Asset-light operation strategy for car-sharing model with vertical shareholding: financial leasing or instalment factoring

Supply chain finance is an important way of realising the transformation of the asset-heavy operation mode in car-sharing services to an asset-light operation mode, by transforming the ownership cost into a variable cost. This study considers a service supply chain with vertical shareholding comprising a vehicle manufacturer and a car-sharing operator; further, it establishes financing decision-making models under financial leasing (FL) and instalment factoring finance (IFF) and explores the impact of profitability and shareholding ratios on FL and IFF. The results how that service profitability has a fundamental influence on financing decisions. The pooling effect and service satisfaction rate affect ownership costs and rental income, respectively. In turn, these factors jointly affect the choice of financing strategy. Moreover, there is a threshold of financing strategy choice related to the shareholding ratio: a large shareholding ratio means IFF is optimal, while when the ratio is low, FL is optimal. Finally, under certain conditions, a composite contract with revenue sharing and linear transfer payment for the optimal financing strategies can be adopted to improve supply chain performance. This study thus provides effective strategies for realising asset-light operation in car sharing by transforming ownership cost into variable cost.