How to React to Internal and External Sharing in B2C and C2C

The sharing economy has developed rapidly in recent years in the forms of business-to-customer (B2C) and customer-to-customer (C2C), and has exerted a profound impact on incumbent firms that adopt the traditional sales model. Though prior literature has studied either the effect of B2C sharing or C2C sharing, the possible different impacts between both models on incumbent firms have not been addressed. This study compares the impacts of B2C and C2C sharing in an internal sharing scenario where an incumbent firm extends into the sharing business. Further, due to the difference in sharing agents, we also consider an external sharing scenario where an independent entrant firm provides the sharing business. Based on the results of our model, we present several useful managerial insights