Overshare and collapse: How sustainable are profit-oriented company-to-peer bike-sharing systems?

The primary concern of this study is to examine if or to what extent profit-oriented bike-sharing systems are sustainable. Based on the frames attributed to the sharing economy developed by Martin (2016), the authors analyze whether the commercial company-to-peer bike-sharing systems actually show these attributed characteristics. The results reveal that profit-oriented bike-sharing systems (1) do not pay off (yet) in economic terms, (2) are not a more sustainable form of consumption, (3) are not a pathway towards a more decentralized, equitable, and sustainable economy, (4) may need more regulation, (5) are subject to monopolistic tendencies fueled by venture capitalists, and (6) the underlying business-model is neither new nor disruptive. Further research needs to address the development of more sustainable systems.