Multidisciplinary Design of Sharing Services

This book explores all aspects of the sharing economy, pursuing a multidisciplinary approach encompassing Service Design, Spatial Design, Sociology, Economics, Law, and Transport and Operations Research. The book develops a unified vision of sharing services, and pinpoints the most important new challenges. The first, more theoretical part covers general topics from the perspectives of experts in the respective disciplines. Among the subjects addressed are the role of the user in co-design and co-production; impacts of sharing services on cities, communities, and private spaces; individual rewarding and social outcomes; regulatory issues; and the scope for improving the efficiency of design, management, and analysis of sharing services. In turn, the second part of the book presents a selection of case studies of specific sharing services, in which many of the concepts described in the first part are put into practice. Readers will gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics of sharing services and of the hidden problems that may arise. Key factors responsible for the success (or failure) of sharing services are identified by analyzing some of the best (and worst) practices. Given its breadth of coverage, the book offers a valuable guide for researchers and for all stakeholders in the sharing economy, including startup founders and local administrators.

Maurizio Bruglieri holds a Master’s degree in Mathematics (1997) and a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Milan (2001). Since 2005 he has been Assistant Professor in Operations Research in the Design Department of Politecnico di Milano, where he has taught Operations Research on various degree courses. His main research interests are the design of algorithms for combinatorial optimization problems and the mathematical modeling of decision problems, especially in the Transport field. Dr. Bruglieri is the author of more than 30 publications in international scientific journals and has also authored a textbook in Operations Research. He has been a speaker at a number of national and international conferences and was co-organizer of the AIRO 2014 conference in Como, Italy. He acts as referee for several international journals.