P2P Exchanges Research Articles

Herding behavior in online P2P lending: An empirical investigation

We study lender behavior in the peer-to-peer (P2P) lending market, where individuals bid on unsecured microloans requested by other individual borrowers. Online P2P exchanges are growing, but lenders in this market are not professional investors. In addition, lenders have to take big risks because loans in P2P lending are granted without collateral. While the P2P lending market shares some characteristics of online markets with respect to herding behavior, it also has characteristics that may discourage it. This study empirically investigates herding behavior in the P2P lending market where seemingly conflicting conditions and features of herding are present. Using a large sample of daily data from one of the largest P2P lending platforms in Korea, we find strong evidence of herding and its diminishing marginal effect as bidding advances. We employ a multinomial logit market-share model in which relevant variables from prior studies on P2P lending are assessed.

Examining “peer‐to‐peer” (P2P) systems as consumer‐to‐consumer (C2C) exchange

PurposeThe exchange of goods between individual consumers being facilitated by the internet and “peer‐to‐peer” (P2P) systems is severely altering the business landscape. In broader terms, P2P exchanges are a form of what has occasionally been labeled “consumer‐to‐consumer” (C2C) exchange. What little work there is in business research which has examined both C2C and P2P exchange has to‐date been largely anecdotal or conceptual. This paper aims to address these shortcomingsDesign/methodology/approachA model of antecedents germane to the P2P phenomenon is formulated and empirically tested which includes the consumer's satisfaction with, extent of usage of, and future behavioral intentions toward P2P exchanges as the focal endogenous constructs of interest.FindingsThe model is tested with perceptual and archival data from a survey of consumers active in one prevalent form of P2P exchange (i.e. the “swapping” of pirated music). The model explains significant variance in all three focal endogenous constructs.Research limitations/implicationsThe primary limitations include the study's exploratory nature and not being able to incorporate all potentially salient constructs and variables germane to the P2P phenomenon within the context of the study reported here. Additionally, and from a sampling perspective, a more heterogeneous sample may benefit future research.Practical implicationsThe key insight emerging from the work is that the wide prevalence of P2P exchanges occurring globally between consumers has more to do with unexplored aspects of the phenomenon (such as its convenience; the “connectedness” it makes consumers feel to others) and seemingly much less to do with traditional marketing mix variables.Originality/valueWhile much has been written in the practitioner ranks and popular press about the problem of P2P exchanges, this work represents one of the first empirical studies of the antecedent drivers of the phenomenon. As is articulated in the paper's concluding sections, from a more embracing frame of reference, P2P systems and “consumer‐to‐consumer” exchanges are not the dire threats many marketing managers believe them to be. Challenges remain, however, for marketers to determine how to best harness these powerful new systems.

The `Indymedia' Experiment

The history of the Indymedia network - a group of open-domain web sites around the world, which grew rapidly from its inception in late November 1999 to more than 140 sites by May 2004 - embodies opposition to strategies of propertarian information control by agents of a radical ‘anarchic’ perspective hostile to ‘corporatism’. This binary tension, however, fails to capture the range of implications of ‘peer to peer’ - p2p - web exchange that Indymedia embodies. By weaving together a theoretical framing showing the inadequacy of conceiving p2p exchange in terms of ‘corporate-anarchist’ binaries, on the one hand, with empirical analysis of interviews with key figures from three continents who helped create Indymedia, on the other, the history of Indymedia developed here clarifies how to map struggles over control of the Internet as a communication technology. Such issues speak not only of understanding contested models of access to new communication technologies - exemplified by the tension between the p2p model and older sender-receiver broadcast models - but also to ways that the institutional framework, through which such technologies are deployed, shapes social movements and public will formation.

Diffusion Models for B2B, B2C, and P2P Exchanges and E-Speak

Consulting groups are predicting that the future of business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) exchanges will generate exponentially increasing revenues. However, the economic uncertainties in the market and technological innovations, such as peer-to-peer (P2P) networks and e-Speak from Hewlett Packard, may significantly alter the outlook for the current exchanges. In this study, we adopted a diffusion model for B2B, B2C, and P2P exchanges and e-Speak to capture the future revenue potentials of these electronic exchanges. We simulated the proposed model to incorporate possible market uncertainties. We initially analyzed the case where B2B and B2C increased exponentially. Then, we considered the case of migration from B2B and B2C to P2P and e-Speak. We tested the rate of diffusion with respect to certain parameters, such as imitation, innovation, market potential, and switching rate. With the set of parameters we used, we found out that the effect of imitation was stronger than innovation. The switching rate played an important role in how easy it was for agents to move to later technologies. The inertia factor determined the winner in the marketplace, based on the values, making it more expensive or less expensive to switch to later technologies.