Sustainable consumption behaviours in P2P accommodation platforms: an exploratory study

This paper examines how sustainable consumption behaviours are assembled in peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms, based on four factors—services portfolio complexity, network membership, reputation and innovative practices—and its impact on P2P platform performance. Using data from one P2P accommodation platform in Romania and based on 2556 observations, we tested the research hypothesis using ordinary least squares regression. Specifically, services portfolio complexity positively influences sustainable consumption behaviours, while network membership has a negative influence. Services portfolio complexity has a positive influence on sustainable consumption behaviours when innovative practices are high. Finally, sustainable consumption behaviours positively influence P2P platform performance.


Introduction
Sharing economy has facilitated peer-to-peer (P2P) platform development through new applications in connectivity technologies (Valdés et al. 2015). The new economic context, where P2P platforms appear to become increasingly common, differs from the traditional one by facilitating a strong connection between businesses and users in multiple ways (Fremstad 2018). These platforms offer opportunities for new modes of production and resource allocation, scalable technological infrastructures and a deeper focus on sustainability (Bauwens and Kostakis 2017). More, according to Raju and Chandrasekaran (2019), P2P technologies "divide the data or resources between the peers for managing the network bandwidth, network participants and processing powers. During the data distribution process in the P2P environments, accuracy, computation complexity and distributed clustering accuracy are the important issues as they reduce the entire system performance" (p. 1). Spaho et al. (2014) consider that P2P networks will be very important for future distributed systems and applications in knowledgebased economy. However, the full potential of the P2P context remains unexplored and insights into these newer ways of doing business or what makes them successful are still poorly surveyed.
Sustainable consumption behaviours (SCB) are defined as voluntary behaviours that support sustainability (Sigala 2014;Prothero et al. 2011). Various studies have discussed the role of sustainability (Heinrichs 2013;Sahakian and Wilhite 2014;Antonetti and Maklan 2014), such as creating and maintaining SCB (Martin 2016) or generating new forms of SCB (Yates 2018;Mccollough 2010). However, specific SCB need further analysis. Thus, this paper proposes the following research questions: • How can SCB be enhanced? • What is the impact of these SCB on P2P platform performance?
Hence, we empirically examined different approaches in order to highlight the SCB of the clients in the P2P platform and their impact on the performance of the platform.
The paper is organized as follows: Sect. 1 provides the rationale of the study and presents the research questions. Section 2 presents the theoretical background and proposes the research hypotheses. Section 3 presents the study. Section 4 discusses the implications of the findings and highlights the conclusions.

Research model and hypotheses
The input variables are antecedents of P2P platform performance.

Services portfolio complexity
The services portfolio is a cluster of closely related, functionally similar services sold to the same customer or having the same price range (Tallman et al. 2004). Essentially, services portfolio complexity consists of the assortment of services offered (Duysters and Lokshin 2011). Due to increased heterogeneity of customers' needs, P2P platforms tend to extend their services or offer new services, hereby making their portfolio more complex (Tallman et al. 2004). An extensive range of services offers the opportunity to boost sales on P2P platforms (Fernhaber and Patel 2012). The complexity of services portfolio is particularly relevant given the ease and simplicity with which customers can choose another host or property on the same P2P accommodation platform. Thus, having properties offering a larger services portfolio complexity will be beneficial to both properties and platform. Hence, we hypothesize that: H1 Services portfolio complexity positively influences sustainable consumption behaviours.

Network membership
Networks are one of the more common forms of inter-organizational relationships. Inter-organizational relationship varies in terms of intensity, intent, content and emphasis. Networks act as trust-building mechanisms (Cohen and Munoz 2016), as enablers of collaboration (Wiles and Crawford 2017) and facilitating access to critical resources (Powell et al. 1999) for their members. Peer networks play a crucial role in P2P platforms (Kuhn and Galloway 2015), influencing the performance and building a sustainable competitive advantage (Joo et al. 2017). Through their online network features, P2P platforms facilitate direct contact between groups following similar patterns of business, selling the same type of services, having the same interests or learning the same aspects of conducting business. Being a member of such networks provides opportunities for these groups, influencing their overall performance.
However, each network may have its own rules and regulations. Usually, P2P platforms are seeking profit, placing a lot of strains for their members in terms of pricing, costs and level of services. Membership of a property in various networks may alter its sustainability due to the fact that customers are sensitive on prices and discounts, making the host more sensitive on these aspects than on societal and environmental add-ons.
Therefore, we hypothesize that: H2 Network membership negatively influences sustainable consumption behaviours.

Reputation
Reputation represents public opinion assessment regarding the honesty ensured during service delivery in online transactions (Doney and Cannon 1997). It determines the security in P2P platforms (Pera et al. 2016), enhancing the trust between clients and service providers (Cheema 2008), facilitating a cooperative relationship among all actors involved (Kozlenkova et al. 2017). Moreover, reputation mitigates the risks associated with online transactions (Sun 2014) and reduces associated costs (Ye and Cho 2017). Various studies have shown that reputation significantly increased credibility, making the customers more willing to pay a value premium (Ba and Pavlou 2002). Therefore, we hypothesize that: H3 Services portfolio complexity has a positive effect on sustainable consumption behaviours when reputation is high.
H4 Network membership has a negative effect on sustainable consumption behaviours when reputation is low (Tables 1, 2).

Innovative practices
Innovativeness in business practices is represented by innovations in services offered (Tussyadiah and Zach 2017), innovation in internal operations (Trudel et al. 2016; Ceptureanu and Ceptureanu 2019) and innovation in customerrelated practices. Innovation is a significant source of value creation (Amit and Zott 2001). According to Leary et al. (2014), innovative practices help companies to achieve business objectives, on different levels of importance-operational, tactical and strategic. Innovative business practices often become critical sources of competitive advantage H6 Network membership has a negative influence on sustainable consumption behaviours when innovative practices are low.

The performance of P2P platform
In online communication, it is easy to spot the relevant characteristics of product or service the customer seeks to purchase (Ye and Cho 2017). In P2P accommodation platforms, this is particularly important since it is followed by recurrent bookings. Focus on environmental sustainability signals that the property is environmental friendly, thereby enhancing the clients' willingness to pay a premium (Emekter et al. 2015), particularly for groups that hold pro-environmental beliefs. Since the profiles of various properties/hosts were very diverse, we used as an indicator of P2P platform the number of bookings and not the sales (Fig. 1). Thus, we hypothesize that: H7 Sustainable consumption behaviours positively influence P2P platform performance.

Independent variables
a. Service portfolio complexity (SPC) variable describes the assortment of services offered by the property. It was measured by the number of essential services provided by the property compared to an index of the P2P accommodation platform. b. Network membership (NM) variable represents the affiliation of the property to various networks. c. Reputation (R) variable reflects the level of service honesty during online transactions of the property on the P2P platform. It was measured by the platform, using an internal algorithm. d. Innovation practices (IP) variable represents the percentage of new services introduced by the property for prospective customers compared to the current services portfolio.

Control variables
a. Property quality (PQ) describes whether the listed property is certified by the Romanian authorities as an accommodation service provider. It was declared by each property on the P2P platform. b. Property reliability (PR) variable describes whether the listed property has the same characteristics as described on the P2P platform. c. Property size (PS) variable describes the space of the guest house. d. Property location (PL) variable describes the location of the property, if it is located downtown or not. e. Property capacity (PC) variable describes the number of clients that the property can hold. It was measured by the maximum number of clients that the property can accommodate simultaneously.

Dependent variables
a. P2P platform performance (PERF) variable represents the total bookings received by the property by using the P2P platform.

Results
OLS regression was used to test research hypothesis. Model 1 presents the results only with the control variables (property quality, property reliability, property size, property location and property capacity). All control variables proved significant. Model 2 adds the independent variables-services portfolio complexity, network membership, reputation and innovation practices. We determined that services portfolio complexity positively influences sustainable consumption behaviours (β = 0.062, p < 0.01), while network membership has a negative effect (β = − 0.139, p < 0.01). Model 3 includes the interaction effects. We established that reputation directly influences the relation between services portfolio complexity and sustainable consumption behaviours (β = 0.002, p < 0.05). Reputation negatively moderates the effect of network membership on sustainable consumption behaviours (β = − 0.008, p < 0.05). It was also found that innovative practices directly influenced the relation between services portfolio complexity and sustainable

Discussion and conclusions
This research demonstrates the need to increase specific sustainable consumption behaviours in accommodation industry, by shifting or at least increasing sustainable-oriented behaviours between the providers of accommodation services and their customers (Cohen and Munoz 2016). In our study, we found that services portfolio complexity positively influences sustainable consumption behaviours, while network membership has a negative influence. Services portfolio complexity has a positive influence on sustainable consumption behaviours when innovative practices are high. Finally, sustainable consumption behaviours positively influence P2P platform performance.
Not all research hypotheses were confirmed. It seems that network membership does not has a negative effect on sustainable consumption behaviours when reputation is low, while network membership has a positive and not negative influence on sustainable consumption behaviours when innovative practices are low.
The results have several implications. First, the study complements other studies on sustainable consumption behaviours by exploring specific sustainable practices in P2P platforms. Prior studies empirically emphasized the importance of specific sustainable consumption behaviours in traditional economy, while others consider that the sharing economy is a more suitable context for these behaviours (Martin 2016). Therefore, we empirically explored the specific sustainable consumption behaviours in the context of  Services portfolio complexity has a positive effect on sustainable consumption behaviours when reputation is high Supported H4: Network membership has a negative effect on sustainable consumption behaviours when reputation is low Not supported H5: Services portfolio complexity has a positive influence on sustainable consumption behaviours when innovative practices are high Supported H6: Network membership has a negative influence on sustainable consumption behaviours when innovative practices are low Not supported H7: Sustainable consumption behaviours positively influence P2P platform performance Supported Fig. 2 The moderating effect of reputation on the relation between services portfolio complexity and SCB Fig. 3 The moderating effect on reputation on the relation between network membership and SCB Fig. 4 The moderating effect of innovative practice on the relationship between service portfolio complexity and SCB sharing economy, by focusing on a P2P platform. These platforms have a tremendous potential to enable strong connections between various economic actors when it comes to the sharing economy (Ye and Cho 2017;Popescu et al. 2018). Secondly, for those involved in the hospitality industry, mainly lodging and booking services, including in their business model access to a P2P platform may be a way to increase number of prospective customers and even develop new segments, namely customers with pro-environmental beliefs. This is particularly true for bed and breakfast, vacation rentals or guest houses.