Disciplinary Boundaries in Sharing Economy Research in BRICS: A structured literature review of intradisciplinary, crossdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approaches

Purpose: This review classifies the 31 articles supplied for the BRICS and sharing-economy project by how they work across disciplinary boundaries. It asks what each mode contributes and why boundary crossing matters for platform research. Method: The full texts were read and coded using explicit rules for mono-disciplinary, crossdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary inquiry. The source set is treated as a bounded corpus rather than an exhaustive search. Results: Ten studies are mono-disciplinary, seven crossdisciplinary, eight multidisciplinary, six interdisciplinary, and none meet a strict transdisciplinary criterion. The papers span economics, management, marketing, information systems, tourism, transport, sustainability, public administration, and international relations. Single-field studies provide depth; reviews and science maps expose breadth; integrated models connect market, social, institutional, and environmental mechanisms. Yet no suppliedstudy documents non-academic actors jointly framing the research problem and co-producing the analysis. Conclusion: Boundary crossing matters because platform outcomes travel across markets, livelihoods, institutions, cities, and ecosystems, while individual disciplines observe only parts of those processes. Future research should integrate mechanisms across scales and build participatory designs with workers, users, communities, and public agencies. These conclusions apply to the supplied set and do not establish the absence of transdisciplinary work in the wider field.