Signal effect of government regulations on ride-hailing drivers’ intention to mobile-based transportation platform governance: Evidence from China

The emergence of the ride-hailing economy has brought many benefits to society but has also presented several unprecedented governance challenges. To address the latter, a cooperative governance mode joined by multiple agents has been suggested as a potential regulatory paradigm for shared platforms. However, how government regulation affects governance participation intentions among different stakeholders remains unclear. To shed light on this issue, this study examines how ride-hailing drivers of China perceive government regulation and regulatory events and how this perception affects their intentions to participate in governance. The methodology involves two stages: interviews with 30 ride-hailing drivers and questionnaires completed by 375 drivers, followed by an empirical analysis. Results indicate that perceived government regulation and perceived values significantly influence governance participation intentions among ride-hailing drivers. Additionally, government regulatory events and positive network externality have a partial moderating effect on this relationship. These findings suggest that while external regulatory environment and regulatory return can increase governance participation intentions, they are insufficient to support co-governance. To effectively realize co-governance, governments must overcome the state-centrism bias that treats informal subjects (stakeholders) in platform governance as passive “participants” or “recipients.” This scenario can be achieved by advancing policy and issuing deliberation mechanisms that increase the formal position of drivers in platform governance, thus sending a signal to drivers that they are valued participants in the governance process.