B2B Sharing as Part of the Sharing Economy Model

: Business-to-business (B2B) sharing constitutes a neglected part of the model of the sharing economy. A part which does however have considerable potential as it is a source of positive economic, environmental and social impacts. The aim of the authors of the article is to identify and evaluate areas and types of B2B sharing used by industrial companies and potentially possible types. Seven possible areas of B2B sharing were identified on the basis of systematic literature review and semi-structured interviews with managers from selected industrial companies operating in the Czech Republic. This specifically concerns the area of sharing employees, vehicles, premises, other types of tangible assets, information and knowledge, financial and insurance services and non-financial services. The alternative types of these are identified in the article and discussion is presented of their benefits and possible risks from the point of view of industrial businesses. Some of these types of sharing are widely applied in practice (e.g. sharing lorries and other vehicles, sharing capacities of lorries or carsharing), others are developing (e.g. strategic employee sharing and ad hoc employee sharing) and others again offer possible potential in future (e.g. peer-to-business lending or sharing machinery and material).


Introduction
The sharing economy is a phenomenon which has been experiencing an ever-increasing boom, in particular in recent years (Dec & Masiukiewicz, 2018) together with development of information and communication technologies (Lessem et al., 2016). A condition for its effective development is growth in awareness of this phenomenon (Hamari et al., 2016). The need thus arises, in particular from the point of view of companies, to uncover how the model of the sharing economy works and which challenges it poses (Gobble, 2017). Academics and practitioners are devoting an unprecedented level of attention to the topics of peer-to-peer (P2P) and business-to-customer (B2C) sharing (Cheng, 2016). The topic of business-tobusiness (B2B) sharing is for the time being outside of their field of interest (Antikainen et al., 2018). The sharing economy does however have remarkable potential from the point of view of B2B markets (Antikainen et al., 2018). Participating in B2B sharing allows companies to achieve higher levels of responsiveness and efficiency (Antikainen et al., 2018). It also contributes towards the social responsibility of participating companies. Contribution towards sustainability can, among others, be regarded as the original (Geissinger et al., 2019), key (Habibi, 2019) motive for sharing. doi: 10.36689/uhk/hed/2021-01-077 Despite the benefits associated with this phenomenon, no study exists offering comprehensive identification of the possible areas and types of B2B sharing. Several articles are available mentioning the possibility of using B2B sharing during creation of new business models for sustainable innovation -see for example Boons and Lüdeke-Freund (2013) for further details. Studies have also been created discussing selected specific types of B2B sharing (e.g. Bouncken et al., 2020;Eurofound, 2017) or studies mentioning examples of its platforms within the framework of discussion about B2C and P2P platforms (e.g. Paajanen, 2017 or Roma et al., 2019). The aim of the authors of the article is to identify and evaluate areas and types of B2B sharing used by industrial companies and potentially possible types, this using the example of selected companies operating in the Czech Republic.
The sharing economy includes activities such as traditional sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting and swapping (Botsman & Rogers, 2011). Activities within the framework of the sharing economy are in general based on utilisation of idle capacities (Voytenko et al., 2017). According to Guyader andPiscicelli (2019, p. 1061), the sharing economy represents "an umbrella term for business and consumption practices that are based on sharing underutilized resources (e.g., goods, services, and spaces) for free or for a fee, typically enabled by online platforms and peer communities". Sharing may be performed not only using on-line platforms, but also without them (Ertz et al., 2019). The motive for participation in sharing may be profit, compensation of costs, but also philanthropy (Ertz et al., 2019).
Businesses can share employees, tangible and intangible assets or services. Sharing of employees may be based on strategic employee sharing, in terms of which a group of employers creates a network which hires employees who regularly alternate working for the participating employers (Eurofound, 2017). One alternative is ad hoc employee sharing which is used by employers if they are temporarily unable to provide work for their employees, or if a greater need for employees is temporarily created on their part. They then share the surplus/required employees with other organisations (Eurofound, 2017). As far as sharing of assets is concerned, companies can use various types of sharing in the field of transportation, such as sharing of lorries and their capacities (Islam, 2017), ridesharing (Dillahunt et al., 2017) or even carsharing. One interesting option for sharing in the field of transportation is truck platooning. A truck platoon represents a set of virtually linked trucks that drive closely behind one another using automated driving technology (Bhoopalam et al., 2018). Businesses can also share premises, e.g. manufacturing and storage premises (Molinier & Costa, 2019), co-working spaces, i.e. office space together with social areas (Bouncken et al., 2020) or accommodation capacity (Roma et al. 2019). They can also share other types of tangible assets, e.g. resources and production capacity (Antikainen et al., 2018), but also for example furniture (Trip, 2019). Another possibility is sharing of intangible assets in the form of information about future customer demand, extraordinary fluctuations in deliveries/consumption or information about the status of order processing (Patak et al., 2020). They can also share knowledge (Garcia-Perez et al., 2018). From the point of view of financial services, they can use peer-to-business lending from the position of debtor or creditor, the essence of this consisting in investors putting together funds for provision of a B2B SHARING loan to a client via an on-line platform (Amalian & Amalyan, 2019). They can also use equity crowdfunding, thanks to which they gain equity which investors create with their shares (Hornuf & Schwienbacher, 2018). Another option in this field is shared insurance, which differs from insurance provided by traditional insurance companies in that the funds which were not paid out as indemnity are the property of the clients, not the insurance company and if no indemnity is paid out, funds are partially refunded to them (Jinglu, 2016).
Businesses can also share non-financial services of a service nature or cloud services which could include infrastructure, development and application platforms, but also software (Garg et al., 2013). They can use cooperative advertising, in terms of which the manufacturer participates together with retailers or even distributors in promotion of a specific product and they jointly share in settlement of costs (Zhang et al., 2019). In the second step, semi-structured interviews were held with managers from selected businesses. A total of 13 interviews were held with representatives of 6 companies from January until April 2020. According to NACE Rev. 2 classification (Eurostat, 2008), this concerned businesses in division 20 -Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products, division 25 -Manufacture of fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment, division 26 -Manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products and division 28 -Manufacture of machinery and equipment. According to the Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003, this concerned both SME and also large enterprises. More detailed characteristics of these businesses is set out in Table 1. The average length of the interview was 90 minutes. Semi-structured interviews were conducted on the basis of a questioning scenario prepared in advance which was drawn up on the basis of systematic literature review. The main objective of these semi-structured interviews was to identify applied types of sharing and to evaluate their benefits and limitations as well as to map the attitude of respondents to the phenomenon of the sharing economy. The reason for application of this method of collection of primary data was the fact that this concerns a flexible method which allows for addition (Mitchell & Jolley, 2010) or explanation (Saengpakdeejit & Intaraprasert, 2014) of questions within the pre-determined framework. It was thus possible to identify other forms of B2B sharing not yet mentioned in the professional literature.

Results
It is evident from the study performed that within the framework of B2B sharing, industrial companies can share employees, tangible assets in the form of vehicles, premises and other types of tangible asset as well as intangible assets in the form of information and knowledge. They can also share financial and non-financial services. See Table 2 for further details.
The study also shows that sharing of employees represents a developing area of sharing.
Companies are starting to utilise the potential of strategic employee sharing and ad hoc employee sharing within the framework of B2B sharing. Strategic employee sharing is above all used by the monitored businesses to ensure service activities such as IT services, accounting, the HR agenda, cleaning and security for buildings. Certain companies occasionally use ad hoc sharing of employees, again for the time being for workers performing service activities, e.g. project managers or IT experts. The above-mentioned types of employee sharing are ensured on the basis of contractual arrangements without use of online platforms. The monitored companies use ad hoc employee sharing not only on an intercompany level but also on an in-house level. Respondents regard the main benefit of application of these types of sharing as savings on payroll and other staffing costs. The survey performed also shows that companies are considering job sharing on an in-house level, this being when two or more employees share the workload for one job. Job sharing like this contributes towards ensuring a harmonious work-life balance for employees. Its use for example in the case of employees on parental leave seems expedient.
As far as sharing vehicles is concerned, this is a developed area of sharing. In particular As far as sharing of services is concerned, an area which has so far been completely neglected is sharing of financial and insurance services, this not being used by even one of the monitored companies. The reason for this is a lack of confidence, in particular stemming from insufficient regulation of this business segment. On the contrary, non-financial services are widely used by the monitored companies, this in particular being those companies based in industrial complexes together with other companies. They use shared building security, shared cleaning services, shared maintenance of premises or shared catering. However, they also use types of B2B sharing such as shared fire protection, shared employee health care services or shared energy and steam supply in industrial complexes. Cloud services can also be regarded as a relatively widespread form of sharing. Cooperative advertising is not currently used by the monitored companies. However, completely new types of services are starting to find application on the B2B sharing market, these until recently having only been typical for the field of P2P sharing. One example of this is shared care for the household and family members of employees using sharing economy platforms. The main effect of sharing services is again a financial effect, i.e. saving on costs as a result of their allocation to a greater number of entities. Works catering, employee health care services and care for the household and family members of employees ensured within the framework of the sharing economy

Discussion and Conclusions
It is evident from the study performed that industrial businesses can participate in the B2B sharing model in various areas and in various way ( Table 2). Some of these forms of sharing are predestined for groups comprising related companies or supply chains, others can be used by companies located together in industrial complexes. Several types of sharing can however be exercised between companies which are not linked in any way, or can be used on an in-house level, e.g. between strategic business units. Employees, property and services can be shared within the framework of B2B sharing, using online platforms and also without them.
Within the framework of B2B sharing, sharing of employees comes into consideration in the form of strategic employee sharing and ad hoc employee sharing. On an in-house level, businesses can also use sharing of workplaces. Companies can share tangible assets in the form of vehicles, specifically lorries and their capacities, passenger cars (in particular in the form of ridesharing) and other vehicles, but bicycles and scooters can be shared too.
Companies can also share administrative, storage, parking or accommodation space. One alternative for sharing of intercompany and in-house space is sharing of administrative workplaces. Businesses can also share machinery, apparatus, material or equipment, e.g.
furniture. Sharing of information and knowledge also comes into consideration. Services represent a separate area of sharing. A relatively limited offer of financial and insurance services can be used within the framework of B2B sharing in the form of peer-to-business lending, equity crowdfunding and shared insurance, but also a wide range of non-financial services, e.g. in the form of shared building security, shared cleaning services or shared catering.
Some of these types of sharing are widely applied in practice, others are developing and others again offer possible potential in future. This is to say that it can justifiably be anticipated that the above-mentioned forms of sharing will gradually be used by businesses in a wider scope (Gobble, 2017) and at the same time, it is very likely that new forms of B2B sharing will also emerge. The reason for this is in particular the fact that B2B sharing is associated with significant economic effects, a fact which Antikainen et al. (2018) also draw attention to. The reason for this is that it leads to a reduction in costs and in some cases even generates revenue. In addition to this, these activities can in several instances be regarded as an expression of social responsibility by companies, be this with a positive impact on the environment in the form of saving on resources and reduction of emission volumes, or in the social field in the form of ensuring a harmonious work-life balance or a wider offer of employee benefits, as discussed among others by Tetrevova (2018). Use of services in the sharing economy can thus be regarded as an instrument to increase the competitiveness and attractiveness of companies.
The presented study represents a preliminary study which has made it possible to identify areas and types of B2B sharing which are currently used and also potential ones. This was accomplished using the example of selected companies in the chemical and engineering sectors operating in the Czech Republic. A limiting factor of this study is that it maps B2B sharing activities performed in two sectors of the national economy, albeit key sectors.
Another limiting factor may be regarded as the fact that the study maps the situation from the point of view of a small post-communist economy. The Czech Republic does however in reality represent a relatively developed EU economy (Eurostat, 2020). The presented study creates a basis for further follow-on studies which should map applied and potential areas and types of B2B sharing in other sectors and subsequently also in other countries.