Constructing Europe’s Collaborative Economy: Actors, Institutions, and Structural Contingency in Comparative Policy Analysis

Abstract

This study examines the emergence of European regulations to govern the collaborative economy, a new sector of the economy made possible by digital platforms. The concept gained common usage among stakeholders and European officials, but only partially due to the efforts of ideational entrepreneurs to promote the concept. Contingent factors that were structurally embedded in the policy process also had an impact. Most notably, actions taken by authorities in other European Union institutions who were disengaged from the discourse had a major impact on the way the collaborative economy was defined. This study shows how competing institutional logics and turnover in personnel make it difficult for policy entrepreneurs to control the framing of a policy discourse in an environment with multiple actors.