Quality of Service Based Pricing Schemes for Content Sharing in Peer‐to‐Peer Networks

Abstract

In this paper, we study quality‐of‐service (QoS) based pricing schemes that serve as incentive mechanisms to induce sharing behaviors in Peer‐to‐Peer (P2P) networks. We incorporate operational QoS metrics into users’ utility functions and demonstrate how they affect individual users’ content sharing decisions. Using a game‐theoretic model, our study reveals how organizations respond to the changes of operational QoS metrics in their design of pricing schemes for various business objectives at different stages of network evolution. Our results show that a higher upload capacity can foster rational sharing to start when the network is small; however, it also discourages sharing behaviors when the network becomes large. In order to induce a socially optimal behavior, a pricing scheme will not charge users for requesting content while compensating them for sharing content. Such compensation is found to increase faster with the network size when the network is large. In order to maximize the profit of a monopolistic provider, however, a pricing scheme will charge content requests with a positive price while providing less compensation to sharing users compared to the socially optimal scheme. When the network size is small, such compensation can be even negative, which implies that a monopolistic provider discourages content sharing when the network is small, but encourages it when the network becomes larger. In addition, we find that more information about peer upload capacity discourages peers to share.

Do Emotions Sell? The Impact of Emotional Expressions on Sales in the Space‐Sharing Economy

“…Our work expands the scope of the literature, going beyond the classic dynamics within supply and demand as well as pricing, to study the role of the content generated in the sharing economy platform as an important driver of service demand. Second, this study advances the literature on service operations management (SOM) (Apte et al 2010, De et al 2017, Karmarkar 2015. In particular, research on service operations has begun to incorporate behavioral and psychological considerations and insights when empirically examining experience management and the design of experience-centric services (Chase and Apte 2007, Dixon et al 2017, Voss et al 2008, such as customer and employee behavior in service operations (Chase and Apte 2007, Cook et al 2002, Dasu and Chase 2010.…”

“…2010, De et al. 2017, Karmarkar 2015). In particular, research on service operations has begun to incorporate behavioral and psychological considerations and insights when empirically examining experience management and the design of experience‐centric services (Chase and Apte 2007, Dixon et al.…”

Sharing Channel Strategy With Customers’ Collaborative Consumption Behaviors

“…In addition, the service level will affect the ownership and usage of products ( Agrawal and Bellos, 2017 ), which further affect customers’ collaborative consumption decisions. De et al (2017) reveal the impacts of quality of service based pricing schemes for content sharing in peer-to-peer networks with a game-theoretic model, and the result shows that a higher upload capacity can foster rational sharing to start when the network is small, but discourages sharing behaviors when the network becomes large. Using a structural equation model, Hwang and Griffiths (2017) find that specific dimensions of value perceptions (utilitarian, hedonic and symbolic) have different effects on millennials’ attitudes and empathy toward collaborative consumption services.…”