platform innovation in urban mobility transitions the case of dockless bike sharing arnoud van waes colofon Dit proefschrift werd (mede) mogelijk gemaakt met financiële steun van de Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO) als onder- deel van het onderzoeksprogramma Smart Urban Regions of the Future (no. 438-15-160 397). Platform innovation in urban mobility transitions: The case of dockless bike sharing. PhD thesis. Author: Arnoud van Waes Bookdesign & illustrations: Ilse Schrauwers; isontwerp.nl Printing: Gildeprint Enschede; gildeprint.nl ISBN: 9789492303424 © Arnoud van Waes, 2021 All rights reserved. No part of this production may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without prior written permission by the author. Platform innovation in urban mobility transitions The case of dockless bike sharing Platform innovatie in stedelijke mobiliteitstransities Een studie naar innovatieve deelfietssystemen (met een samenvatting in het Nederlands) Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Utrecht op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof.dr. H.R.B.M. Kummeling, ingevolge het besluit van het college voor promoties in het openbaar te verdedigen op donderdag 27 mei 2021 des ochtends te 10.15 uur door Arnoud Harry Marianne van Waes geboren op 21 oktober 1987 te Terneuzen promotor Prof. dr. R.P.J.M. Raven copromotoren Dr. J.C.M. Farla Dr. A. Nikolaeva manuscriptcommissie Prof. dr. N.M.P. Bocken Prof. dr. M.C.G. te Brömmelstroet Prof. dr. C. Castaldi Prof. dr. ir. Q.C. van Est Prof. dr. A. Meijer 1 content Preface . 9 1 Introduction . 11 2 Upscaling potential and implications of business models for bike sharing . 39 3 Institutional strategies of platform enabled business models in Amsterdam and Shanghai . 71 4 When bike sharing goes bad: incorporating responsibility in business model innovation . 101 5 Challenges and dilemmas of strategic urban living lab experimentation . .135 6 Conclusion & Discussion . 169 7 References . 197 8 Appendices . 219 8.1 Public engagement contributions . .221 8.2 Summary ................................................. 223 8.3 Samenvatting ............................................. 225 8.4 Curriculum Vitae .......................................... 231 8.5 List of publications ........................................ 233 preface • 9 Preface In the summer of 2017, the city of Amsterdam was overwhelmed by thousands of bikes that were put on its streets. They were not the typical privately owned Dutch bikes you would expect and that the global cycling capital is so fond of. These bikes were different: bright colors, odd designs, catchy brand names, parked all over the city and available to anyone with a smartphone. The strange bikes were distributed by foreign startups and apparently not only in Amsterdam. They were rapidly launching on a large scale in cities across the world, from Beijing to Berlin and from Melbourne to Manchester. This fueled high expecta- tions among urban authorities globally as cities welcome more cycling in their endeavor to create clean, healthy and accessible cities. At the same time they also caused immediate controversy as not everyone welcomed these bikes. Bike sharing could be a sustainable and affordable solution to complex urban challen- ges. Were we witnessing an urban mobility transition in the making? Three years later, most of these bikes left the streets of Amsterdam and much of the initial excitement is toned down. Leftover bikes are now for sale at local thrift stores. In China, most cities now have colorful bicycle graveyards filled with hundreds of thousands unused two-wheelers. In this dissertation I unravel the journey – the rise and fall – of this seemingly promising urban mobility innovation. 10 • Introduction 11 Platform innovation has emerged as a potential driver for urban mobility transitions . But platform innovation also challenges transition dynamics in various ways, by shaping new business models, by challenging prevalent urban institutions and by influencing urban experimentation dynamics . 12 introduction • 13 1.1 Digital platform enabled innovation in urban mobility transitions The world is increasingly becoming more urban and mobile. Urban mobility has a vital economic and societal function for cities. However, urban mobility has several negative impacts including traffic congestion, pollution, greenhouse gas emissi- ons, fatalities and injuries and energy consumption (Moradi & Vagnoni, 2018). While carbon emissions in most sectors have decreased since the last decades, emissions in the transport sector have increased. Urban mobility (including cars, two-whee- lers and public transport) is estimated to account for 40% of all transport emissi- ons (IEA, 2020). Despite progress in electrification and efficiency improvements of these vehicles, emissions continue to rise, primarily because of increasing demand for urban mobility caused by economic prosperity and changing lifestyles. Hence, incremental improvements and technological fixes will not be sufficient and fast enough to induce the necessary dramatic reductions. This means more radical shifts to new sustainable urban mobility systems are needed. This need for more radical shifts towards urban sustainability is also pushed for by global agendas such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, that highlight the need to create resilient and sustainable cities (UNDP, 2020). In this dissertation, I will refer to these transformative changes as urban mobility transitions. The convergence of urban mobility and digital technologies has given rise to promising innovations that could contribute to a transition towards sustainable urban mobility. This so-called ‘shared mobility’ enables travelers to gain short- -term access to transportation modes on an on-demand basis and includes car sharing, personal vehicle sharing (peer-to-peer), ride sharing, ride sourcing, scoo- ter sharing and bike sharing (Shaheen & Chan, 2016). Digital technologies and platforms play an increasing role in this transition (Meyer & Shaheen, 2017). This is especially demonstrated by the influx of various shared mobility services that provide individual, short-term rental based and dockless mobility. Technological innovations as well as new business models are changing the landscape for short distance trips (EEA, 2019). In particular, bike sharing has seen an impressive growth in recent years. The global number of shared bikes grew from 139.000 in 2010 to an estimated 15 million in 2019 (Nikitas, 2019). This boom is partly facilitated by digital platform technologies. Arguably, such digital platform enabled innovations may have an impact on sustainability transitions, because they give rise to new business models and 14 • chapter 1 challenge urban institutions. A key feature of these new business models is that they promote access over ownership. Such service based business models have sustainability potential as they create and capture value from efficient utilization of resources. Many goods stand idle most of the time so sharing existing goods enables more intensive and efficient use (Frenken & Schor, 2017). In addition, service based models may prevent purchases of new goods and thereby help address overproduction and resource exploitation (Acquier et al., 2017). The emer- gence of new business models that stimulate sharing and efficient use of resour- ces is argued to result from a need for austerity and frugal spending after the recession, combined with growing environmental awareness and the ubiquity of internet and communication technologies that makes sharing possible at scale (Cohen & Kietzmann, 2014). The digital nature of platforms also greatly reduces costs and efforts of implementing business models which may enable rapid scaling of sustainable innovations (Kolk & Ciulli, 2020). However, the introduction of platforms enabled innovation is not without conse- quences for city governments. A key challenge is that platforms can be launched without prior assessment of externalities and public interests, leaving democratic deliberation and public debate ex post affairs (Frenken & Pelzer, 2020). Hence, many city governments were caught by surprise when platforms like Airbnb and Uber launched. In general, this is not uncommon in the so-called ‘platform economy’ as new platform based business models often operate under regu- latory frameworks that were not designed for them (Kenney & Zysman, 2016). Platforms often strategically claim they operate in a grey zone for which regu- latory frameworks are absent. They supposedly position themselves as compa- nies in the tech sector, while disrupting other sectors such as mobility or tourism (e.g. home sharing platform Airbnb vs hotel industry and taxi platform Uber vs incumbent taxi providers). Despite the potential to influence transitions (both positively and negatively), there are hardly studies that explore the relationship between platform enabled urban innovations and transitions to sustainable urban mobility. This disserta- tion examines this relationship focusing on the case of digital platform enabled bike sharing.1 Combining a smart-lock, GPS and digital platform technology 1. Throughout this dissertation is referred to the terms ‘platform enabled bike sharing’, ‘free-float- ing bike sharing’ and ‘dockless bike sharing’. These terms refer to the same phenomenon: a service that provides easy access –