A typology for P2P access based exchanges in marketplaces

Abstract

Different business models, products and services that are introduced with the advances in digital technologies and Internet gave rise to alternative modes of consumption. Along with this shift from ownership-based to an access based consumption, a stream of scholarly research has focused on different aspects of alternative modes of consumption such as sharing, gift giving, collaborative consumption, etc. to explain the emerging phenomena. Although several conceptualizations can be found in the literature, there is still a gap in the academic knowledge about peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing and its content. Products and services subject to sharing may vary from a car that is shared for a ride by the owner with a passenger in return for an economic benefit -so called ridesharing-, or a house that is owned by an individual and made available for rental of other people -as in Airbnb-. As the notion of exchange differs significantly between various business models based on access based P2P exchanges, this creates new possibilities to redefine the concept. This study compares access based P2P exchanges with market-mediated access-based consumption (Bardhi and Eckhardt, 2012) and sharing (Belk, 2007), and offers a typology based on the level of transfer of ownership and economic nature of perceived value. Real life business models are presented based on this typology and further research directions are suggested to better understand the main motivations of consumers for choosing an access based P2P model rather than conventional options available in the market.