A study on lender participation in peer to peer lending

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the transformation expectations and well-being of lenders as a consequence of participation in peer-to-peer (p2p) lending in India. The study tested the influence of transformation expectations on well-being, social connectedness on transformation expectations and the influence of customer participation on financial empowerment of borrowers.

Design/methodology/approach

A cross-sectional survey research design was adopted to collect data from 434 customers in India. Structural equation modelling procedure was performed to test the hypothesized relationships.

Findings

The findings show that relational transformation expectations leads to well-being, while social connectedness influences self and relational transformation expectations. Further, customer participation has a positive influence on financial empowerment of borrowers.

Practical implications

Managers may use these findings to create suitable marketing strategies for increasing customer participation in p2p lending.

Originality/value

Previous studies on transformative services have shown that well-being can be achieved through participation in services that are transformative by design, while this study has established that lender participation in peer-to-peer lending can result in relational transformation expectations and lead to well-being. Also, the current study has shown that social connectedness is an antecedent of transformation expectations.