Governing the sharing economy smartly: A tale of two initiatives in China
| Author | Yanwei Li |
| Date | 01 October 2021 |
| Published date | 01 October 2021 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0952076719852421 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Governing the sharing
economy smartly: A tale
of two initiatives in China
Yanwei Li
Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China
Abstract
Chinese central government in the past few years has embraced the expansion of
various sharing economy initiatives. However, the expansion of these initiatives has
given rise to public concerns. Central government in turn has adopted different stra-
tegies to address them. In this article, we investigate the question of how central
government in China governed the two most popular sharing economy initiatives:
ridesharing and bike sharing. An analytic framework is constructed, consisting of
three government strategies: monitoring, developing frameworks, and managing pro-
cesses, and two governance styles: go-alone and collaborative. Our study has found that
central government generally applied two different strategies, namely, monitoring and
developing frameworks, to govern these two sharing economy initiatives. Moreover, a
go-alone governance style dominated the processes of governing ridesharing, whereas a
collaborative governance style dominated the processes of governing bike sharing. We
also found that four conditions, namely, the influence on incumbent industries, market
structure, investment model, and time difference, are important in explaining the emer-
gence of different governance styles in governing these two initiatives.
Keywords
Bike sharing, China, governance, ridesharing, sharing economy
Introduction
In the past few years, the sharing economy has expanded quickly around China. It
has been reported that the scale of the sharing economy increased more than 75%
in 2016, and that the sharing economy will account for 20% of China’s gross
domestic product (GDP) by 2025. Furthermore, about 600 million Chinese citizens
used services provided by sharing economy companies in 2016. However, the
Public Policy and Administration
!The Author(s) 2019
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0952076719852421
journals.sagepub.com/home/ppa
Corresponding author:
Yanwei Li, Nanjing Normal University, 1# Wenyuan Road, Nanjing 210023, China.
Email: 14203@njnu.edu.cn
2021, Vol. 36(4) 476 –495
Li 477
sharing economy poses considerable challenges to Chinese governments because of
its disruptiveness. The expansion of ridesharing led to protests by taxi drivers for
instance. In addition, numerous reports have shown that bike sharing has resulted
in negative consequences for cities’ traffic situations. There are about 1.5 million
shared bikes in Shanghai, implying that, on average, 16 residents share a bike.
Random parking of these bikes has led to considerable complaints from citizens.
How to govern the sharing economy is therefore an urgent issue for Chinese
governments.
Debates on the sharing economy have arisen around the world. Its proponents
argue that we are now witnessing the rise of a pro-sharing movement, and that the
sharing economy has thepotential to transform the existing business model toward a
more open, transparent, and fair one (Frenken and Schor, 2017). Also, it arguably
results in many social benefits, such as increasing citizens’ income, reducing eco-
logical footprints, and increasing social capital (Botsman and Rogers, 2010). More
and more companies are therefore willing to label themselves as sharing companies.
However, some governments and citizens have started to express their concerns
about the sharing economy (Li et al., 2018; Scholz, 2016). They argue that many
sharing economy companies seek profits under the pretext of sharing. These com-
panies do not meet their promise of achieving a fair and inclusive business model.
Evidence has even shown that the sharing economy has led to more serious social
inequalities (Slee, 2015). Furthermore, the sharing economy is categorized as a
disruptive innovation, implying that it could instantly destroy existing dominant
industries (Christensen, 2006). Also, the quick expansion of the sharing economy
has raised other issues, such as safety, labor exploitation, accountability, and priv-
acy (Benkler, 2006; Interian, 2016).
The current governance and sharing economy literature are not explicit about
how to govern the sharing economy (see Katz, 2015; Wu, 2011). Inthis contribution,
we bridge this gap through answering the following research question: how does the
Chinese state respond to sharing economy initiatives, and how do sharing economy
initiatives respond to government interventions? To answer this question, we report
a comparative case study about two hotly contested sharing economy initiatives:
ridesharing and bike sharing. Our study adds building blocks to current governance
literature by elaborating the question of how to govern self-organizing initiatives.
The remainder of this contribution is structured as follows. In the Analytic
framework section, the analytic framework is elaborated. In the Method section,
the method used is introduced, and the two cases are described and analyzed in The
governance of ridesharing and bike sharing in China section. In the Case compari-
son section, the cases are compared, and conclusions and discussions are presented
in the final section.
Analytic framework
The sharing economy initiative concept is first defined in Sharing economy initia-
tives section. In Strategies and styles for governing sharing economy initiatives
2Public Policy and Administration 0(0)
To continue reading
Request your trial