Kap 025 Dissertation Unit For Assessment Answers

The aim of the reflection report is to evidence
i. your ability to construct and re-construct a strong research that provides a valid and reliable result to your original aim and objectives
ii. your ability to learn and your ability to relate theory to practice
iii. your ability to relate the dissertation learning to your future career path

Answer:

Introduction:

Background of the topic:

Biking sharing has been considered as one of the best innovations that has enabled a sharing economy model where the user can use the vehicle and can make easy payments using their online wallet. As commented by Liu et al. (2014), the sharing economy model has gained advantages with the advent of the internet and the e-payment options. People are not only using shared economy for getting a shared ride but they are also using it to rent their furniture or spare rooms or property. The success of the bike sharing business depends on the users along with the correct use of the technology. It is important to track the user by the global positioning system and get the payment at the right time. In addition to this, this business model also involves the practice of depositing a particular amount of money that is almost the cost of a bicycle which is then returned to the user once the bike is handed over to the service provider (Tin-yau 2018). The business has seen boom in mainland like China and has managed to raise around US$90 million in the first financing year last year. However, the situation is not similar for Hong Kong and the operators in this part of the nation had to face great challenges in maintaining the business (Theguardian.com 2018). This dissertation report will evaluate the various factors that caused great distress in the industry and resulted in the failure of the business. Gobee.bikes has been used as the case study organisation for this report.

Identification of the problem:

Bike sharing business is a unique step towards sharing economy and the sustainability of the environment, where the user can contribute in the economy of the country as well as add to the sustainability. In the opinion of Abdelkafi et al. (2013), the consumption attitude of the users has also been changing with the increasing concerns related to the climate changes at the detrimental impact on the society. In addition to this, the technology used for booking and paying for the ride has also added to the benefitting factors for the users. However, it has been found that due to various reasons like vandalism and theft, the bike-share company GoBee.bike has been going through a major loss in the business and is at the verge of closing down (Zhang et al. 2015).

This is a vital issue now as such situations can create serious issues in such business models that focus on the sustainability and shared economy. In fact, in the recent time when the business models are changing their perspectives towards building a sustainable approach, the issues that the companies like GoBee.bike have been facing will be a threat to the entrepreneurs (Yau 2018). Therefore, this particular research will focus on the different factors that lead to the failure of the business. At the same time, the aim of the report will also be to recommend the best possible ways that can be adopted by such companies to carry out their business without facing such difficulties.

Aims and objectives:

The aim of the report is to carry out a detailed analysis in terms of secondary and primary methods to evaluate the various factors behind the failure of the bike-sharing business in Hong Kong. In addition to this, few recommendations will be made that would help the bike-share companies to overcome such failures in their businesses.

Objectives of the research are:

1. To understand the importance of the business models as followed by the bike-sharing companies like GoBee.bike
2. To evaluate various factors behind the failure of the business of bike sharing in Hong Kong.
3. To recommend the best possible ways that can be adopted by the company like GoBee.bike in order to improve their present business situation and overcome the issues resulting in the failure of the business

Scope of the report:

The research report focuses on the failure of the business models that are built towards sustainability and shared economy. In the recent time, both these factors have been playing a vital role in shaping the business activities (Boyac? et al. 2015). Thus, this dissertation report creates a scope of understanding the nature of the business of these kinds. In addition to this, the evaluation and findings can be helpful for the business entrepreneurs to understand the various sides of the particular business model and its long term impact on the business. Apart from these, the recommendations will be definitely helpful for such businesses that focus on the sustainability factors.

A brief methodology:

The dissertation report is based on both primary and secondary research data. In order to understand the various factors involved in the bike-sharing business, a detailed literature review has been undertaken. In addition to this, an analysis of the case study organisation GoBee.bike has been carried out by examining various reports, articles and news that indicates the failure of the business. Qualitative primary research has been used to understand the view point of the managers of the bike-sharing company (Bryman and Bell 2015). The primary data has been collected by interviewing the respondents over the phone calls. A set of questionnaire was sent by email and their appointment was taken. In order to analyse the findings, a thematic approach has been taken relating the themes to the objectives of the study.

Literature review: 

This chapter discusses the literature and the overview of the bike-sharing business. The business idea runs on specific business model idea and the same will be discussed here. In addition to this, the factors affecting the overall business will also be evaluated.

Overview of the bike-sharing system:

Bike sharing system or the public bike system is the business where the bikes or bicycles are made available for the public to share for a short term basis in return of a price or for free. It is a common practice that the bikes are made available from a dock and the same bike or bicycle is made available to another dock. These docks have special bike racks and are operated automatically by computer systems only on the lieu of the payment to use the bike for a designated time period (Ma et al. 2018). Once the probable user makes the payment, the bike is unlocked and the user can become a temporary owner of the same for a specific time period. Once the user uses it, it is expected that the user returns it back to another dock and locks the bike again. Reading Cohen and Kietzmann (2014), it has been found that there are other systems of bike sharing that does not involve the docks and the hiring process is done by a local service provider where the customers are given the bikes or bicycles for a particular time period on rent. Usually, the smartphone apps are used to find out the nearby available bike stations and open docks. In fact, the users can also make prior booking of the bike and can make online payment as well.

The phenomenon of collaborative consumptions that include peer to peer based sharing of goods and services has been gaining momentum in the recent market situation. As a part of the sharing economy, it has been able to contribute in re-allocating the wealth in different value chain business activities. As pointed out by Cusumano, (2015), the transportation industry is largely to get benefits from these factors and will add values to the economy and the society. With the current instances of rationality, technological infrastructure along with the cultural appeal, the idea of the bike sharing system is expected to take momentum in the near future. The increasing rate of carbon-footprint and the contribution of the transportation industry in this factor have made it more important for this industry to think of certain ways to tackle the issue (Daunorien? et al. 2015). Bike sharing business has become very common and popular in the places like China and Hong Kong. On one hand, it has been rightly found that the business in China has been running profitably and the demand of the bike share is also high, on the other hand, the business in Hong Kong has seen a wide detrimental impact and the business owners are found to suffer a lot due to the business (Faghih-Imani et al. 2017).

History and the idea of the bike-sharing system:

As stated by Ebinger et al. (2015), the bike sharing system was actually initiated by the local communities as a part of the charitable projects as a means of promoting the use of bicycle as a non-polluting means of transportation. The idea was also used by the business entrepreneurs to rent out bicycles as an idea of a business. It was in Europe where the first concept of bike sharing has been documented and a group of people painted around 50 bicycles white and unlocked those in Amsterdam to be used by anyone in the country for free. As pointed out by Ernest Callenbach in the novel Ecotopia, the bicycle sharing option is a unique idea where the bicycles or the bikes are made available to the inhabitants and it becomes an integrated part of the public transportation (Ricci 2015). It is in the beginning of the 21^st century when the bike sharing concept took a new turn and it evolved as a new business entity. This business had become very successful in China in the Wuhan and Hangzhou. The specific idea behind the bike sharing system was to help the tourists or the visitors by providing them bikes for the time being so that they can travel on their own around the place of their visit and can use the vehicle as a personal transportation means (Thirumalai and Koppuravuri 2017). Contrary to this point, Hamari et al. (2016) pointed out that it is not only the tourists or the ones who do not possesses a bike, hire a bike but people also use or hire the bike as they are concerned about certain issues like vandalism or theft, parking issue or storage problem of the bike. However, it is to be noted that the bike hiring depends on the dock system and the serving on the stations and this is the reason that the system has been criticised as less convenient than the privately owned vehicles.

The bike-sharing scheme business came up with a model of making the best possible profit even with a minimum amount of investment as the bikes or the bicycles are not as costly as other means of transport like cars. The idea of renting the bike for a particular duration of time in return of an amount of money seems to be a profitable one. Contrary to this, Mokhova and Zinecker (2014) stated that the business typically includes the maintaining of the bikes and its operational costs if the bike is lost or needs to be repaired. As commented by Schulte and Voß (2015), that the business can be turned to a successful and a profitable business model if better ways of utilising the business is considered. For instance, as it has been found that the bikes are found to be displaced at any place in the city, it indicates the high reach out of the vehicle. Thus, the company can think of other ways of gaining from the business like including advertisements for various companies where the bicycles will be the carrier of the advertisements. The ride and pay model as describes for these vehicles are a straightforward and profit generating model where the profit of the business owners can maximise if the business is run in an effective manner (Shaheen and Cohen 2013). For instance, the bike can be given for hire for at least 30 min or even for 5 hours for a minimum price, but the same bike can be given for hiring for 30 min each for a number of rides. This is where, by the means of repeated bookings, the business owners can make the necessary profit for them. Adding to this, Zhang et al. (2015) commented that this model of business also provides the opportunity for the cash transaction and the same can be utilised by the owners as a method of earning more interest with the circulation of the cash money.

Bike-sharing system as a business:

According to Liu et al. (2014) there has been an effective increase in integrating the products and services towards a sustainable development and it is recognised in today’s society as well. As a result of this, the transportation industry has been focusing on various approaches to provide better functionality and more service for the same requirement. It is a common assumption that an exclusive ownership of any physical product such as a vehicle is more unnecessary and can be regarded as wastage than the shared tangible resource or product. When it comes to the concept of sharing, it has also been pointed that the additional or better features of the manufacturing can be made available at a cheaper price to the users (O'Mahony and Shmoys 2015). On the other hand, the government will also be benefitted because it will create more opportunities in the labour intensive service market. Considering the classic economic assumptions, customers are also found to make rational decision and they are preferring to use such methods those are sustainable and environment friendly. In contrary to this point, Ricci (2015) commented that people are also found to make irrational decision when it comes to their comfort and the designs that are made to focus on their future services.

The Prospect Theory in economics can be used to understand the application of the decision making at the time of considering the use of sharing services. The decision making depends on two stages, namely, edition stage and evolution stage. During the edition stage, the decision maker tries to determine the outcome of the reference point to be loss or gain and then only proceeds with the ultimate decision of using a product or the service. During the evaluation stage, the decision maker tries to evaluate the alternative options and the other probabilities in order to get highest utility of the service or the product. In respect to this point, Ma et al. (2018) commented that unlike the utility theory, the prospect theory actually weighs down more on the satisfaction of the decision maker. This decision might not add values to the real world or the sustainability but will definitely be based on the own interest of the decision maker.

The consumption pattern of the users has changed and one of the major transportation industries has been focusing on new business models and innovative ideas that could bring a revolution in the business and at the same time will work on the positive factors of the business activities. In fact, with the advent of the smart phone apps and the availability of internet to carry out the various activities has made the business models more successful and effective. This idea is much helpful in case of tourists or visitors when the travellers use to rent a car of a bike or even a bicycle to access different places in the particular location. In fact, the idea is very common where the users pay or borrow the car or bike and use it as a means of transport for themselves. Adding to this point, Faghih-Imani et al. (2017) highlighted the situation of the urban people where it is almost impossible or rather difficult for the people to purchase a private vehicle for themselves and the people are mostly depended on the vehicles that are available on rent.

Factors affecting the bike-sharing business:

Reading the article by Thirumalai and Koppuravuri (2017), it has been found that many people do not prefer to use the sharing vehicles, may it be car, bike or bicycle because it results in delay on the service. As commented by Hamann and Güldenberg (2017), these services include RelayRides and GetAround. There have been changes from the traditional means of sharing business when the private car owners used to allow rent their vehicles in return of a mutually agreed compensation between both the parties. However, now the bike-sharing owners are operating in a much collaborated environment and are providing location based service to the customers. As commented by O'Mahony and Shmoys (2015), the future of this business has been flourishing as it is not only used by single individual for private commute but this service has been used by others for delivering grocery shopping or food, home to work commute and other purposes as well. Adding to this factor, Henry and Paul (2018) stated that the probability factor plays an important role here and the user of the service can work according to the endowment factor, where the user estimates the value of the shared and non-shared vehicle before they use it.

The primary concern raised by Ricci (2015), in the article, is the lack of demand of bicycles. It has been found that the bicycles sharing business is only beneficial at a particular region and not all over the city. It is perhaps utilised by the people in the urban areas to commute and by the cycle enthusiasts and it not at all used as a regular means of transportation unlike other modes of transport like cabs or buses. In fact, Ricci (2015) added to the fact that cycles are rather used by the cyclists as an enthusiast and as a means of leisure. Thus, it completely depends on the willingness of the person and not something necessary for them. Another important negative factor that plays a vital role at the time of deciding upon the selection of the sharing ride is the cost or the rent involved in the process of hiring. Bike sharing always involves the perspective of the customers and their comfort (Zhang et al. 2015). The customer would always compare the cost of a shared ride and a private ride. It is only when they would find that the lesser price will definitely add to the value of their comfort, they will prefer to get the shared ride. The allocation and the parking spot have been found to be another challenge that the major bike sharing business owners have been facing (Alvarez-Valdes et al. 2015). It has been observed from various surveys that the bicycle users are not getting the right space for parking and so they prefer public transport over their private transportations. Along with all these issues, vandalism is another major challenge that the major business providers are being facing where the bikes and bicycles are getting theft from the bike stations as well as from any part of the city where the bike is made a halt. In the view point of Shaheen and Cohen (2013), since the bikes are not ideally belonged to the customers, they are not at all keeping found to be bothered enough about the property and as a result of this, the bike-share companies have to suffer as their bikes are getting robbed or theft. In addition to this, the GPS system and the navigation method of these companies are found to be quite ineffective and thieves are not being able to get caught even after various attempt to do so. Even if the bikes do not get stolen, parts of the vehicle get stolen and the owners ultimately have to suffer (Henry and Paul 2018). The dock less system of the bikes has created another major reason that leaded to the poor handling and maintenance of the bikes and the users are simply found to leave the bikes at any condition without caring.

Considering the business perspective of the bike-sharing companies, it has been found that the bike-sharing business in Hong Kong has taken a wide turn. The governmental policies are also not favourable towards the bike-sharing business industry because these companies attract the illegal means of parking the vehicles at any place, without any discipline of the bike users (Hamann and Güldenberg 2017). In fact, the number of bicycle berths in Hong Kong is limited and those are actually occupied by the idle bicycle owners. Thus, the bicycles that are parked illegally in any compound actually create great problems for the publics and the pedestrians. As commented by Schulte and Voß (2015), these issues have been creating an indiscriminate issue and the different companies have been coming up with various issues for this. The geographical location of a place also impacts on the bike-sharing business in a unique way. Bicycle rides are comfortable and helpful on only the plane lands and not that are sparsely populated (Mokhova and Zinecker 2014). However, the major districts in Hong Kong are populated and the streets are narrow as well that adds to the safety concerns and the hazards of the bike riders along with the pedestrians. This is also a reason that the business suffers back lag and is not able to meet the desired outcome. The uninformed rain and the poor topography of a place add to the ineffectiveness of using the bicycles as a means of transportation in major regions.

Summary

Understanding the various perspective of the business of bike-sharing, it has been understood that the business model adds an attractive and lucrative scheme for the entrepreneurs and is indeed a profit generating model of business. However, due to various factors identified, the business owners are facing major issues in managing the business properly and are leading to the declining situation of business. The business owners have to come up with few other major instances that can be directly add to the value of the business and the business can indeed heed towards the profitability. 

Research methodology

Research method outline: 

It is important to frame the research methodology prior to the research in order to make sure that the research is carried on in the best possible direction. It is only by the means of the proper selection of the tools and methods, the study can be conducted in a logical manner and the suitable findings can be derived. For this particular research, the positivism research philosophy has been used; the deductive method of research approach has been used that has helped to understand the concept of the existing theories and incorporate the findings in the research. For the research design, the analytical or the descriptive research design has been used. Apart from this, the primary qualitative method has been used and 3 important employees of the GoBee.bikes have been interviewed by telephonic conversation and by emails. The secondary research and findings have added the most important value to derive the outcome of the framed objectives of the research. An important point to note is that the research has been carried on by following the six layers of the research onion that has given a clear idea of each step to be taken one after the other.

Research philosophy:

Research philosophy has been termed as a set of beliefs. The particular three research philosophies include positivism, realism and the interpretivism. The aim of the research philosophy is to help to conduct the study in a more logical manner following a particular pattern by the means of in-depth research using theories and models. As commented by Silverman, (2016), positivism research philosophy helps to identify the problem of the research in a logical way, interpretivism deals with the methods of the business activities while realism is a mixed approach. For this particular research, the positivism research philosophy has been used because it was important to understand the present situation of the business in a logical manner after analysing the situation from the primary and the secondary sources of data (Silverman 2016). On the other hand, the two other research philosophies have been avoided because it is completely depended on the perspective of the one carrying out the research and so the outcome might vary from one person to the other.

Research approach:

The two kinds of research approaches are inductive research approach and the deductive research approach. Deductive approach is used when we are considering the existing theories and models related to the study and making the analysis. On the other hand, the inductive approach is used when we try to frame our own set of belief and induce new theories and model from the various means of research (Harreveld et al. 2016). For this research, the deductive research approach has been selected and the existing theories and models have been used to evaluate the research topic. Contrary to this, the inductive process has been neglected or rejected because it would require framing new theories and concept which might vary from the perception of one person to the other. This way, a proper conclusion to the study would not have been gained.

Research design: 

The research designs are terms as analytical or descriptive research design, the explanatory research design and the third one is the exploratory research design. The descriptive research design is the most appropriate form of research design as it gives the opportunity to carry out the research in a detailed and descriptive way (Smith and Small 2017). The exploratory research design helps at the initial stages of the research and do not contribute to the logical reasoning of the research. It is more focused towards the hypothesis framed in the research rather than that of the various theories and the models. On the other hand, the exploratory research design actually helps in developing a relationship between the two existing variables taken into consideration for the particular research (Taylor et al. 2015).

Research strategy: 

Research strategy is used to give a proper direction to the research to reach out the ultimate conclusion of the research. The various types of research strategies include case study investigation, focus group investigation, survey method, interviewing the candidates and others. In this particular research it is important to understand the situation that the organisation selected as the case study has to undergo as a result of the failure of the business (Shannonhouse et al. 2017). Thus, the case study analysis has been used as the main strategy. Apart from this, the three employees of GoBee.bikes have been interviewed as well in order to understand the difficulties that they have faced in the business in the recent time that is leading to the collapse of the business. Other strategies like focusing on the focus group or taking a survey among the consumers have been avoided because in such case, the viewpoints of a wide of consumers would be taken into consideration and which would not be appropriate for the particular research as we are considering on the business owners and not the customers.

Selection of the sampling method and sample size:

Sampling method denotes the means by which the respondents for the survey or the interview have been selected and the sample size denotes the number of people involved in the overall research process. For this particular research, the non-probability sampling technique has been used and the employees working at the particular organisation have been interviewed (Ledford and Gast 2018). Considering the sample size, it has been kept as low as three persons only because the viewpoints of these three important employees or the managers of the company GoBee.bikes would help to investigate the situation properly.

Data collection method:

The data collection method signifies the methods that are used to collect the data to investigate the topic in details. The two types of data collection methods are by primary data collection and the secondary data collection. Secondary data are the information that we get from the existing information available in various research articles, news, books or journals; and the primary data are collected by the means of on field analysis of the situation. For this research, both types of data have used (Ledford and Gast 2018). The secondary data has helped to understand the concept of the bike-sharing business and its importance in the recent time, while the primary data helped to understand the current situation that the owners of these companies have to go through in the current situation. Both the data helped to derive the adequate information needed to derive at a particular conclusion of the research.

For collecting the primary data, a set of questionnaire was framed with few questions related to the profitability of the business model. All the questions were close ended and a likert scale was used to measure the view point of the business owners. Apart from the open ended question, a short telephonic interview was also taken.

Data analysis technique:

The data analysis technique is the means by which the collected data is put into easy formats using charts and graphs to give an easy overview of the findings. As only qualitative primary research has been used, there is a little scope of using any statistical tool to evaluate the data (Simonsohn et al. 2017). Thus, a thematic analysis focused on the framed objectives of the research has been used to analyse the data collected from the various means.

Research ethical consideration:

As commented by Flick (2015), a research should be conducted by following strict ethical guidelines in order to avoid any such situation that might question the ethics of the research. For this research as well, few ethical guidelines have been followed so as to make sure that the research is carried on following the right path. For the secondary research, it has been kept in mind that the content has not been copied and proper referencing has been done in order to avoid any kind of plagiarism activities. For the primary research, it has been strictly followed that none of the participants were forced to participate in the research and thus, prior appoints were taken for their permission. The candidates were also allowed to withdraw from the participation at any point of time. However, they were co-operative and worked with much collaboration (Silverman 2016). In addition to this, there was no such symbol or signs in the questionnaire that would depict any sort of advertisement and it were made sure that the entire research has been done only for the sole purpose of academic needs.

Research limitation:

The research limitations were felt at few instances while carrying out the research. Primarily, the time given for carrying out the entire research was very limited and the findings and research could have been better if more time was allotted. As the research was based on both secondary data and the primary data, there was a limitation in getting adequate information about the organisation in the case study. In addition to this, there were limited theories related to this research topic that limited the academic integration of the report. For the primary data, the respondents were not very prompt in their response and had to wait for their confirmation. In fact, being a part of the organisation, there remains a high chance that their response was perhaps manipulative that could have manipulated the outcome as well and can be considered as a limitation to the study.  

Findings and analysis 

In order to understand the major issues faced by the owners of the GoBee.bikes, the three co-founders, namely, Claude Ducharme, Pauline Fan and Raphael Cohen, were tried to contact. Formal mails were sent and in fact, they were tried to reach through social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and others. But, they were unresponsive and thus, the only option left for getting some primary evidence was to contact the employees of the organisation. So, 5 employees of Gobee.bikes were managed to interview and their view points towards the declining of the bike-share business were taken into consideration.

Findings from the primary research:

A survey questionnaire was distributed among them and the response was converted into tables and graphs. An analysis of the findings will be discussed in this chapter.

Q1. How much do you agree on the feasibility of bike-sharing business in the current market of Hong Kong?

Options	Total respondents	No. of responses	Percentage %
Strongly agree	5	0	0
Agree	5	0	0
Neutral	5	0	0
Disagree	5	3	60
Strongly disagree	5	2	40

Table: Response on the feasibility of bike-sharing industry  

Chart: Response on the feasibility of bike-sharing industry

The employees working at one of the GoBike outlet were asked about the feasibility of the business in the current scenario as the news of closing down the business was in the headlines of the major news channels. From the above data received from the 5 employees, it has been found that 60% or 3 of the respondents completely disagreed with the fact and that there is no feasibility of the bike sharing business in the current situation. 40% or 2 of them strongly disagreed to the fact. However, it has been found that the respondents did not select the other responses. This clearly portrays the fact that the employees are well aware of the business in the recent situation and that the business owners might have to shut down the business any time soon.

Q2. What are the factors behind the major failure of the bike sharing industry?

Options	Total respondents	No. of responses	Percentage
Availability of private vehicles	5	1	20
Careless handling of the bikes	5	3	60
High rent	5	1	20
Lack of docks	5	0	0

Table: Response on the major failure of the bike sharing industry 

Chart: Response on the major failure of the bike sharing industry

It was important to understand the perspective of the employees and their point of view towards the major reasons contribution towards the declining condition of the bike-sharing business. From the few selected options, it was found that 3 out of 5 respondents or 60% said that due to the improper handling of the bikes by the users, the business owners are facing major issues. 1 of them or 20% said that people are buying their own bikes rather than hiring a one on the regular basis and so the business is declining. On the other hand, one respondent or another 20% also gave the response on the similar issue that the rent is high and so the users are not using the shared bikes anymore. While no one agreed that it is due to the lack of docks that the business is suffering. Thus, it can be easily said that it is due to the users of the bicycles that the business is suffering.

Q3. What is the main reason behind the bike-sharing companies to run in loss?

Options	Total respondents	No. of responses	Percentage
Vandalism	5	1	20
Theft	5	1	20
Poor handling of the bikes/ bicycles	5	2	40
Lack of monitoring	5	1	20

Table: Response towards the main reason behind the bike-sharing companies to run in loss 

Chart: Response towards the main reason behind the bike-sharing companies to run in loss

After analysing the various reasons resulting in the declining of the business of the bike-sharing, it was found that 2 of them or 40% of the respondents said that the poor handling of the bikes by the users resulting in major loss of the owners. The bicycles are being re-gained from such a situation that is completely unacceptable and this is one of the major reasons that the owners are in fact planning to close down the business. 1 of them or 20% said that vandalism is another common issue that the bike owners are facing and they are not able to cope up with the issue. Another 20% agreed to the issue of theft that the owners are facing and the other 20% also agreed that the owners are not taking adequate measures to monitor the users, as a result of which the bicycles are being used properly and the companies are ultimately suffering.

Q4. How much do you agree that with proper measures from the owners, the bike-sharing business can be improved?

Options	Total respondents	No. of responses	Percentage
Strongly agree	5	2	40
Agree	5	2	40
Neutral	5	1	10
Disagree	5	0	0
Strongly disagree	5	0	0

Table: Response on the proper measures from the owners 

Chart: Response on the proper measures from the owners

In order to understand if the employees consider that the present situation of the business can be improved, they were asked if proper measures from the business owners can help to improve the business situation. It was seen that 2 of them or 40% strongly agreed to the fact and they think that the business can be improved in proper measures are taken. Again, 40% agreed to the fact and 10% were neutral because they did not see a hope in the improvement of business in the recent time. However, it can be noted that none of the respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed to the fact. Thus, it can be said that the employees think that there is indeed the scope of bringing improvement in the business by proper measures.

Q5. How much do you agree that government should intervene in the bike-sharing business in order to focus on the sustainability of the transportation?

Options	Total respondents	No. of responses	Percentage
Strongly agree	5	3	60
Agree	5	2	40
Neutral	5	0	0
Disagree	5	0	0
Strongly disagree	5	0	0

Table: Response towards governmental intervention in the business 

Chart: Response towards governmental intervention in the business

It was important to understand the role of the government to intervene in the business activity as the bike sharing business was strongly related to the sustainability of the environment. Surprisingly, it was found that 60% of the respondents or 3 out of 5 employees strongly agreed to the fact and hold a strong belief that with right intervention of government in the business, there will be improvement in the current situation. Also, 2 of them or rest 40% agreed to the fact. However, there was no such response from any of the respondents that they do not want the government to intervene in the business activities. Thus, it can be said that the government of Hong Kong can undertake certain measures towards these types of businesses in order to focus on the sustainability of the environment.

Q6. Which probable option can improve the current bike-sharing business?

Options	Total respondents	No. of responses	Percentage
Increasing awareness on sustainability	5	1	20
Better promotional technique	5	1	20
Proper monitoring	5	0	0
Targeting right group of people	5	3	60

Table: Response towards corrective measures to improve the business  

Chart: Response towards corrective measures to improve the business

It was very important to understand the perspective of the employees towards the recommendations that could be a step towards the improvement of the business. With a few specific options given to the respondents, it was found that 60% or 3 out of 5 stated that it is only by targeting the right group of people the business can be improved as they would be careful towards handling the bikes and the business will grow as well. No one agreed that proper monitoring is the only ultimate way of bringing changes in the current situation. On the other hand, 20% of the respondents of 1 of the respondents claimed that increasing awareness on the importance of sustainability, better promotional technique can actually help to attract more number of customers which will eventually help to improve the business of the bike sharing companies. Thus, with corrective measures, the business can take a positive turn.

Findings from the secondary sources:

Gobee.bike was launched as a bike-sharing service provider in April 2017 understanding the opportunity of the business in the market. In July, 2018, the service provider had to shut down its business due to various unfavourable situations that has lead severe questions on the established business model. However, the service provider has been found to make good business in the market of China as it had successfully got the access of the end users from the internet giants like Alibaba and Tencent, but the similar approach was missing in Hong Kong and the service provider has to face severe loss (Tin-yau, 2018). It has been reported that thousands of bikes have been stolen or either being destroyed by the users. The users are definitely paying a minimum amount as deposit and then they are not caring enough to return the bikes to the owners. In fact, reports suggested that the major business owners like Gobee bikes or the other competitors like Ofo or Obike had hoped for a great market in this business field but looking at the increasing rate of destruction and vandalism on the bicycles and bikes by the major users (Yau 2018).

Considering the perspective of the bike users, it has been found that they are also striving to connect with the service provides. There are many complaints lodged where the users complained that they are not able to connect with the business owners and unknowingly, they are just leaving the bikes wherever they are ending their trips without taking any responsibility (Liu et al. 2014). Again, many bikes are found faulty and do not operates properly. Even if some technological gadgets are fit in the bike, those do not work properly and the users have to ultimately suffer on the overall experience. In an incident, it has been found that by making the usage of the bicycle completely dependent on the app, the users are finding it difficult to make electronic payment and registering with the company. The means of cashless payment was better where they had to hand over the required amount of cash and take the bicycle with them without any issue (Abdelkafi et al. 2013). This sudden change in the process has lead to the situation where the users are not finding it friendly to use the shared bike for their own purpose.

Discussion 

Places like China have always been a successful as a region where different business models have been successful. The idea of the bike sharing is very popular for the tourists as well as the local people. In fact, from the survey as well, it has been noticed that the employees are very positive towards the business and hope that with proper measures the business can definitely take a positive turn. The literature review also signifies that the users of the bike are being negligent towards their responsibility and they are simply dropping the bike at any place once their purpose is fulfilled (Schulte and Voß 2015). The employees are also in the same notion and the owners are also really worried about the condition of the bikes. However, the business model contributing to the sustainability of the environment has not been denied by anyone and both users and the business owners consider this business to be a method of providing better functionality to the users and at the same time serving the environment (Liu et al. 2014). This is why, the business owners are seeking the intervention of the government and other authorities so that these businesses could be encouraged and more people participate on using shared bikes for their daily commute. This idea can be directly related to the rational thinking of the people adding positive factors to the environment.

The various factors resulting in the downturn of the bike-sharing business are poor maintenance of the vehicle by the users, availability of their own vehicle because of the low price of vehicle and also the availability of the same under instalments schemes and others (O'Mahony and Shmoys 2015). People are not being found to be more enthusiastic towards the use of a rented bicycle and when they are doing so, they are not taking care of the vehicle. The government is also not allowing the bikes to be parked at places because it is hampering the regular traffic and making it difficult for the public transports to work in the street and roads of the country. An overall discussion based on the findings from the primary sources and linking the discussion with the literature review, it can be said that in order to overcome the issues of illegal parking, the government has been found to take strict action in removing the bicycles being parked illegally resulting in the major loss of the bike sharing company. Thus, a proper awareness on the importance of using shared bikes and at the same time proper regulation and monitoring on the activities of the users can only help to improve the present business structure that the bike-sharing companies are following.  

Conclusion and recommendations: 

Conclusion:

The dissertation report focused on understanding the business model of the bike sharing companies and the major reasons behind the declining business. The detailed findings and evaluation based on both primary and secondary sources helped to understand the various reasons behind the fall of the business. This chapter would be based on linking the findings based on the three research objectives set for this research paper.

Linking with objective 1:

The objective was framed to understand the business model of bike-sharing companies and its relevancy in the recent time. It has been found that with the increasing importance of creating a sustainable environment, the idea of fuel-less vehicles that can be shared is a welcome step. The theories like the pay and ride model and the sharing economy model have also given the hint that the business of bike share is indeed a successful entrepreneurship model and can be run successfully if properly operated. From the overall discussion, it can be said that there is indeed chance of improvement in the on-going business process and the business owners should undertake the steps of improving their service along with some severe steps so as to check on the issues like theft, vandalism or deliberate demolition of the bikes by the users.  

Linking with objective 2:

The second objective was to understand the various factors behind the declining condition of the bike-sharing business. Considering the case study of GoBee.bikes, a survey was conducted among 5 employees of the company via mail and their response was evaluated. In addition to this, secondary sources of data were evaluated in order to understand the present situation of the Go.bee bikes. It has been found that the employees completely agree to the fact that the current situation is indeed challenging and the business would take a severe downturn because the users are not at all using the bikes properly. In addition to this, there has been no proper intervention of the government of Hong Kong in order to help to carry out the sustainable businesses like sharing-vehicle business. In addition to this, the companies have not being targeting the right group of people who shall use the service more than the others. However, it has been rightly observed as well that with the correct measures, the recent challenges can be easily overcome and the business of bike share can take a positive turn.

Recommendations:

Linking with objective 3:

In order to make sure that the business is run properly, the business owners have to come up with certain schemes and actions that would directly add to the profitability of the business. As it has been found that the business owners are facing issues from different perspectives, certain recommendations can be made so that they can find out the ways to earn a good profit margin from their business.

1. Targeting particular group of people: With the detailed evaluation, it has been made clear that it is indeed important to set a particular target group of people whom the companies should target and carry on their business. For this, it can be recommended that the regular users like school going children can be the best possible target group of people. As it has been found that people are rather purchasing their own bikes because of the low rate as well as availability of instalment schemes, people who have the purchasing capability cannot be targeted. Thus, targeting those groups of people who are actually interested in hiring a bike would be the best possible way of running the business.
2. Coming up with better membership schemes:In order to make sure that the users use the bikes or the bicycles on a regular basis, coming up with membership schemes can be helpful in keeping the customer base strong. For instance, a monthly membership scheme with a discount or reducing the rent if the user can bring other customers for the company can add to the more number of customer base for the company.
3. Using the business as an advertisement tool:If the bike-sharing business is not fetching the right revenue to the companies, it can be used for alternative options as well so as to earn good amount of revenue. It has been found that the bikes are being travelled for a quite good distance and thus, these bikes can be used as a means of advertisement. Both local and non-local brands can give advertisements in these bicycles. In fact, certain innovative measures can be taken as well to come up with different means by which advertisement can be made and that can add to the increase in revenue of the bike-sharing companies.
4. Creating awareness on changing consumption pattern to sustainability:Lastly, it is highly recommended that the government authority has to intervene in the progress of a sustainable business model like the bike-sharing business. People have to make aware of the declining state of environment and how they can easily contribute towards the betterment just by using shared vehicles and avoiding fuel based vehicles. Promotional activities can be widely used to disseminate the information of using shared bike that would directly create positive impact on the bike-sharing business. 

Reflection report: 

Overall experience:

The dissertation has helped to understand the business models followed by the bike sharing business and how its operational activities can be directly linked with the theories and concepts of designing a business. The detailed literature review based on the models and theories as well as empirical findings has helped to gain a lot of knowledge on the overall business activities. I have gained sufficient knowledge to critically evaluate the view point of the authors and contradicting the same with other authors. In order to carry out the research, I had to take help from numerous newspapers and journals as well as websites that discussed about the declining phase of the business and how badly it is affecting the business owners. I have understood that once the business model does not serve as a means of profitability to the business, the owners have to come up with certain other ideas that would help them to overcome the loss or increase their profitability. This way, my rational ability has improved as well and I can easily relate the academic learning with the practical application of the business.

Research struggles:

There were certain limitations to the study that I had to face. The research methodology was a bit confusing and I often had to struggle to understand the right method to be used for the research. However, by researching on the facts properly and by carrying out detailed analysis I was being able to understand the situation and could interpret the information more academically. In fact, I also took some guidance from my friends and elders who helped me to understand the difference between approaches and methods and thus, the concepts were clear to me at the time of working on the dissertation.

Devising the experiment:

Carrying out a survey or the interview with the particular group of people was something very new to me and I had no previous experience regarding this. I had to struggle at first while conducting the survey as taking the consent of the users was difficult. However, considering it to be solely for the academic purpose, I was being able to convince them and the employees also helped me with their opinion towards the business. However, the entire survey had to be kept short as the respondents were not ready to devote much time. In addition to this, the questions those were asked were very direct question and did not involve any query regarding their business profitability or the revenue that they are earning.

Impact on future professional career:

This dissertation would definitely help me in my future and to carry out different activities related to business. For instance, the various findings from both the secondary and the primary sources of data have helped me to develop an understanding regarding the various business models and the intervention of different authorities in the business. My analysis capability has definitely improved than before and I can now be able to make judgemental decisions based on the various findings from different sources. All these things will definitely help me to improve my career and to make myself rational enough towards the business models and activities. 

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