Is an Offline Sharing Economy Innovation Transmissible Online?

Abstract

Group lending is a social innovation because the substitution of the guarantee on assets by the collective guarantee of the group of belonging leads to the financial inclusion of the excluded. In a lending group, members who know each other mutually control each other to guarantee repayment of the loan and its circulation among the members. Is the social collateral that supported the development of the offline microcredit to the world level transposable to social lending on the internet? To answer this question, this chapter aims at determining the factors of mutual supervision and control of the members within the affiliation group and examine the potential of their transposition on the internet. Understanding the conditions for transposing social security is not only a solution to the problem of the unbanked; it is also a source of inspiration for peer-to-peer activities which develop considerably on the internet.