The survival of bike-sharing startups in China: an empirical analysis of the influencing factors

Abstract

Purpose

Bike-sharing is popular worldwide, and it has led to a new development direction in green transportation. However, the collapse of many bike-sharing startups and residual social problems has brought about contradictions and challenges to the development of the industry. The purpose of this paper is to determine how internal factors affect the survival of bike-sharing startups.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors used binary logit regression as the measurement model to conduct an empirical analysis based on 137 bike-sharing startups in China. The study focuses on using traditional theoretical evidence and considers the uniqueness of the industry to jointly explore the survival factors that influence the emerging business model of bike-sharing.

Findings

The results show that entrepreneurial team size and differentiation strategy positively influence survival. Founder-CEOs have a negative impact on survival. Founders' entrepreneurial experience and venture capital have no significant influence on survival.

Originality/value

The results verify the role of traditional survival factors in the new business model of sharing economy and fill the research gap on the survival strategy of startups. This study offers a unique perspective for researchers to better understand the sharing economy industry and provides practical guidance for entrepreneurs and investors to enter the market.

Citation

Zhou, Y., Park, S., Wang, Q., Zhang, J.Z. and Behl, A. (2023), "The survival of bike-sharing startups in China: an empirical analysis of the influencing factors", Kybernetes, Vol. 52 No. 2, pp. 566-584. https://doi.org/10.1108/K-12-2021-1378