How Peer-to-Peer Sharing Promotes Product Purchase: An Abstract

Despite growing interest in the sharing economy, research has predominantly focused on the relationship between sharing platforms and renters in a traditional business-to-consumer context. In peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing, however, consumers share their own product with other consumers via a sharing platform. Thereby, they take a hybrid role as the buyer and provider of an asset. Further, previous studies position sharing as an alternative to acquisition and ownership. However, P2P sharing requires consumers’ ownership, according acquisition, and consequent temporary disposition of assets. Thereby, P2P sharing contradicts the notion of completely substituting ownership with access-based consumption through including acquisition and relativizes the imposed threat. The objective of this paper is to link purchase behavior to the temporary disposition in P2P sharing and thereby investigate how sharing affects consumer’s willingness to purchase products. Due to the lack of existing research on P2P asset sharing, we applied a mixed-methods approach. We first conducted three focus groups to support the development of our hypotheses. Throughout the focus groups, consumers mentioned the financial burden of owning an asset as one of the key factors in their purchase decision. P2P sharing, however, was perceived as an option to economize on the costs of ownership and thus to reduce the burdens. Subsequently, we tested our hypotheses using two experimental studies with 673 consumers. The objective of the first study was to test the effect of sharing on consumer’s purchase intention as well as the mediating role of burdens of ownership. The objective of the second was to test the effect of sharing on consumer’s purchase decisions by implicitly manipulating the economic benefits of sharing. Specifically, we manipulated whether renters’ preferences are shown prior to the consumer’s decision regarding which asset brand and type to buy. Contrary to the threat that sharing decreases product purchase, this study illustrates the positive effects of P2P sharing on peer providers’ willingness to purchase products. We show that the option to share a product not only increases consumers’ purchase intentions but also increases purchase intention for more expensive products, driven by the reduction of burdens of ownership as it enables consumers to economize their purchase by sharing it. Marketers aiming to increase units sold could provide consumers with an option to temporarily dispose of their product as it allows consumers to integrate losses with future gains. Interestingly, we also find that providers will take renters’ preferences into account when making a purchase decision. They are more likely to buy a brand they do not prefer if it enables them to earn more. Our findings illustrate that the sharing economy is not only a threat to traditional product manufacturers but also an opportunity to increase purchases.