending the suggestions explained in the first step. You have to do the last small reviews. Go ahead!
Author Response
The text of the paper is revised by using Grammarly English text editor and minor mistakes are corrected.
