Promoting user participation of shared mobility in the sharing economy: Evidence from chinese bike sharing services

Abstract

User participation plays a critical role in the business success of shared mobility services. This study classifies user participation behavior into two different types (in-and extra-role partici-pations), integrates the motivation–opportunity–ability (MOA) model and social exchange theory (SET) to identify key antecedents, and empirically examines the influences of user–user, user–pro-vider, and user–service interaction-related factors on user participation in the context of bike sharing services. The results of structural equation model analysis with 438 bike sharing service users in China reveal that altruism, rewards, and user knowledge enhance both in-and extra-role participa-tions, whereas perceived ease of use promotes only user in-role participation, and both user satisfaction and commitment increase only user extra-role participation. Rewards are also found to pro-mote user satisfaction, ultimately increasing user commitment. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on value co-creation and customer cooperation behavior in the sharing economy and provides practical implications to both managers of bike sharing services and policymakers for urban transportation and ICT-enabled sustainable development.