A Solution for the Chicken and Egg Paradox in taxi e-hailing platforms: some evidences from the MyTaxi - FreeNow case

Purpose:This study explores the chicken and egg paradox in the taxi e-hailing business contributing to define a conditionof system emergence. This paradox is a meaningful one as these platforms represent a system where thepassengers-systems have no reason to participate if they have no drivers-systems to answer their call, but, atthe same time, the platform is not useful to the drivers-system if there are no passengers-systems using theplatform.Design/methodology/approach:In order to understand how this paradox has been dealt with in the taxi e-hailing business, we have focused ona case study on a best practice in Italian taxi e-hailing industry (i.e. MyTaxi/FreeNow). We want tocomprehend which actions they have implemented in order to solve this paradox and we have tried to identifythe interconnections between the various strategies in order to create a Closed Loop Diagram for further testing.Findings:We have found that the company did not choose a single “sub-system” (passenger or driver) but it hasstimulated the creation of several mutually reinforcing motivation for have both sub-systems interact in orderto help the company grow.Originality:To the best of our knowledge this paradox has never been studied using the Complex Adaptive Systemperspective. This perspective is particularly useful in this case, and in the similar ones with several differentinteracting factors that cannot be really studied without using a higher order perspective.