The relationship between organizational forms and the comprehensive effectiveness for public transport services in China?

This paper presents a discussion on the effects of organizational forms (including ownership structure and contractual practices) on the comprehensive effectiveness of public transport services in China. Using 26 different Chinese public transport operators in 13 cities across China for the period 2008-2014 as research objects, we integrate public transport industry regulations, and transport operation and passenger requirements to construct an evaluation indicator system based on satisfaction and efficiency. We evaluate comprehensive effectiveness based on a combined evaluation method (CEM) consisting of information entropy theory and data envelopment analysis (DEA), and then take into consideration the truncated regression model to assess the effects between them. Conclusions drawn from the study are summarized as follows: (1) The effects of organizational forms on the comprehensive effectiveness of public transport services are confirmed. (2) Public transport services franchised to public ownership offer higher comprehensive effectiveness than those franchised to private ownership and mixed ownership. (3) Public transport services regulated by gross cost contracts incite more comprehensive effectiveness than those regulated by net cost contracts and management contracts.