How the Digital Economy & the Spead of New Forms of Shared Property Are Framing New Type of Firms

In the Chandlerian tradition (examining in the history of the firms, the passage of one “form” to another), the focus of the paper is put on new types of firms and business models that are emerging at the junction of the two series of changes that are affecting the economy :

- those concerning the institutional forms of entrepreneurship; models based on different forms of shared and “communal” property rights (rather that on exclusive property rights); are analyzed here different type of business models and activities based on free software and creative commons in different types of tangible or intangible commons-based production entities (scientific on-line journals, shared gardens …)

 -those related  to the spread of the digital economy and the web regarded here as a market place and more generally as a mean for interconnecting actors and people in P2P relations, the owners/managers of the platform(s) being in position to capture more or less of the value created at the occasion of the P2P transaction (Uber, Airbnb …)

At the junction of these two series of changes (shared property rights, digital economy) are exhibited and discussed a series of new emerging business models. Finally a general typology is suggested.

The paper ends by discussing the long term sustainability of the different business models presented