TY - JOUR
T1 - Improving bicycle sharing operations
T2 - A multi-criteria decision-making approach
AU - Liu, Aijun
AU - Wang, Ruiyao
AU - Fowler, John
AU - Ji, Xiaohui
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are grateful to Professor Teresa Wu (Industrial Engineering in the School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering at Arizona State University) for reading the manuscript very carefully and providing many constructive comments which helped to improve this paper. The study was supported by “ Major theoretical and practical research projects in the social sciences of Shaanxi Province ” ( 2019C608 ), “ Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities ” ( JB190606 ), “ China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project” ( 2016M590929 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021
PY - 2021/5/15
Y1 - 2021/5/15
N2 - Bicycle sharing is quickly becoming popular because it is environmentally friendly and offers convenience to customers. Determining how to improve the service level and customer satisfaction are the keys to a successful bicycle sharing business in today's fiercely competitive market and are also the keys to achieving a sustainable operation. In this paper, following a hierarchical structure, five main factors related to the bicycle sharing operations are identified: (1) convenience and flexibility, (2) operation service, (3) economic cost, (4) design and layout and (5) management specification. Eighteen sub factors are then derived. To determine the significant factors affecting bicycle sharing operations, the Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) approach based on Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Sets (IT2FSs), Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory Model (DEMATEL) and the Analytic Network Process (ANP) are proposed. First, IT2FSs and fuzzy DEMATEL are integrated to analyze the complex relationships among the various factors. DEMATEL is then integrated with ANP to rank the importance of these factors. Results are compared with those of other state-of-the-art MCDM methods. It is concluded that convenience and flexibility, rationality of the layout, and economic cost are the three most important factors impacting the bicycle sharing business model. Based on the findings, theoretical guidance for the development of bicycle sharing operations is provided.
AB - Bicycle sharing is quickly becoming popular because it is environmentally friendly and offers convenience to customers. Determining how to improve the service level and customer satisfaction are the keys to a successful bicycle sharing business in today's fiercely competitive market and are also the keys to achieving a sustainable operation. In this paper, following a hierarchical structure, five main factors related to the bicycle sharing operations are identified: (1) convenience and flexibility, (2) operation service, (3) economic cost, (4) design and layout and (5) management specification. Eighteen sub factors are then derived. To determine the significant factors affecting bicycle sharing operations, the Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) approach based on Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Sets (IT2FSs), Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory Model (DEMATEL) and the Analytic Network Process (ANP) are proposed. First, IT2FSs and fuzzy DEMATEL are integrated to analyze the complex relationships among the various factors. DEMATEL is then integrated with ANP to rank the importance of these factors. Results are compared with those of other state-of-the-art MCDM methods. It is concluded that convenience and flexibility, rationality of the layout, and economic cost are the three most important factors impacting the bicycle sharing business model. Based on the findings, theoretical guidance for the development of bicycle sharing operations is provided.
KW - Analytic network process (ANP)
KW - Bicycle sharing
KW - Fuzzy decision making trial and evaluation laboratory model (DEMATEL)
KW - Interval Type-2 fuzzy sets (IT2FSs)
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126581
DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126581
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85102861374
SN - 0959-6526
VL - 297
JO - Journal of Cleaner Production
JF - Journal of Cleaner Production
M1 - 126581
ER -