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Predicting consumers’ intention to adopt hybrid electric vehicles: using an extended version of the theory of planned behavior model

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Abstract

China is a major energy-consuming country and is under great pressure to improve its energy efficiency as well as reduce its carbon emissions. Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), as an energy-efficient transport innovation, have the potential to reduce gasoline consumption, carbon emissions and alleviate environmental problems. Diffusion of HEVs’ adoption is a significant initiative. A sample of 433 respondents has been collected in China to predict the customers’ intention to adopt HEVs, using an extended model of the theory of planned behavior (TPB). The empirical results show that the attitude toward HEVs, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control (the three primary elements of the TPB model) and personal moral norm partially mediate the effect of consumers’ environmental concern on their intention to adopt HEVs. Consumers’ environmental concern affects the adoption intention indirectly and is significantly positively related to the attitude toward HEVs, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and personal moral norm, which in turn influence the adoption intention positively. The results confirm the appropriateness of the TPB model and verify that the extended TPB model has good explanatory power in predicting consumers’ intention to adopt HEVs. Based on the empirical results, we discuss the implications for promoting the adoption of HEVs and provide suggestions for future study.

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Notes

  1. The ten cities are Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Jinan, Chongqing, Wuhan, Changchun, Hefei, Dalian, and Hangzhou.

  2. See detail at http://www.auto-stats.org.cn/.

  3. See detail at http://news.china.com.cn/rollnews/2010-04/23/content_1752073.htm.

  4. ‘4S’ is the first letter of four English words: vehicle sales (Sale), spare parts supply, service, and information feedback (Survey). Auto 4S shops are authorized and established by the vehicle manufacturers to sell a single brand of automobile and to provide customers with the parts cheaper, more specialized technical support and more in-depth service. An auto 4S shop establishes a close relationship between production and marketing for vehicle manufacturers.

  5. The reminder is the research team member.

  6. See detail at http://chinaafc.miit.gov.cn/n2257/n2341/index.html and http://www.evdays.com/html/201304/41558_2.html.

  7. A one-way ANOVA is a method to determine whether there are any significant differences between the means of three or more independent (unrelated) groups in different samples (Ajzen 1991).

  8. HEVs Club is a professional organization for the owners. In the Club, owners can communicate with each other, talk about the HEVs technologies and their feelings about their own HEVs, and share their experiences.

  9. According to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, WOM marketing is ‘giving people a reason to talk about your products and services, and making it easier for that conversation to take place. It is the art and science of building active, mutually beneficial consumer-to-consumer and consumer-to-marketer communications’ (Word of Mouth Marketing Association 2006).

  10. See detail at http://www.xgo.com.cn/2787/items.html?dis=1.8.

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Acknowledgments

The authors want to express our gratitude to the anonymous reviewers and the editor for their comments and suggestions for improving the paper. The authors also wish to thank Professor Glenda Crosling, Monash University, for her valuable assistance with editing this paper and are grateful to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71301157, 71171183) and China Postdoctoral Fellowship Fund (2013M531533) for their generous financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, University of Science and Technology of China, 96 Jinzhai Road, Hefei, Anhui, People’s Republic of China

    Shanyong Wang, Jin Fan, Dingtao Zhao & Shu Yang

  2. School of Public Affairs, University of Science and Technology of China, 96 Jinzhai Road, Hefei, Anhui, People’s Republic of China

    Yuanguang Fu

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  1. Shanyong Wang
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  2. Jin Fan
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Correspondence to Jin Fan.

Appendix

Appendix

Appendix 1: Demographic profile

Appendix 2: Constructs of the extended TPB model

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Wang, S., Fan, J., Zhao, D. et al. Predicting consumers’ intention to adopt hybrid electric vehicles: using an extended version of the theory of planned behavior model. Transportation 43, 123–143 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-014-9567-9

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