How economic system justification shapes demand for peer-to-peer providers

Abstract

With the proliferation of peer-to-peer (P2P) exchanges in the marketplace, understanding which consumer factors drive demand for P2P providers is important. We examine the role of consumers' economic system justification (ESJ) beliefs (about the fairness of existing economic arrangements and outcomes), which, despite their growing salience in the marketplace, have been overlooked in extant P2P research. We show that high (vs. low) ESJ increases consumers' interest in purchasing from P2P providers because it heightens perceptions of these providers' entrepreneurial spirit. The effect emerges in the laboratory and in the field with measured and manipulated ESJ, and it is attenuated for traditional commercial providers. The findings offer novel insights and implications for practice and emerging research on P2P exchanges, system justification, and ideological consumption more broadly.