BUILDING BRAND CAPITAL IN CLUSTER ENTREPRENEURSHIP ON THE PRINCIPLES OF SHARING ECONOMY

Abstract

The article seeks to explore the issues of building brand capital in cluster entrepreneurship on the principles of sharing economy. To gain better awareness and clarity, the study offers insights on major characteristics and contradictions embedded in the definition of a "sharing economy" which made possible to view it as a new socioeconomic model of doing business, according to which access to goods and services with excess opportunities is provided through online platforms. It is argued that the process of business activity in the frameworks of sharing economy triggers a new pattern of consolidation of individuals, consumers, entrepreneurs and companies (which is an integration association in nature) and therefore, the brand of an individual, consumer, entrepreneur, company or the state as a whole acts as an integrative element in the transition toward the concept of a new, sharing economy. The synergistic combination of structural and consumer capital formation models, substantiation of the main tenets of the modern concept of sharing economy and the projection of specific features of brand capital onto a three-level plane of macro-, mezo- and microeconomic levels offers a new cluster-based entrepreneurship model of building brand capital. Thus, the study of essential trends in brand capital formation within cluster entrepreneurship based on the principles of sharing economy has revealed that the core of this model is the virtual business environment of cognitive interaction of the sharing economy participants. The authors suggest that such simulated organizational structure  with a tiered peer-to-peer network architecture will facilitate the effect of integrity in the process of building the national brand capital (empowering ordinary people and entrepreneurs; utilizing resources effectively; enhancing the degree of corporate social responsibility; realizing the principles of fair distribution of value; more democratic arrangement of entrepreneurship and raising environmental awareness, as well as offering a new pattern of bringing people together) that fits modern global technology development trends.