Peer-to-peer (P2P) business models have become increasingly prevalent in the marketplace. However, little is known about what factors influence consumer perceptions of purchases from firms using these models. The authors propose that features inherent to the P2P model lead consumers to perceive high provider–firm independence, where providers are viewed as relatively independent from the platform on which they offer goods/services. Across a series of studies, the authors show that when P2P brands use provider-focused (vs. platform-focused) marketing communications, consumers perceive a purchase as helping an individual provider to a greater extent, which increases consumers’ willingness to pay and their likelihood of both making a purchase and downloading the brand’s app. This is because provider-focused marketing communications in this context lead consumers to think about their purchase from the provider’s perspective, thus adopting an “empathy lens.” The authors further show that this effect does not extend to other business models. This work thus identifies provider- (vs. platform-) focused marketing communications as a way for marketing managers of P2P brands to drive important purchase-related outcomes.
AakerJennifer L.VohsKathleen D.MogilnerCassie (2010), “Non-Profits Are Seen as Warm and For-Profits as Competent: Firm Stereotypes Matter,” Journal of Consumer Research, 37 (2), 224–37.
2.
AggarwalPankaj (2004), “The Effects of Brand Relationship Norms on Consumer Attitudes and Behavior,” Journal of Consumer Research, 31 (1), 87–101.
3.
AndreoniJames (1990), “Impure Altruism and Donations to Public Goods: A Theory of Warm-Glow Giving,” The Economic Journal, 100 (4), 464–77.
4.
AndrewsMichelleLuoXuemingFangZhengAsparaJaakko (2014), “Cause Marketing Effectiveness and the Moderating Role of Price Discounts,” Journal of Marketing, 78 (6), 120–42.
5.
AronArthurAronElaine N.SmollanDanny (1992), “Inclusion of Other in the Self-Scale and the Structure of Interpersonal Closeness,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63 (4), 596–612.
6.
AroraNeerajHendersonTy (2007), “Embedded Premium Promotion: Why It Works and How to Make It More Effective,” Marketing Science, 26 (4), 514–31.
7.
BagozziRichard P.MooreDavid J. (1994), “Public Service Advertisements: Emotions and Empathy Guide Prosocial Behavior,” Journal of Marketing, 58 (1), 56–70.
8.
BardhiFleuraEckhardtGiana M. (2012), “Access-Based Consumption: The Case of Car Sharing,” Journal of Consumer Research, 39 (4), 881–98.
9.
BatraRajeevKellerKevin Lane (2016), “Integrating Marketing Communications: New Findings, New Lessons, and New Ideas,” Journal of Marketing, 80 (6), 122–45.
10.
BatsonDaniel C.LishnerDavid A.CookJenniferSawyerStacey (2005), “Similarity and Nurturance: Two Possible Sources of Empathy for Strangers,” Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 27 (1), 15–25.
11.
BatsonDaniel C.PowellAdam A. (2003), “Altruism and Prosocial Behavior,” in Handbook of Psychology, Vol. 5, WeinerIrving B., ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons Inc., 463–84.
12.
BeckerGordon M.DeGrootMorris H.MarschakJacob (1964), “Measuring Utility by a Single-Response Sequential Method,” Behavioral Science, 9 (3), 226–32.
13.
BelkRussell (2010), “Sharing,” Journal of Consumer Research, 36 (5), 715–34.
14.
BermanJonathan Z.LevineEmma E.BaraschAlixandraSmallDeborah A. (2015), “The Braggart’s Dilemma: On the Social Rewards and Penalties of Advertising Prosocial Behavior,” Journal of Marketing Research, 52 (1), 90–104.
15.
BurtchGordonCarnahanSethGreenwoodBrad N. (2018), “Can You Gig It? An Empirical Examination of the Gig Economy and Entrepreneurial Activity,” Management Science, 64 (12), 5497–520.
ChmielewskiMichaelKuckerSarah C. (2020), “An MTurk Crisis? Shifts in Data Quality and the Impact on Study Results,” Social Psychological and Personality Science, 11 (4), 464–73.
18.
DennisSean A.GoodsonBrian M.PeasonChris (2020), “Online Worker Fraud and Evolving Threats to the Integrity of MTurk Data: A Discussion of Virtual Private Servers and the Limitations of IP-Based Screening Procedures,” Behavioral Research in Accounting, forthcoming, DOI:10.2308/bria-18-044.
EckhardtGiana M.HoustonMarkJiangBaojunLambertonCaitRindfleischAricZervasGerogios (2019), “Marketing in the Sharing Economy,” Journal of Marketing, 83 (5), 5–27.
21.
FisherRobert J.MaYu (2014) “The Price of Being Beautiful: Negative Effects of Attractiveness on Empathy for Children in Need,” Journal of Consumer Research, 41 (2), 436–50.
22.
FitzmauriceConnor J.LadegaardIsakAttwood-CharlesWilliamCansoyMehmetCarfagnaLindsey B.SchorJuliet B., et al. (2020), “Domesticating the Market: Moral Exchange and the Sharing Economy,” Socio-Economic Review, 18 (1), 81–102.
23.
FuchsChristophSchreierMartinOsselaerStijn M.J. van (2015), “The Handmade Effect: What’s Love Got to Do With It?” Journal of Marketing, 79 (2), 98–110.
24.
GieslerMarkusVeresiuElaHumphreysAshlee (2019), “How Consumer Empathy Drives Platform Success,” Working Paper No. 19-100-01, Marketing Science Institute.
25.
GrégoireYanyTrippThomas M.LegouxRenaud (2009), “When Customer Love Turns into Lasting Hate: The Effects of Relationship Strength and Time on Customer Revenge and Avoidance,” Journal of Marketing, 73 (6), 18–32.
HamariJuhoSjöklintMimmiUkkonenAntti (2016) “The Sharing Economy: Why People Participate in Collaborative Consumption,” Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 67 (9), 2047–59.
28.
HartlineMichael D.Maxham IIIJames G.McKeeDaryl O. (2000), “Corridors of Influence in the Dissemination of Customer-Oriented Strategy to Customer Contact Service Employees,” Journal of Marketing, 64 (2), 35–50.
29.
HayesAndrew F. (2018), Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis: A Regression-Based Approach. New York: The Guilford Press.
30.
HeymanJamesArielyDan (2004), “Effort for Payment: A Tale of Two Markets,” Psychological Science, 15 (11), 787–93.
31.
HigginsE. Tory (1996), “Knowledge Activation: Accessibility, Applicability, and Salience,” in Social Psychology: Handbook of Basic Principles, Tory HigginsE.KruglanskiArie W., eds. New York: Guilford, 133–68.
32.
HoffmanMartin L. (1984), “Interaction of Affect and Cognition in Empathy,” in Emotions, Cognition, and Behavior, IzardCarol E.KaganJeromeZajoncRobert B., eds. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 103–31.
33.
KapitanSommerBhargaveRajesh (2013), “Navigating Residue Sensitivity in the Used Goods Marketplace,” Psychology & Marketing, 30 (4), 305–17.
34.
KellerKevin Lane (1999), “Brand Mantras: Rationale, Criteria, and Examples,” Journal of Marketing Management, 15 (1/3), 43–51.
35.
KellerKevin Lane (2009), “Building Strong Brands in a Modern Marketing Communications Environment,” Journal of Marketing Communications, 15 (2), 139–55.
36.
KimJeehye ChristineParkBrianDuboisDavid (2018), “How Consumers’ Political Ideology and Status-Maintenance Goals Interact to Shape Their Desire for Luxury Goods,” Journal of Marketing, 82 (6), 132–49.
KrebsDenni (1975) “Empathy and Altruism,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32 (6), 1134–46.
39.
KrishnaAradhnaRajanUday (2009), “Cause Marketing: Spillover Effects of Cause-Related Products in a Product Portfolio,” Management Science, 55 (9), 1469–85.
40.
KristoffersonKirkWhiteKatherinePelozaJohn (2014), “The Nature of Slacktivism: How the Social Observability of an Initial Act of Token Support Affects Subsequent Prosocial Action,” Journal of Consumer Research, 40 (6), 1149–66.
41.
LambertonCait PoynorRoseRandall L. (2012), “When Is Ours Better Than Mine? A Framework for Understanding and Altering Participation in Commercial Sharing Systems,” Journal of Marketing, 76 (4), 109–25.
42.
LambertonCaitStephenAndrew T. (2016), “A Thematic Exploration of Digital, Social Media, and Mobile Marketing Research’s Evolution from 2000 to 2015 and an Agenda for Future Research,” Journal of Marketing, 80 (6), 146–72.
43.
LeeSaeromBoltonLisa E.WinterichKaren Page (2017), “To Profit or Not to Profit? The Role of Greed Perceptions in Consumer Support for Social Ventures,” Journal of Consumer Research, 44 (4), 853–76.
44.
MendeMartinScottMaura L.DoornJenny vanGrewalDhruvShanksIlana (2019), “Service Robots Rising: How Humanoid Robots Influence Service Experiences and Elicit Compensatory Consumer Responses,” Journal of Marketing Research, 56 (4), 535–56.
45.
MorhartFelicitas M.HerzogWalterTomczakTorsten (2009), “Brand-Specific Leadership: Turning Employees into Brand Champions,” Journal of Marketing, 73 (5), 122–42.
46.
PerrenRebecaKozinetsRobert V. (2018), “Lateral Exchange Markets: How Social Platforms Operate in a Networked Economy,” Journal of Marketing, 8 (1), 20–36.
47.
PuntoniStefanoReczekRebecca WalkerGieslerMarkusBottiSimona (2020), “Consumers and Artificial Intelligence: An Experiential Perspective,” working paper.
48.
SchaefersTobiasWittkowskiKristinaBenoitSabineFerraroRosellina (2016), “Contagious Effects of Customer Misbehavior in Access-Based Services,” Journal of Service Research, 19 (1), 3–21.
49.
SchorJuliet B.Attwood-CharlesWilliam (2017), “The ‘Sharing’ Economy: Labor, Inequality, and Social Connection on For-Profit Platforms,” Sociology Compass, 11 (8), e12493.
50.
SchorJuliet B.FitzmauriceConnor J. (2015), “Collaborating and Connecting: The Emergence of the Sharing Economy,” in Handbook on Research on Sustainable Consumption, ReischLuciaThogersenJohn, eds. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
51.
SirianniNancy J.BitnerMary JoBrownStephen W.MandelNaomi (2013), “Branded Service Encounters: Strategically Aligning Employee Behavior with the Brand Positioning,” Journal of Marketing, 77 (6), 108–23.
52.
SmallDeborah A.CryderCynthia (2016), “Prosocial Consumer Behavior,” Current Opinion in Psychology, 10, 107–11.
53.
StephanWalter G.StephanCookie White (1985) “Intergroup Anxiety,” Journal of Social Issues, 41 (3), 157–75.
54.
SundararajanArun (2016), The Sharing Economy: The End of Employment and the Rise of Crowd Based Capitalism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
ZervasGeorgiosProserpioDavideByersJohn W. (2017), “The Rise of the Sharing Economy: Estimating the Impact of Airbnb on the Hotel Industry,” Journal of Marketing Research, 54 (5), 687–705.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
