Understanding Business Models in the Sharing Economy in China: A Case Study
Along with a growing environmental consciousness and the advancement of information communication technology, car sharing and apartment sharing as the prominent examples of the sharing economy is becoming increasingly popular in China. This study aims to
- PDF / 447,831 Bytes
- 12 Pages / 439.37 x 666.14 pts Page_size
- 106 Downloads / 214 Views
)
1
School of Business, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden [email protected] 2 School of Business Administration, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, China [email protected]
Abstract. Along with a growing environmental consciousness and the advance‐ ment of information communication technology, car sharing and apartment sharing as the prominent examples of the sharing economy is becoming increas‐ ingly popular in China. This study aims to have a better understanding of business models in the sharing economy in China. Four research questions are presented. On the basis of a literature review on the business model and sharing economy, we proposed an analysis framework consisting of four major dimensions of busi‐ ness model concepts to study how the sharing economy works in China, including value network, value architecture, value proposition, and value finance. To address this, a case study with the Uber China is carried out. The key findings from the case study are presented in accordance with identified four dimensions of business model concepts. Keywords: Business model · The sharing economy · Value network · Value proposition · Value architecture · Value finance · Uber
1
Introduction
The sharing economy refers to the phenomenon of turning unused or under-used assets owned by individuals into productive resources [25]. The emerging of the sharing economy has opened a new door for competitions across industries (e.g., Airbnb in the hotel industry, Uber in the taxi industry). Online services offered in the sharing economy enable people to share cars, accommodation, bicycles, and other items with others who are willing to pay to use them. The key companies in the sharing economy are disrupting traditional industries across the globe. These companies bring significant economic and environmental bene‐ fits. For example, the car sharing service provided by Uber is a powerful way to reduce carbon emissions, to save money on transportation, and to reduce traffic [18]. In today’s ever changing dynamic business environment, the business model plays an important role in the success of many companies [12]. The growth of sharing econo‐ mies of production and sharing economies of consumption has attracted academic
© IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2016 Published by Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016. All Rights Reserved Y.K. Dwivedi et al. (Eds.): I3E 2016, LNCS 9844, pp. 661–672, 2016. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-45234-0_59
662
S. Gao and X. Zhang
attention in recent times [17]. However, to our knowledge, there has not been much research on business models in the sharing economy in developing countries. In this study, we focus on business models in the sharing economy in China, specif‐ ically focusing on the case of Uber China, a provider of car sharing services and a pioneer of the sharing economy. The objective of this study is to have a better understanding of business models in the sharing economy in China. To address this, we employ four key dimensions of business model co
Data Loading...
