Editor's note: National Business Daily (NBD), as one of China's leading financial media, teams with Emlyon Business School of France to present the special edition for Good Business to shed light on social responsibility and social innovation of enterprises and explore business sustainability.

(NBD) Aug. 31 -- The year of 2017 witnesses the rapid expansion of sharing economy, with shared basketballs, umbrellas, power banks and sleeping pods coming out one after another. With regard to the logics behind sharing economy, Zhang Ying, deputy dean of Guanghua School of Management of Peking University, had an interview with NBD.

Zhang believes that shared basketballs, sleeping pods or bikes are not actual sharing economy but more like cashier-less or self-service rental businesses. He explained that the sharing economy should be backed by operation and data, which can improve the product and service efficiency and lead to better decision-making accordingly. This is the core of the sharing economy, according to Zhang.

Data show that as of April 2017, China's shared bike industry raised 9 billion yuan (1.36 billion U.S. dollars) to 10 billion yuan (1.51 billion U.S. dollars). And the shared power banks received large amounts of capital from over 20 enterprises and institutions including Tencent, CDH Investments and GSR Ventures.

Some became concerned that capital is overheated in the sharing economy. But Zhang Ying shared his different observations. Zhang said that heated or overheated capital doesn't exist since the fundament of investment is to pursue profits. Zhang further explained that not all investment, to some extent, are made wisely. When looking back, lots of investments failed. Raising huge amounts of capital only doesn't necessarily make a company grow and expand.

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn