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2021/2022  BA-BSEMV2022U  Sharing Economy and Tourism

English Title
Sharing Economy and Tourism

Course information

Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Bachelor
Duration One Quarter
Start time of the course Second Quarter, Autumn
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Min. participants 45
Max. participants 80
Study board
Study Board for BSc in Service Management
Course coordinator
  • Szilvia Gyimothy Mørup-Petersen - Department of Marketing (Marketing)
Main academic disciplines
  • Customer behaviour
  • Marketing
  • Experience economy
Teaching methods
  • Face-to-face teaching
Last updated on 02-02-2021

Relevant links

Learning objectives
This course aims to introduce to the students the complexity of a sharing (or platform) economy in a tourism and hospitality context´. The specific learning objectives of the course are the following:
  • Describe and to discuss the assumptions that underlie sustainable strategies and principles from the perspectives of organisation theory, supply chain, sharing economy, collaborative consumption and service management.
  • Identify and analyse the relationship between relevant models, concepts and theories from the curriculum.
  • Analyse and explain the differences between commercial, platform and cooperative hospitality service suppliers and their sustainable management practices.
  • Evaluate different organisational solutions to align business strategies with the principles of sustainable and collaborative management.
  • Apply these models and concepts, singly or combined to fit a concrete case situation under study and critically assess the value and relevance of models, concepts and theories presented throughout the course in relation to their practical application in a relevant case.
  • To follow academic conventions in the written presentation.
Course prerequisites
Please note: an undergraduate-level knowledge of the basic principles of management and organisation theory is expected of all students.
Examination
Sharing Economy and Tourism:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Home assignment - written product
Individual or group exam Individual exam
Size of written product Max. 10 pages
Assignment type Case based assignment
Duration 2 weeks to prepare
Grading scale 7-point grading scale
Examiner(s) One internal examiner
Exam period Winter
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
if the student fails the ordinary exam they have to do the re-exam with the same case, but new questions regarding the case.
Description of the exam procedure

The exam is an individual, home written assignment (written product; take-home exam) with a maximum of 10 pages. The student will receive a specific case and detailed questions regarding the case. In a 2 weeks’ time the students should analyse the case and apply knowledge gained through the course to answer these questions as written in the learning objectives.

Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

Within less than a decade, the sharing (or platform) economy has radically disrupted and transformed the production and consumption of tourism. Peer accommodation rental, house swapping, ridesharing, free guided tours, couchsurfing, dinner hosting and similar innovative and collaborative enterprises are shaking the very bedrock of an industrial system that has been traditionally sustained along commercial value chains. This course will provide you with an entry-level understanding of sharing economy operations in the tourism and hospitality sector, and with a wide range of tools to analyse its variegated impacts on incumbents, host societies and destinations in different contexts. You will learn about different types of sharing platforms, ranging from global platform corporations (such as Airbnb and Uber) to local platform cooperatives. You will develop in-depth knowledge platform business strategies and sharing economy consumers. You will discuss how public and private actors address current challenges presented by sharing economy disruptions, including skewed competition, misbehaving customers, precarious labour and social discrimination. You will work with complex dilemmas related to new sustainable practices offered by the sharing economy and in your assessment of business models, you will address ethical, social and economic rationales.  Through exploring the character, scope, opportunities and challenges of sharing economy disruptions, you will gain both theoretical and practical insights into the digital and collaborative prospects of tourism management.

This elective is a cross-disciplinary and research based course, integrating the latest advances from sustainable operations management, organisation theory and service management. The diverse thematic and theoretical perspectives will be synthesised in a competitive case format, where students in groups will explore and solve a sustainable design challenge for a given hospitality business. This course requires no previous knowledge of hospitality management (but an undergraduate-level knowledge of the basic principles of organization theory and management is expected).  

Description of the teaching methods
Through providing an overview of relevant literature about content and methods, as well as some hands-on insights from research practice the course is designed to be highly interactive. The course builds upon the principles of active learning: students are expected to comment on readings, and do group exercises discussing cases and two workshops on sharing economy operations. The introductory session informs about the aims and structure of the course, the compulsory and recommended readings as well as the workshop exercises. The final module entails an in-class feedback session and briefing about the exam.
Feedback during the teaching period
Students will receive feedback in various forms during the course: For instance, through discussions in class, obligatory group assignments with oral feedback, and written feedback after the exam.
Student workload
Preparation 126 hours
Teaching 30 hours
Exam 50 hours
Expected literature

Dredge, Dianne & Gyimóthy, Szilvia (2017). Collaborative Economy and Tourism: Perspectives, Politics, Policies and Prospects. Cham: Springer International. Tourism on the Verge. (available online at CBS library)

+ 10-12 selected academic journal articles

Last updated on 02-02-2021