Stimulate currency circulation in the currency community by creating a customized community

Abstract

Community currencies (CCs) are considered one of the tools used to energize and stimulate the economy and foster sustainable development. This sustainability was formed by iterating non-commercial (e.g., volunteer activities) and subsequent commercial transactions through using the earned CCs from non-commercial transactions in commercial transactions. While many studies have tried to assess the actual impact of these currencies, stagnation in CCs still has not been solved effectively. This paper aims to reduce stagnation by proposing a concept of “customized community” to accelerate the circulation of CCs by creating a market that fits the needs of members within the community. This market is created by giving a “preference” to people who would like to join the community by giving a bonus premium amount to add to the initial purchase of CC with money. The selection of the “preferred” people is based on personal factors (e.g. gender, product category etc.) of members who were frequently and actively involved in the CC transactions. Our main findings suggest that this concept can reduce the stagnation in CCs significantly from 15% to 3%. This customization has been examined by creating a random network model of 100 people and using computer simulation to analyze transactions.