The sharing economy claims for research on its particularities and implications for management. This paper explores the way hosts of Peer-to-Peer Accommodation (P2P) develop relationship marketing with their guests and how it influences the business. The researchers conducted 30 semi-structured interviews to hosts of Airbnb, in order to obtain their perspective on the importance and application of relationship marketing in this context. Hosts with a B2C and a C2C business perspective were interviewed, and cultural differences in the relationship approach were also considered. The results show that the hosts are aware of the importance of interactions and personal contact with guests. Different results were identified depending on the type of business, accommodation, the culture and nationality of guests. Findings show that relationship marketing is highly explored in P2P sharing accommodation, exploring the interactivity of digital platforms to deepen those relationships.

Introduction Recent years have witnessed a rapid growth in peer to peer (P2P) sharing-service businesses such as Uber and Airbnb. In P2P sharing-service businesses, goods or services are provided by customers (peers) rather than by service firms, who act simply as an intermediary between customers. One customer acts as a service-providing customer (SPC), and the other as a service-receiving customer (SRC). P2P sharing-service firms have no direct control over an SPC’s quality of service provided to an SRC. Further, both SPCs and SRCs are customers to the firm, and therefore firms are concerned with the quality of service provided not only to SRCs but also to SPCs. In the P2P sharing-service context, particularly in the case of services serving the needs of diverse travelers (e.g., Uber or Airbnb), SPCs and SRCs can be people of different genders and races, which can cause them to feel socially distant from each other. Since SPCs are not professional service employees, they may not know how to cope with the social distance, which can result in uncomfortable service experience for both SPCs and SRCs. The more similar to the SPC an SRC feels, the more comfortable the SRC is likely to feel, which can lead to higher service satisfaction. Yet, few studies examined how such social distance can be reduced. This study is intended to fill this gap in the research. Specifically, we propose that an SPC’s form of address for SRC can moderate the effect of the incongruence in gender and race on an SRC’s perceived social distance. Theoretical Development Social distance refers to the level of acceptance people have of others outside of their own social group or class (Bogardus, 1928). It is a measure of perceived difference (or distance) between groups. In the context of the P2P sharing service, SRCs and SPCs can be from diverse social groups. When an SRC encounters an SPC from a social group that is different from theirs, the SRC can feel socially distant from the SPC. Immediate differences an SRC can identify upon meeting an SPC is demographic such as gender, age and race. In this study, we first propose that the difference (incongruence) in gender, age and race makes an SRC feel socially distant from an SPC. Social distance is closely related with similarity (Osbeck & Moghaddam, 1997; Liviatan, Trope & Liberman, 2009). In the context of mentoring, the higher the perceived and actual similarity a portage feels with a mentor, the higher the level of the portage liking and satisfaction for the mentor and with the mentoring service (Ensher, 1997). Matching gender and race between a mentor and a portage positively influenced self-reported grade point average, efficacy and confidence of a portage (Blake-Beard et al. 2011). Race was well demonstrated to influence social distance (Triandis & Triandis, 1960). Taken together, we conjecture that the effect of the difference in gender and race on social distance will apply to the P2P sharing service context and propose the following hypothesis: H1: The incongruence in gender and race between an SRC and an SPC will make SRCs feel more socially distant from SPCs compared to the case of congruence. We propose in this study that the form of address for SRCs by SPCs can influence the level of social distance SRCs feel because of the incongruence in gender and race. The relationship between forms of address and social distance has been proposed (Brown, 1965). Intimate terms of address is associated with intimate relationship. Intimate terms of address is inversely proportional to social distance (Keshavarz, 2001). Calling someone by the first name is related with friendliness (Brown, 1961). The use of first name is positively associated with closeness in relationship (Brown, 1965). An empirical study in the healthcare context showed that most patients preferred to be addressed by the first name (as opposed to last name) (Gillette, Filak & Thorne, 1984). Taken together, we propose the following: H2: Intimate forms of address by the SPC for the SRC will reduce the level of social distance caused by the incongruence in gender and race. We propose that the level of perceived social distance influences the level of comfort SRCs feel with the SPC during the service delivery. The negative effect of social distance on the level of interaction comfort has been shown (Paswan & Ganesh, 2005). In the context of service encounters where customers feel cultural differences, psychological distance was shown to influence comfort negatively (Weiermair, 2000). Since social distance is a dimension of psychological distance (Trope & Liberman, 2011), we propose the effect of social distance on comfort as following: H3: Reduced social distance will lead to a higher level of comfort. The effect of social distance on comfort can vary by customers. In this study, we propose that the effect is moderated by the customer’s motive for the purchase of the P2P sharing service. There are largely four movies for customers who participate in collective consumptions (i.e., sharing service): economic motive, social motive, hedonic motive, and the motive to reduce risks and responsibilities (Benoit, Baker, Bolton, Gruner & Kandampully, 2017). Economic motives are associated with reducing expenses, and social motives are with meeting other people (e.g. more authentic travel) (Benoit et al., 2017). Hedonic motives are related with “accessing products that are exciting or normally out of reach” while motives to reduce risks and responsibilities are related with “no burdens of ownership, option to preview a product for potential purchase” (Benoit et al., 2017). According to a research in the context of P2P accommodations, cost saving, familiarity, trust, and utility are determinants of satisfaction with a sharing option. Thus, we propose that customer motives moderate the effect of social distance on comfort (Möhlmann, 2015). H4: The effect of social distance on comfort vary by customer motives for purchase. When feeling comfortable, people are more likely to trust, feel satisfied, and commit themselves, which can help improve relationship (Spake, Beatty, Brockman & Crutchfield. 2003). Comfort positively influences perceived service quality and satisfaction (Dabholkar, Shepherd & Thorpe, 2000). Comfort influences satisfaction positively (Paswan & Ganesh, 2005). In the P2P sharing-service context, SRCs’ evaluation of SPCs are carried out by reviews. Customer reviews of SPCs’ services are vitally important for both SRCs and SPCs. Reviews help other SRCs to identify desirable SPCs (Ert, Fleischer & Magen, 2016) and SPCs to receive feedback for their service quality improvement. Therefore, we propose the following: H5: Comfort leads to SRC’s intention to write good reviews. Data Collection Data will be collected from American consumers who have used Uber at least once in the past one year through an online scenario-based survey using a 2 (genders: male vs. female) x 3 (races: white vs. yellow vs. black) x 3 (forms of address: no address vs. first name vs. last name) between-subject experimental design. Hypotheses will be tested by an analysis of variance and a structural equation modeling analysis. In the analyses, the potential effects of trust, familiarity, community belonging, utility (Möhlmann, 2015) and age will be controlled. Implications Findings of this study will reveal the importance of reducing social distance that SRCs feel during encounters with SPCs. Of many possible ways to reduce social distance between SRCs and SPCs, the result of this study will show that SPCs’ use of appropriate form of address to SRCs is effective. Further, it will show that the effect of social distance on customer comfort can vary by the purpose of the use of the sharing service. These findings will offer P2P service firms insights on how to help SPCs offer more comfortable services to SRCs and as a result receive positive reviews from SRCs.

Increasingly, mobile technology is becoming common in our everyday lives (GFT Technologies, 2016); nevertheless, mobile payments are not one of the most frequently used mobile services (Liébana-Cabanillas, Muñoz-Leiva & Sánchez- Fernández, 2017). Peer-to-peer mobile payment services (P2PM-pay) (also referred to as person-to-person transactions or P2P transactions) allow customers to quickly and easily transfer funds from their bank account or credit card to another individual's account via the internet or a smartphone. Prior studies on payment systems using mobile devices focused on analyzing other types of payment systems, the internal structure and safety protocols for each system, and their adoption by consumers (Ramos-de-Luna, Montoro-Ríos & Liébana-Cabanillas, 2016; Ozturk, Bilgihan, Salehi-Esfahani & Hua, 2017). The aim of this research is to propose a standardized behavioral model of users’ intention to use P2PM-pay. The model has been defined based on a framework involving some of the main theories of technologies adoption from the perspective of social psychology (Fishbein y Ajzen, 1975; Davis, Bagozzi & Warshaw, 1989; Venkatesh & Davis, 2000; Venkatesh & Bala, 2008; Venkatesh, Thong, & Xu, 2012). Based on the literature review and in-depth interviews conducted of professionals from the Fintech (financial technology) sector, the model was structured based on three groups of antecedents (i.e., drivers, inhibitor and psychological dimensions) to explain the intention to use. The model was evaluated using survey data of 701 participants with structural equation modelling (SEM) approach. The proposed model is based on classical technology adoption models but incorporates specific variables from mobile payment systems. It includes a total of eight antecedents of the intention to use the P2PM-pay app. Among these antecedents, three (i.e. perceived usefulness, subjective norms and personal innovativeness) are fundamental to the intention to use, while three others (i.e. individual mobility, perceived risk and perceived trust) have a lesser influence. The results also point out that the relationships of both perceived ease of use and hedonic motivation with the intention to use are not significant. Based on the findings, this research has important theoretical and practical implications in understanding the adoption of P2P mobile payment services.

In this paper, Wish to handle in priority about security of wishing to do data transmission between users specially among way to cope network service problems. Propose firewall that can solve problem of security between users for problematic solution, do so that can do smooth communication with network users sharing resource between each other safety in P2P environment. So that, users who is not given authority in network that consist through imperfect communication channel do not make a problem on security tapping, insertion and erasing of information, and rightful user through only firewall can use service.

2005년 6월 27일 미국 연방대법원은 중앙서버에 의하지 않는 P2P 파일교환을 가능하게 하는 소프트웨어를 제작􀓋배포한 자에 대하여 사실상 저작권 침해라고 판시하였다. 이같은 P2P 파일교환에 대해서는 네덜란드의 법원과 Grokster 케이스 항소법원이 저작권 침해책임을 인정하지 않았으나 미국의 다른 항소법원은 침해책임을 인정하는 판결을 하였으나, 연방대법원이 사실상 침해라고 인정함으로써 전세계적으로 상당한 영향을 줄 것으로 기대된다. 이 글은 P2P 파일교환에 관한 여러 사례들을 간단하게 소개한 후, 연방대법원의 판단을 상세하게 고찰하였다. Grokster 케이스는 소프트웨어의 배포자의 저작권 침해에 대하여 판단하면서 새로운 이론인 유인이론(inducement theory)에 의하여 사실상 그 책임을 인정하였다. 따라서 핵심적인 쟁점은 Grokster 케이스에 의하여 Sony 케이스가 제시한 원리가 제한되었는지, 아니면 Sony케이스의 원리는 전혀 아무런 관계가 없는지 여부가 된다. 이 글은 Grokster 케이스와 Sony 케이스와의 관계를 논하면서 도구의 제작자들에게 미칠 파급효과를 고찰하였다. 이에 따라 Grokster 케이스가 이들에게 일정한 가이드라인을 제시한 측면도 있지만 오히려 혼란스럽게 함으로써 기술진보가 억제될 가능성이 있다고 결론을 내렸다.

In peer-to-peer (P2P) loan markets, as most lenders are unskilled and inexperienced ordinary individuals, it is important to know the characteristics of borrowers that significantly impact their repayment performance. This study investigates the effects and importance of borrowers’ past repayment performance track record within the platform to identify its predictive power. To this end, I analyze the detailed loan repayment data from two leading P2P lending platforms in Korea using a Cox proportional hazard, multiple linear regression, and logit models. Furthermore, the predictive power of the factors proxied by borrowers’ track records are evaluated through the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. As a result, it is found that the borrowers’ past track record within the platform have the most important impact on the repayment performance of their current loans. In addition, this study also reveals that the borrowers’ track record is much more predictive of their repayment performance than any other factor. The findings of this study emphasize that individual lenders must take into account the quality of borrowers’ past transaction history when making a funding decision, and that platform operators should actively share the borrowers’ past records within the markets with lenders.

This study attempts to identify gender and age discrimination by individual lenders in P2P lending markets by analyzing empirical transaction data from multiple platforms including Moneyauction, Popfunding, and 8percent. To do this, the study investigates the effects and importance of a borrower’s gender and age on individual lenders’ preferences and a borrower’s actual repayment performance using multiple linear regression and relative weight analyses. As a result, no gender discrimination is found in the three Korean P2P lending markets, and such indiscrimination is rational, on the grounds that the borrower’s gender does not have a statistically significant impact on the lenders’ preferences as well as his/her actual repayment performance, and its relative importance is minimal. While, there marginally exists age discrimination against a borrower in the markets, and such ageism is likely to be irrational, on the grounds that the borrower’s age has a partly significant and minimally important impact on the lenders’ preferences, but has no significant and important impact on his/her repayment performance. For the first time, these findings help to clarify gender and age discrimination issues in the P2P lending market by identifying the rationality of individual lenders’ preferences to the borrower’s gender and age in the Korea.

네트워크 게임이나 온라인 게임을 개발하는 데 있어서 네트워크 관련 프로그래밍 기술은 필수적이다. 그러나 필요한 네트워크에 관련 전문적인 지식을 포함하여 네트워크 통신 관련 고급 프로그래밍 기술들을 습득하고 또 이를 구현해 내는 데에는 적지 않은 노력과 시간이 소요된다. 본 연구는 이와 같은 노력과 시간을 줄일 수 있는 기술적 방법에 대한 것이다. 특히 Virtools 엔진의 서버 기술을 이용하여 P2P 방식의 네트워크 연결 모듈을개발해 봄으로써 개선할 수 있는 가능성을 제시하고자 한다.