Sharing Economy: Sensegiving of Strategic Decisions …
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various interactions to compose a socially accepted meaning (Weick 1995). Therefore, another order of explanation is needed in addition to the one that considers
phases of change and patterns of interpretation, in order to include the set of
small actions (Rouleau 2005). With this in mind, the regard is approximate to the
micro-level by the understanding of the fluidity in the construction of meaning.
The sharing economy, as a new way of acting and doing business, is inserted as
a context that illuminates the aspects of sustainability aligned to an expectation of
novelty in the services provided. Thus, the organization’s strategic effort is directed
towards achieving the sustainability ideal. The daily micro-actions are manifested
as expressions of the decision in the processual perspective articulating practices,
practitioners, and praxis. As a result of this process, narratives are formed as ways of
directing the collective sense, establishing sensegiving. Accordingly, the organizational strategy, reflected in the communicational practices, is conducted throughout
the different moments of interaction.
3 Methodological Procedures
This investigation assumes that the researcher must be equipped with a vivid and
perceived reality in order to understand the world (Schwandt 1998). As the nature
of the phenomenon demands a relational interpretation, qualitative methods allow
the construction of knowledge considering the complexity of reality. Consequently, a
qualitative approach was adopted, bearing in mind its main characteristic of inductive
generalization (Creswell and Creswell 2018).
Considering the objective of this study, the cases of the three largest companies
in the urban mobility sector of the sharing economy operating in Brazil have been
investigated: Uber Technologies, 99 and Cabify. Together, they represent at least 92%
of the national market when examining the number of mobile application downloads
(CADE 2018). The American company Uber Technologies, established in 2010,
started operating in Brazil in 2014, in Rio de Janeiro. The company operates in more
than 100 Brazilian cities (Uber 2018). Founded in 2012, 99 is a national company
initially conceived to hail taxi services and operates with ridesharing in 1704 cities
(99 Tecnologia 2018). Cabify started in 2011 in Spain, entered the Brazilian market
in 2015, in São Paulo. The company offers its services in 8 cities in the country
(Cabify 2018).
The data collection was carried out in equal manner in all three organizations. All
information gathered in this study was originally in Portuguese and was translated to
English only for reporting purposes. This study was conducted from November 2018
to July 2019, considering communications made in the period from 2015 to 2018
(reflecting only the concomitant operation of the three ridesharing companies) with
the keywords regulation (regulamentação; regulação), regulatory (regulatório), and
legislation (legislação) present on the official websites, blogs, newsroom, and fan
pages of the companies on social media plataforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube. Although used by the three companies, the corporate-focused
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various interactions to compose a socially accepted meaning (Weick 1995). Therefore, another order of explanation is needed in addition to the one that considers
phases of change and patterns of interpretation, in order to include the set of
small actions (Rouleau 2005). With this in mind, the regard is approximate to the
micro-level by the understanding of the fluidity in the construction of meaning.
The sharing economy, as a new way of acting and doing business, is inserted as
a context that illuminates the aspects of sustainability aligned to an expectation of
novelty in the services provided. Thus, the organization’s strategic effort is directed
towards achieving the sustainability ideal. The daily micro-actions are manifested
as expressions of the decision in the processual perspective articulating practices,
practitioners, and praxis. As a result of this process, narratives are formed as ways of
directing the collective sense, establishing sensegiving. Accordingly, the organizational strategy, reflected in the communicational practices, is conducted throughout
the different moments of interaction.
3 Methodological Procedures
This investigation assumes that the researcher must be equipped with a vivid and
perceived reality in order to understand the world (Schwandt 1998). As the nature
of the phenomenon demands a relational interpretation, qualitative methods allow
the construction of knowledge considering the complexity of reality. Consequently, a
qualitative approach was adopted, bearing in mind its main characteristic of inductive
generalization (Creswell and Creswell 2018).
Considering the objective of this study, the cases of the three largest companies
in the urban mobility sector of the sharing economy operating in Brazil have been
investigated: Uber Technologies, 99 and Cabify. Together, they represent at least 92%
of the national market when examining the number of mobile application downloads
(CADE 2018). The American company Uber Technologies, established in 2010,
started operating in Brazil in 2014, in Rio de Janeiro. The company operates in more
than 100 Brazilian cities (Uber 2018). Founded in 2012, 99 is a national company
initially conceived to hail taxi services and operates with ridesharing in 1704 cities
(99 Tecnologia 2018). Cabify started in 2011 in Spain, entered the Brazilian market
in 2015, in São Paulo. The company offers its services in 8 cities in the country
(Cabify 2018).
The data collection was carried out in equal manner in all three organizations. All
information gathered in this study was originally in Portuguese and was translated to
English only for reporting purposes. This study was conducted from November 2018
to July 2019, considering communications made in the period from 2015 to 2018
(reflecting only the concomitant operation of the three ridesharing companies) with
the keywords regulation (regulamentação; regulação), regulatory (regulatório), and
legislation (legislação) present on the official websites, blogs, newsroom, and fan
pages of the companies on social media plataforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube. Although used by the three companies, the corporate-focused