Extracting Efficiency from Chaos: Rider Behavior, Performance and Negative Externality in Dockless Bike Sharing Systems
Speakers
Zhu Weiming
Associate Professor, Innovation and Information Management, HKU Business School
Weiming Zhu is an Associate Professor in Innovation and Information Management at HKU Business School. Weiming obtained his bachelor’s degree in Physics from HKUST and Ph.D. in Operations Management from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at University of Maryland. Prior to joining the University of Hong Kong, he was an Associate Professor in IESE’s Department of Production, Technology and Operations Management. Weiming has also been a visiting professor in the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Weiming’s research interests include operations in the platform economy, urban mobility, and supply chain finance. His work has been published at Management Science, M&SOM and Journal of International Economics, and has been recognized in M&SOM, POMS, Service Science and CSAMSE best paper award competitions.
| Date: |
| Tuesday, 19 March 2024 |
| Time: |
| 10:00 am - 11:30 am |
| Venue: |
|
NUS Business School Mochtar Riady Building BIZ1 0206 15 Kent Ridge Drive Singapore 119245 (Map) |
Abstract
In recent years, urban bike-sharing systems developed in two main forms: Dock-based systems that rely on fixed location docks to park at and pick up bicycles from, and Dockless systems which allow users to pick up and drop off bikes anywhere. By eliminating reliance on fixed docks, dockless systems provide significantly improved mobility and convenience to riders, yet they have downsides such as high operational costs and occupying valuable sidewalk space. Collaborating with a major dockless bike-sharing platform, we empirically analyze riders’ economic incentives, explore the efficiency and measure the negative externality of this business model. Specifically, we address the following questions: (i) What is the impact of the number of bicycles in the system on efficiency? (ii) How does the efficiency of dockless and dock-based systems compare? (iii) How can bike-share company minimize the negative externalities generated during service provision through smart relocation?