Abstract
“Metro + shared bikes” refers to a green combined travel mode with metro as the main means and shared bikes as a last-mile access mode for feeder trips. In recent years, to attract more passengers to choose “metro + shared bikes” for travel and increase revenue, some metro companies have begun to cooperate with bike-sharing platforms. There are two common cooperation strategies in practice. One is the price discount, i.e., metro companies offer cycling price discounts to passengers on the platforms. The other is the information sharing, i.e., metro companies share passengers’ travel information with the platforms. This study focuses on a market composed of a metro company, a bike-sharing platform with a high market position (Platform A), and a bike-sharing platform with a low market position (Platform B), and investigates the metro company’s cooperation strategy with the platforms. The results show that the metro company’s decision is related to passengers’ sensitivity to cycling price discounts and to convenient travel. When the passenger’s sensitivity to cycling price discount is high (low) and that to convenient travel is low (high), the metro company should select the price discount strategy (information sharing strategy) with Platforms A and B. When the passenger’s sensitivity to cycling price discount and that to convenient travel are moderate, the metro company should select the information sharing strategy with Platform A and the price discount strategy with Platform B. These findings can provide theoretical guidance for the decision-making of metro companies.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China [grant number 25&ZD194]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant numbers W2411066 and U2469202]; Humanities and Social Sciences Youth Foundation, Ministry of Education [grant number 24XJC630004]; Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi Province [grant number 2025JC-YBQN-998]; the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program of CPSF [grant number GZB20250196]; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, CHD [grant number 300102235104]; the 111Project of China [grant number B16009].
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Du, Z., Xie, F., Li, X. et al. The cooperation strategy of a metro company with two bike-sharing platforms. Humanit Soc Sci Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-07393-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-07393-8
