The collaborative governance of the urban sharing economy: A comparative analysis of dockless bike-sharing schemes in Nanjing and Sydney
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2023
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The sharing economy has been booming in global cities since the early 2000s. Dockless bike-sharing schemes (DBSS) are a significant innovation within the urban sharing economy. They not only solve the ‘last mile’ problem for residents, but also encourage cities to embrace an ethos of ‘shared’ (rather than privately owned) resources. As a means of sustainable and ‘green’ transportation, DBSS thus have many potential benefits, reducing waste, pollution and consumption. However, the introduction of DBSS in busy urban centres has also created significant challenges to existing modes of urban governance.
This thesis presents two case studies of collaborative governance (CG) regimes that were established to govern DBSS in Sydney, Australia and Nanjing, China between 2017 and 2021. This empirical research focuses on understanding the various forms of collaboration between key actors (government officials and private DBSS enterprises) in the CG of DBSS, and compares these findings to inform the CG of other kinds of urban sharing services in cities around the world. Theoretically, this thesis applies and tests certain principles from Emerson et al. (2012)’s Integrative Framework for Collaborative Governance.
This research relies mostly on qualitative data collection methods (including semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and document analysis) to address an identified gap in the existing DBSS literature: how government and enterprise actors collaborate in governing DBSS in global cities. This research also aims to be among the first to use a theoretical CG framework to bolster its study of DBSS in practice.
This thesis offers several empirical and theoretical insights, and identifies two different types of CG of DBSS: Nanjing’s authoritarian CG, and Sydney’s self-organising CG. Nanjing’s authoritarian form of CG – where local governments play a dominant role – has certain advantages, namely the ability to rapidly mobilise access to administrative and financial resources. Yet Nanjing’s authoritarian form of CG also tends to stifle incentives for innovation by DBSS industry actors. By contrast, the Sydney case study shows that any successful CG collaboration depends, in part, on establishing regular communication channels, knowledge‐sharing, and trust‐building between actors. However, this self-organising form of CG does not always lead to agreement, and its success depends on higher‐level government authorities playing a more active leadership role.These empirical findings will be useful to CG and DBSS researchers, policymakers, urban planners, and communities who seek to understand the range of CG practices possible in the era of the sharing city.
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