Peer-to-Peer Sharing, Price Competition, and Consumers' Awareness

Explore a research seminar examining how peer-to-peer sharing platforms influence market competition and consumer behavior in the transition to circular economy models. Delve into a theoretical model of product differentiation where firms choose between offering standard products or circular versions designed for sharing platforms, analyzing how consumer heterogeneity in usage patterns affects market dynamics. Examine the equilibrium conditions under varying degrees of sharing market maturity, consumer use intensity, and cost differences between product varieties. Discover how environmental awareness fundamentally transforms market outcomes, showing that while circular products typically command higher prices and smaller market shares in environmentally-neutral scenarios, consumer environmental consciousness can dramatically shift competitive dynamics, potentially leading to circular products dominating both market share and profitability. Learn about the critical role of consumer environmental awareness as a driving force in the transition toward circular economy models, with implications for firms' strategic product positioning and pricing decisions in markets where peer-to-peer sharing creates new forms of consumer engagement as prosumers and users rather than traditional purchasers.