What drives the governance of ridesharing? A fuzzy-set QCA of local regulations in China

Ridesharing or ride-hailing services have received substantial attention from scholars and practitioners around the world, and it has become an urgent issue for the government to find solutions to mitigate their negative externalities and to provide room for their development. Since the Chinese central government legalized ridesharing in 2016, cities across provinces have adopted dissimilar strategies in governing ridesharing. In this contribution, we use a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis approach to explain the variations in regulatory strategies adopted by 25 Chinese capital cities to govern ridesharing. Our study has identified seven paths to explain both the stringent and loose regulation of municipalities on ridesharing. These findings enrich our understanding of the choices of government strategies in regulating ridesharing. We conclude that regulators should adopt a network governance approach to achieve a win-win outcome in governing ridesharing.