Influence of Peer-to-Peer-Based Exchange on Creating New Business Models

One-to-one communication and business concepts which emerged in the period of introducing information and communications technologies (ICTs) in business in the dawn of the New Economy of the early 2000, quickly shifted to “many-to-many” and further on to “peer-to-peer” exchange and collaborative consumption, pushed by the expansion of social networks, and by the strong influence of economic and social factors. The sense of urgency as a result of rapid population growth and resource depletion provoked the need for establishing savvy business models which will help clever resource use by utilizing peer-to-peer exchange. Moreover, the purpose of this paper is also to present and analyze new business models which support collaborative consumption as an important alternative for reestablishing customers’ trust and loyalty in organizations. Collaborative consumption as peer-topeer- based access to creation, production, distribution, consumption and trade of goods, services and information has become of a high importance in business since it proved to lower costs of economic coordination within online communities, to speed up the pace of communication among reference groups of consumers, to contribute stronger communities, and to encourage sustainable development.