Оценка влияния экономики совместного потребления на рынок аренды велосипедов в Китае

The debut and growing prosperity of the sharing economy are touched off by the excessive idle resources and the development of the Internet, third-party payment, big data and cloud computing technology (Lacy & Rutqvist, 2015). The sharing economy labelled as a new economy and new business model in the current Internet age. Owners’ usufructs of idle resources are temporarily subject to the target users through third-party platforms, like the Internet. It creates extra values and satisfies the demands of the public through improving the usage efficiency of the inventory assets, which complies with the principle of the sustainable development. It entirely relies on the third-party platforms and the information technology. These third-party platforms include the enterprises, non-profit organisations and the government (Schor et al., 2017). The individual consumer’s exchange objects, share knowledge and experience or raise funds through these platforms. The sharing economy refers to three major entities, the demand-side asking for products or services, suppliers and the platforms of sharing economy (Hamari, 2015). The platforms of sharing economy, as the link bridging the two sides, create the chances and platforms for both the demand-side and the suppliers, through building up a series of systems and mechanisms, like mobile LBS application, dynamic algorithm and mutual evaluation systems.
The term of sharing economy was proposed in 1978 by Marcus Felson, a professor of sociology at American Texas State University, and Joel Spaeth, a professor of sociology at University of Illinois, in their essay Community Structure and Collaborative Consumption: A Routine Activity Approach (Felson & Spaeth, 1978). The phenomena concerning sharing economy are increasing in recent years. Mainly since the 21st century, the development of Internet and information systems has fostered the idea of sharing as well as the sharing process. Around 2010, the emergence of Uber and Airbnb gradually has transferred the sharing economy from free sharing to profitable business. The sharing business happens among strangers, and only the usage right is transferred to the users, not the ownership. The World Sharing Economy Summit was held in 2016 in Macao, and the themes about sharing economy and investments were heatedly discussed. This global summit was a valuable platform where economic investments, business operation, cooperation and talent exchange were well-performed. It also indicated that Chinese sharing economy had entered a high-speed developing period.
In the Chinese society, the interpretation of “sharing” mainly focuses on the gap between the urban and rural development and differences of individuals’ incomes. The sharing conception refers to various perspectives, including the economy, society, culture, etc. (Edelman, 2016). The sharing economy has gradually become a kernel of the service industry in China and covers a wide array of domains, such as accommodation, traffic, education, tourism, etc. (Wang et al., 2017). A batch of profitable enterprises sharing economy regularly launch all kinds of shared services and products. Their services and products include the sharing of pets fosterage, sharing of parking lots, sharing of experts, sharing of community services, sharing of tour guides, sharing of WIFI, etc. New business forms and models of sharing economy are mushrooming in an endless stream. The typical sharing economy brands are Uber of the traffic industry, Airbnb of the spatial industry, work of the work platform, Prosper of the financial industry and Eatwith of the diet industry (Zhao et al., 2017). In 2017, the shared campstools appeared in Beijing streets; Suning E-commerce applies the shared express boxes that shall be returned to couriers when customers get their products out; Shenzhen Jewelry enterprises launched a tentative business, selling the shared jewellery.
Among all these new-born sharing economy business forms and industries, the shared bicycle is a typical and growing business form. The permeating shared bicycles in Chinese high streets and back lanes makes Chinese residents realize that they have stepped into a new age of sharing economy. Shared bike programmes studied in this paper mainly refer to the synthesis of different shared bike projects launched and managed by different organisations, such as OFO, Mobike, Bluegogo, Cool Ride, the Chinese government, etc. The development of sharing economy and the popularity of shared bikes bring great convenience to Chinese residents (Lohry & Yiu, 2015). The positive impacts of shared bikes on the Chinese market and Chinese consumers are obvious. The convenience comes in the first place. Chinese heavy traffic is a big issue bothering Chinese government over time. When a Chinese individual goes out in a big city (especially the first-tier cities, like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hangzhou), he might find it difficult to choose an efficient transportation tool, because the heavy traffic on the high roads always slows down his journey. In rush hours, in big cities, it might take hours to move from one traffic light to the next, which is only hundreds of meters. Riding bikes is a good solution to it. The bicycle lanes are different from the roadways; and in China, if the roadway is suffering a traffic jam, the bicycle lanes are always clear without hindrance. If Chinese residents use shared bikes broadly, the traffic issue can be partially relieved. The convenience also lies in the easy access of shared bikes (Lohry & Yiu, 2015). These shared bikes in big cities are located and placed in the areas with latent users, for example, the bus stations, subway stations and gates of residence. When users get out of a subway station, he can unlock a bike and ride it to his destination. Compared with the traditionally shared bikes that are locked by an electronic pile, the new shared bikes can be parked anywhere. When users’ riding journey is over, he can lock the lock that comes with the bike. Besides the convenience of the shared bikes, the low rental fee is also an advantage of it. The rental fee is counted by hours, one RMB for each hour in general. Compared to taking taxis or taking the bus, the cost is meagre. Shared bikes profoundly help users save the costs of going out.
Although shared bikes generate some positive effects on Chinese society and Chinese users, the negative influences and issues also come along. The problems that occurred have influenced the order of the Chinese society to some extent (Cherry, 2007). Firstly, the excessive launch of shared bikes influences the sidewalks order. It can be seen around the gates of Chinese subway stations that hundreds of thousands of shared bikes of different brands are queued around one subway station. There is only a quite narrow passageway is left for passersby going through it. A considerable amount of shared bikes are piled around specific areas, but the using rate is relatively low. Only one-third of the shared bikes in a parking area is used, and the rest of the bikes are just like decorations, losing their real function. The excessive launch leads to a waste of resources. The excessive launch of shared bikes and disorderly placed bikes cause the muddle and chaos, which destroy a bright and harmonious urban landscape (Guzman, 2011). In the meanwhile, the quality of shared bikes is concerned by the public. The poor quality of shared bikes is also a reason not only leading to traffic accidents but also causing high damage rates of shared bikes themselves. The life-span of shared bikes is short. No matter the OFO or Mobike, their shared bikes can only be used for 2 to 3 years (Lai, 2017). It means that, three years later, all shared bikes in the Chinese market will be renewed and changed. Also, the shortage of regulation to regulate the shared bikes’ usage and parking and the lack of users’ awareness to care about the public regulation and order lead to the disorderly parking of shared bikes. The bikes might occupy the space for private parking cars or stand in pedestrians’ way.
For shared bike companies, they are also confronted with a series of issues and problems. Some shared bike brands faded away from the Chinese market just in 2017 (Campbell, 2016). In June, Wukong bike was the first to announce them withdraw from the Chinese market because of the intense market competition. Later, 3VBike that focused on Chinese third-tier cities also failed because of the management issues. In August, Dingding bike stopped its business in Chinese Nanjing due to the broken financial chain. Additionally, Bluegogo and Cool Ride also faced all kinds of problems and got into trouble. Their failures are originated from the intense market competition, financial problems and management problems. It is hard for shared bike brands to survive in the Chinese market. The Chinese market has a high volume and is extraordinarily active. Sharing economy is a good trend and extends its reaches in the Chinese market. At the same time, Chinese shared bike enterprises aim to extend their business to foreign countries. For example, in September 2017, Chinese OFO declaimed their business in Moscow Russia. The model and development trajectory of shared bike programmes in China will be indicated as references to that in Russia. We can see, a new type of shared bike is an emerging business model in China, how the shared economy shows influence on bike rent market is still a problem need to be researched; Besides of this, in other industry, there is some research related how different factors show influence on sharing economy. It is a good route for sharing economy developing. However, in chinses shared bike industry, there is not a related indicator for sharing economy development in this industry.
• Research Rationale
The sharing economy has a promising future in the Chinese market, and the industry of shared bikes is budding and displays its charms. However, it shall be noticed that the development of shared bikes in China is confronted with challenges and problems. These problems not only hinder the business of shared bike enterprises but also influence the residents’ daily tours and living (Campbell, 2016). It is indispensable to have a more comprehensive and profound understanding of this industry. In other industry, for example, Kabadayı and Aygün (2007) surveyed, the loyalty to a particular brand is affected by the price tolerance. Raju et al. (1990) proposed to make use of the brand loyalty to make strategies because the brand loyalty is an essential element in determining customer behaviours. Based on previous research in other industries, this research aimed to identify how different factors influence on Chinses shared bike. The Chinese market is unique and extraordinary regarding its activeness of market activities and high-speed transmission of information. The development of sharing economy in China shall have its approach instead of following the steps of foreign countries(Qingli Tang,2015).
In general, this research aims to explore the factors which may affect chinses shared bike, what variables are customer most concerned, the recommendation also be given based on these. The specific research questions are proposed as follow:
• What are the attributes of the new type of shared bike in China?
• What are the variables of shared bikes that Chinese shared bikes users highly concern?
• What are the suggestions and recommendations for the new type of shared bike in China?
• Thesis Structure
The first chapter briefly introduces the fundamental conception of sharing economy, the background of the Chinese market and the development of the shared bike industry in China. Based on the current situation of shared bikes in the Chinese market, the research objective and research questions are presented.
The second chapter is a review of previous studies on sharing economy and shared bike programmes in the global market and China. The definitions of sharing economy and its emergence in western countries and further development around the world introduced with the reference of previous studies by scholars and marketing practitioners. During the development of sharing economy and launch of shared bike programmes, the challenges and problems keep occurring, and the studies on these issues are quoted in the literature review chapter to find out the research gap and identify the attributes and variables influencing the development of shared bike programmes in China.
The third chapter, methodology, presents the research framework as well as the research procedures. The questionnaire survey is adopted to explore users’ opinions towards the shared bikes. The research procedure contains the questionnaire design, sampling, data collection and data analysis.
The fourth chapter is about the process of data analysis and the corresponding results. The statistical analysis using SPSS (Version 16.0) includes the description of data collected from the questionnaire survey, reliability analysis, validity analysis, frequency analysis and correlation analysis. The results are presented in details in this chapter.
The last chapter is the conclusion part, answering the research questions and presenting the recommendations to solve the problems occurring in the shared bike evolution. In the meanwhile, the limitation of the research and the suggestions for further studies are also proposed.
• Literature Review
• Sharing Economy
• The conception of Sharing Economy
Sharing economy is terminology in a broad sense, which is frequently applied in online business and transactions (Taeihagh, 2017). To begin with, sharing economy stemming from the open-source community is about peer-to-peer based sharing of services or goods and later the term extended its meanings to a broader sense, referring to any sales and business conducted through the online channels (Richardson, 2015). Because of this reason, it is considered that products and services concerning peer-to-peer transactions are for the primary purpose of profit winning. To some extent, sharing economy concerns the business process where consumers take the roles of both providers and obtainers of the resources (Ertz et al., 2016). Sharing economy also has a series of different names, i.e. shareconomy, collaborative consumption, peer economy, collaborative economy, etc.
The emergence of the shared economy resulted from complex economic, political, social and technological factors. The web-based transaction platforms provide an active channel for collaborative consumption; economic crises, decline of employment and the reduction of consumers’ purchasing power foster the sharing awareness; the fall of regime or disorderly adjustment of policies raises the market chaos; and the increasing significance of consumption to consumers’ life also promotes the new-born economic form (Ertz et al., 2016). Specifically, the driving forces of the prosperity of sharing economy include the renewed information technology and social media, rising social commerce, urban lifestyle and increasing volatility and waste of natural resources. The accelerated development of information technology makes it easy to convey information and send messages to web users. Through these high-tech online platforms, consumers can get touch with their needed information and perform the transactions accordingly (Zekanovićkorona & Grzunov, 2014). For example, the low cost of mobile phones gives normal residents the chance to keep contact with instant messages via the Internet. By using a phone, a consumer can order a taxi immediately. In the meanwhile, consumers’ commerce awareness is growing fast, and social factors exert greater influences on their consumption behaviours as well as the economic development (Balli & Pierucci, 2015). The social environment is constantly changing and developing. The urban lifestyle brings about a series of new problems and causes inconvenience to the residents. These problems coincidentally can be solved or relieved by sharing economy. Besides the inconvenience above, the volatility and waste of natural resources can also be relieved by performing collaborative consumption where less natural resources are involved and consumed (Grant & OtengAbabio, 2012). Morone et al. (2016) revealed that food waste took place mainly at the end of the chain via an empirical study, paid attention to retailers’ and consumers’ attitudes and consumption behaviours and introduced the food sharing treatment for the food waste reduction.