Will Online Car-Hailing Affect Consumers’ Decisions about Automobile Purchase?—An Empirical Study Based on Questionnaire Investigation

The online car-hailing industry, which provides the right of use, has a certain impact on the traditional automobile market, but there is no unified theory on whether it has a positive impact or a negative impact. Based on 362 consumer questionnaire data, this study builds a structural equation model to discuss the driving factors of residents’ choice of online car-hailing and whether the development of online car-hailing will have a certain substitution impact on the sales of private cars. From the perspective of consumers’ purchase intention, the research results show that consumers’ price consciousness, convenience consciousness, environmental protection consciousness and possession tendency will affect their choice of travel mode, and the use of online car-hailing is positively correlated with consumers’ willingness to replace private car ownership with online car-hailing.

Legitimation of Business Model Innovation from the Perspective of Evaluator Categorization:A Case Study of the Emergence of Online Car-Hailing

Business model innovation faces multiple tests of legitimacy.Most extant research in this area has been conducted from institutional and strategic perspectives while paying insufficient attention to the perspective of evaluators.Based on the institutionalization of China's online car-hailing industry from 2012 to 2018,this paper analyzes the legitimacy judgment of the stakeholders from the perspective of evaluator categorization and explores the legitimation mechanism of business model innovation.It finds that evaluators judge the legitimacy of business models based on category cognition.Therefore,to achieve the bridging,spillover,and accumulation effects of legitimacy,the legitimation strategy of online car-hailing platforms should dynamically adapt to different evaluators,judgment models,and categorization standards.Ultimately,as quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes,the legitimation of innovative business models is achieved in this way.In this process,stakeholders categorize and evaluate online car-hailing based on prototypes and value goals,and establish a two-way interactive mechanism,which is from behavior guided by cognition to cognition given feedback by behavior.This paper combines the legitimacy judgment with category theory to explain how individual cognition drives the emergence of new categories and identifies a series of legitimacy strategies based on categorization,thus providing theoretical support and practical inspiration for exploring the legitimation of business model innovation.

Will Tough Regulations Help the Online Car-Hailing Business?

in early October, transport authorities in Beijing, Shanghai. Guangzhou and Shenzhen--four mega-cities-separately issued draft local regulations on qualifications for drivers who provide ridesharing services. The new rules feature restrictions on drivers＇ place of residence, car registration locale, vehicle model and age, and insurance. In Beijing. for example, only residents who have a locally registered car with an engine of 1.8 liters or more and a wheelbase of at least 2.66 meters can apply to operate as a car-hailing driver.

Legislation to Regulate the Working Hours and Labor Intensity of Practitioners in the Platform Economy

Under the employment model of online car-hailing platforms,the extension of working hours and increase of labor intensity for practitioners are driven by the orders from these platform companies and labor-related third parties.Also,they are more attributable to the internal driving force of practitioners themselves who hope to have more orders and earn more.It is impossible to apply the regulation system of the existing labor law to protect the rights and interests of employees in terms of working hours and labor intensity.The author suggests that the state should make special labor legislation to make the following targeted provisions:Online car-hailing platform companies and labor-related third parties that implement labor management and control over practitioners shall,on the premise of abiding by labor standards and industry rules,set various reasonable indicators of working hours and labor intensity through rules and take effective technical measures to control these two dimensions,so that practitioners can avoid serious overwork.Besides,by encouraging the provision of certain convenience for practitioners to take intermittent breaks,jointly building a compatibility system for different online car-hailing platforms,and establishing relevant operating rules,we can restrain practitioners from being seriously overworked.This is actually a multi-cooperative boosting legislative regulation approach.