Government regulation strategy for the maintenance of bike sharing
ISSN: 0368-492X
Article publication date: 15 February 2023
Issue publication date: 5 April 2024
Abstract
Purpose
The expansion of bike-sharing enterprises has led to a series of social problems, and due to the high breakage rate and high recycling cost of bike sharing, enterprises are reluctant to maintain them. Therefore, government regulation does play a leading role in maintaining bike sharing. This study’s purpose is to investigate how the government should regulate the bike-sharing enterprises that maintain bicycles.
Design/methodology/approach
Firstly, the authors assume that there is only one bike-sharing enterprise and establish a game model that the government regulates the enterprise. Furthermore, the authors extend the model to the case that there are two competing enterprises in the market. Finally, through numerical analysis, the influence of various factors on the government strategy and revenue is analyzed.
Findings
The authors find that the regulatory probability of two enterprises are regulated by the government is larger than that of one enterprise. When two bike-sharing enterprises compete without government regulation, both will choose the non-self-discipline strategy, thus falling into the Prisoner's Dilemma. If the government regulates them, then both enterprises will choose the self-discipline strategy. Finally, through numerical analysis, it is found that the self-discipline behavior of bike-sharing enterprises is related to the government regulatory probability, the cost of self-discipline, the probability of being reported and the penalties. Interestingly, the cost of government regulation will not affect the regulation probability of government.
Practical implications
This research provides a theoretical reference for the government to make the regulation strategies of bike sharing and achieve the sustainable development of bike sharing.
Originality/value
This research provides a theoretical reference for the government to make the regulation strategies of bike sharing and achieve the sustainable development of bike sharing.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to two anonymous reviewers and the editors for their valuable and constructive comments, which have significantly improved the paper.
This paper was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.72102163), the Key Program for National Social Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21AZD117) and Doctoral Scientific Research Foundation of Henan University of Science and Technology (Grant No.13480037).
Citation
Wang, R., Wang, S. and Deng, G. (2024), "Government regulation strategy for the maintenance of bike sharing", Kybernetes, Vol. 53 No. 5, pp. 1814-1832. https://doi.org/10.1108/K-05-2022-0788
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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