Exploring travelers’ intention to adopt integrated ride-hailing services: A discrete choice experiment in China

The emergence of platform integration in ride-hailing markets has reshaped the original competitive landscape among transportation network companies (TNCs). Unlike traditional ride-hailing platforms, a third-party integrator allows travelers to conveniently access and compare prices, vehicle types, and other information from multiple service providers, thereby becoming an increasingly popular mode of travel. Building on a questionnaire survey conducted in China, this study utilized a discrete choice experiment featuring different scenarios to investigate the impact of platform attributes on travelers’ intention to adopt integrated services. Additionally, an integrated choice and latent variable (ICLV) model was employed to examine how personal innovativeness, performance risk, and switching cost, as latent variables, influence travelers’ behavioral intention. The results indicate that service price and response time negatively affect travelers’ intention to adopt ride-hailing services. Platforms with a higher percentage of new energy vehicles (NEVs) and better in-vehicle service quality are preferred by respondents. Contrary to expectations, the integration of providers proves not necessarily advantageous, being contingent on supply-demand conditions. Furthermore, personal innovativeness significantly increases travelers’ adoption intention, whereas perceived performance risk and switching cost emerge as key deterrents to respondents’ willingness to adopt integrated platforms. In conclusion, this study provides theoretical contributions and practical implications for understanding travelers’ behavioral intention and mode choices in the context of platform integration.