Peer-to-Peer Product Sharing: Implications for Ownership, Usage, and Social Welfare in the Sharing Economy

• Published in: Management science Vol. 65; no. 2; pp. 477 - 493
• Main Authors: Benjaafar, Saif, Kong, Guangwen, Li, Xiang, Courcoubetis, Costas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Linthicum INFORMS 01.02.2019; Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
• Subjects: Analysis; Business ownership; Collaboration; collaborative consumption; Consumer behavior; Consumption; Equilibrium; Industrial development; on-demand platforms; Owners; Ownership; Peer to peer computing; peer-to-peer markets; Product development; Renting; Sharing economy; Social service; Social welfare; sustainability; United States

We describe an equilibrium model of peer-to-peer product sharing, or collaborative consumption, where individuals with varying usage levels make decisions about whether or not to own a homogeneous product. Owners are able to generate income from renting their products to nonowners while nonowners ar...