۱٫ Introduction

۲٫ Economic, ego and demographic determinants of subjects’ participation in digital shadow economy: theoretical background

۳٫ The methodology of the empirical research

۴٫ The results of the empirical research

۵٫ Conclusions

Funding

References

This article is aimed at theoretical and empirical identification of economic and demographic characteristics of the subjects, operating in digital shadow economy. Although, in general sense, the characteristics of the subjects, operating in digital shadow economy, are not extremely different from the ones of the subjects, operating in traditional shadow economy, the expert evaluation has enabled to identify the distinctive features of an illegal digital market seller, who can be represented as a young or middle-aged male with higher education, a professional in his operational field. With reference to the research results, sellers in digital shadow economy include the entities with officially registered activities, who are trying to evade taxation of the revenues earned from the operations in e-space. On the other hand, according to the experts, the amount of the officially accounted revenue earned by these entities may reach up to 300 EUR. Hence, the defined profile of an illegal seller, as of a subject, operating in digital shadow economy, proposes that a seller in digital shadow economy is an intellectually developed person with advanced professional skills, but insufficient financial earnings.

Introduction

As argued by Wall (2005), the empowering of an individual to exploit networked technology to carry out incredibly complex and far-reaching tasks countless times globally is one of the most profound transformations of trade. With an attraction of opportunities, including easy availability, use and control of technologies (Ingram & Hinduja, 2008; Amasiatu & Shah, 2014; Camarero et al., 2014), variety of products and services on sale economy (Mikalajunas & Pabedinskaite, 2010; Sirkeci & Magnusdottir, 2011) low price (Mikalajunas & Pabedinskaite, 2010; Ho & Weinberg, 2011; Vida et al., 2012; Yu et al., 2015), time saving (Ho & Weinberg, 2011; Williams et al., 2010; Yu et al., 2015; Amasiatu & Shah, 2014 and others), convenient delivery terms (Vida et al., 2012; Sirkeci & Magnusdottir, 2011) and e-communication with a consumer (Mikalajunas & Pabedinskaite, 2010), more and more product buyers and service providers are entering the e-trade. Nevertheless, difference between corporate and personal, typical of e-environment (Calluzzo & Cante, 2004; Shang et al., 2008; Williams et al., 2010), in combination with the lack of public self-consciousness (Taylor, 2012; Arli et al., 2015; Amasiatu & Shah, 2014) determine subjects’ participation not only in formal, but also in digital shadow economy. Although the precise scopes of digital shadow economy have not still been estimated due to the lack of universally acceptable methodologies and difficulties to track all kinds of activities, one recent estimate of global corporate losses stands at around €۷۵۰ billion per year (Europol, 2011).