Seminar (Dept. of General Management)

Title: The institutionalization of sharing economy platforms in China

Speaker: Dun (Steven) Li (Guizhou University)

Time: 10:00am, Jun 15th (Thursday), 2023

Venue: Room706, Mingde Business Building

Language: Chinese/English

ABSTRACT:

Recent past has witnessed a great proliferation of sharing economy platforms with great successes, but also many failures on their journey toward institutionalization, that is, their establishment and acceptance in society. To develop insight on factors contributing to this institutionalization process, this paper relies on the literature in institutional entrepreneurship and investigates sharing economy platforms in China, highlighting institutional voids that are encountered, and suggesting ways on how they can be overcome. These insights are derived through a multiple case study approach involving 61 semi-structured interviews with managers from eight sharing economy platforms across four sharing economy industries in China (ride-sharing, logistics-sharing, bike-sharing, and car-sharing). The findings highlight the importance of exchange and collaboration with stakeholders (allies) in the network, as well as the effective response to emerging issues through the adaptation of the business models. In addition, mergers and acquisitions, and the role of government are identified as critical components in aiding platforms in their progression toward institutionalization. Further cognitive, regulative, and normative factors are found to represent valuable institutional pillars that serve as a fertile foundation throughout the institutionalization process. Overall, the findings provide an intriguing insight into the journey of Chinese sharing economy platforms toward institutionalization.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY:

Dun (Steven) Li is an Assistant Professor in Supply Chain Management at the Management School, Guizhou University. Steven focuses on the qualitative research, his work has been published in many academic journals in OM/SCM, including Journal of Operations Management, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, IISE Transactions, Production Planning & Control, and many others. His research interests have been in OM/SCM including buyer-supplier relationships, supply network and supply chain resilience, with a particular interest in the context of platform economy.