Peer-to-Peer Lending: A Review of the Literature and Future Research Agenda

The rise of the sharing economy and technological innovations has propelled peer-to-peer (P2P) lending into prominence as a transformative debt-based finance model. This systematic literature review examines P2P lending through 238 scholarly articles published between 2009 and 2024, offering a holistic understanding of its dynamics. The findings highlight significant research concentration in countries like China and the United States. The literature spans six themes, with particular focus on factors influencing borrowers’ funding success and default risk. Specifically, 45 determinants affecting borrowers’ funding success and default probabilities were identified, alongside 40 factors impacting P2P platform default risks. Furthermore, 31 variables were found to shape borrowers’ and lenders’ behavioural intentions to engage in P2P lending. This review underscores the evolving landscape of P2P lending, offering critical insights for stakeholders while proposing future research avenues centred on theoretical frameworks, key constructs and advanced methodologies to enrich the field further.