Promoting sustainable usage behavior in the sharing economy business model: A study based on bike-sharing

Abstract

Exiting research has noted the significance of sharing economy business model, while insufficient attention has been paid to understand the user's sustainable usage behavior in it. To narrow the research gap and enrich literature, based on the bike-sharing context, this study explores user's sustainable usage behavior in the bike-sharing economy business model. On the basis of Push-Pull-Mooring (PPM) model and the survey data collected from 1029 shared bike users in China, we find that user's sustainable intention of using shared bike can be influenced by push, pull and mooring factors. Specifically, push (e.g., social norm and government and enterprise regulation) and pull (e.g., moral norm and perceived behavioral control) factors significantly promote sustainable usage intention, while mooring factor (e.g., inertia) significantly inhibit it. Meanwhile, mooring factor also weakens the positive influence of push and pull factor on sustainable usage intention. Furthermore, this research further reveals that there is a disparity between sustainable intention and sustainable behavior of using shared bike and uncovers that the “intention-behavior” discrepancy can be bridged by providing punitive measures. Additionally, this research uncovers that user's gender, age and monthly income do not significantly promote sustainable usage intention and behavior, user's educational level significantly promotes sustainable usage intention while not for sustainable usage behavior, and the frequency of using shared bike significantly promotes both sustainable usage intention and behavior. This research provides recommendations for government and enterprise to promote sustainable usage behavior in the bike-sharing context.