I'm currently struggling to start my dissertation for a management and entrepreneurship course. I have chosen the topic of 'collaborative consumption' which refers to online peer to peer sharing websites. There is a lack of academic literature and theory on the subject and this is making it almost impossible to write a literature review, structure the work and find content to analyse and apply. There is some popular literature on the subject but this is fairly limited and un-academic.

I want to carry out a case study of a company that uses a businesses a model based on collaborative consumption and I have some decent research questions but without proper academic theory to draw from I'm not sure how to approach the analysis.

Does anyone have any advise of how to go about tackling this issue? There was so much theory on my undergraduate topic it was easy to base the whole project on that. Without this I feel kind of lost? Thanks any advise would be appreciated.

Look at some of the other aspects that are involved in your proposed research. For instance I am doing mine on the interaction of SME and foreigners in Korea. There is literature about cultural differences, acculturation, and consumers language preferences. You may have to dig really hard to find stuff.

I am also doing a case study research. I recommend two books by Yin:


http://www.amazon.com/Case-Study-Research-Methods-Applied/dp/1452242569

http://www.amazon.com/Applications-Research-Applied-Social-Methods/dp/1412989167/ref=la_B000APSBMO_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389790460&sr=1-5

All good points by milwaukiedave. I will actually check out those books as well thanks.

Also kits8914 you may find yourself wanting to look into other disciplines where the issue you are addressing is also featured. Off the top of my head; and forgive my lack of knowledge of your field's nomenclature; aside from the marketing and business literature, have you tried sifting through legal articles about peer to peer content sharing? I am sure there is a mountain of copyright literature on that topic, seeing that it is such a contemporary issue. Sure it may be law focused but I am sure there should be some breadcrumbs for you to follow.

I am sure the music and movie associations must also have some data on the effects of peer to peer sharing on their industries.

There is also a full featured documentary on Piratebay and its founders available online. Not very academic I know, but I usually don't discount ANY source before a brief perusal.

Again my apologies if my suggestions end up being utterly useless lol. Good luck, hey at least you know your chosen topic hasn't been beaten to death.

Thanks for the responses guys, I'll definitely look into purchasing those books!

I probably should have been more specific but its not peer to peer sharing in the digital sense, but rather websites such as Parkatmyhouse, Erento and Zilok that offer platforms to rent & hire physical assets. The idea is to unlock latent value in products that just sit around not being used, benefiting both the owner as they can earn some extra income and the renter as they do not have to purchase the product directly. Its emphasizes access over ownership.

There are relevant articles from political sciences about the overuse of resources and how societies can self organise to govern over consumption, but these are only loosely related in a general sense and I want to keep it as focused as possible. I've tried to look into journals relating to e-commerce but again these are a loose fit as this business model is relatively new.

I suppose what I'm really trying to ask is do you think it would be best for me to continue down this path and end up with work that's light on academic theory and references or just choose a completely new topic that has a substantial amount of theory that I could build upon.

Any opinions welcome as I'm finding this decision pretty tough!