IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i8p4467-d789910.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Innovative Characteristics Influence Consumers’ Intention to Purchase Electric Vehicle: A Moderating Role of Lifestyle

Author

Listed:
  • Ruyu Xie

    (School of Economics and Management, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China
    Department of Management, Xi’an Jiaotong University City College, Xi’an 710018, China)

  • Liren An

    (School of Economics and Management, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China)

  • Nosheena Yasir

    (Department of Management, Xi’an Jiaotong University City College, Xi’an 710018, China)

Abstract

Electric vehicles have been identified as a viable option for optimization of the energy structure to foster energy conservation and a reduction in emissions, as well as to promote the development of a sustainable economy. Recently, China announced that the financial subsidies for electric vehicles will be gradually withdrawn, and many incentive policies will be revised, indicating that the electric vehicle market has transformed from a policy-driven to a market-driven structure. Therefore, we study the elements affecting consumers’ purchase intention in the early stage of electric vehicle availability to provide a theoretical reference that can be used in China to continue to stimulate market diffusion of electric vehicles based on the innovation diffusion theory and planned behavior theory. The current study explains the associations among the innovation characteristics, perceived risk, and purchase intention in relation to electric vehicles and details the moderating effect of lifestyle on fashion consciousness, environmental consciousness, and price consciousness. This paper investigates 529 potential consumers in Beijing, Shanghai, and other places, and AMOS and SPSS were used to perform quantitative analyses. The results show that innovation characteristics exert an obvious effect on purchase intention based on the mediating variable of perceived risk. Fashion consciousness significantly moderates the relationship between relative advantage and perceived risk, and environmental consciousness has a significant influence on the relationship between technology compatibility and perceived risk. Price consciousness plays the smallest role in this process. In practice, the findings suggest that practitioners can promote electric vehicle consumer purchase intention by using psychological activation techniques to improve the attitude and educational interest in relation to this product. It is also suggested that, as part of the strategy, government services should be improved.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruyu Xie & Liren An & Nosheena Yasir, 2022. "How Innovative Characteristics Influence Consumers’ Intention to Purchase Electric Vehicle: A Moderating Role of Lifestyle," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-24, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:8:p:4467-:d:789910
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/8/4467/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/8/4467/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ke, Wenwei & Zhang, Shaojun & He, Xiaoyi & Wu, Ye & Hao, Jiming, 2017. "Well-to-wheels energy consumption and emissions of electric vehicles: Mid-term implications from real-world features and air pollution control progress," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 367-377.
    2. Zarazua de Rubens, Gerardo, 2019. "Who will buy electric vehicles after early adopters? Using machine learning to identify the electric vehicle mainstream market," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 243-254.
    3. Clinton, Bentley C. & Steinberg, Daniel C., 2019. "Providing the Spark: Impact of financial incentives on battery electric vehicle adoption," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    4. Gary C. Moore & Izak Benbasat, 1991. "Development of an Instrument to Measure the Perceptions of Adopting an Information Technology Innovation," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 2(3), pages 192-222, September.
    5. Muhammad Ashraf Javid & Muhammad Abdullah & Nazam Ali & Syed Arif Hussain Shah & Panuwat Joyklad & Qudeer Hussain & Krisada Chaiyasarn, 2022. "Extracting Travelers’ Preferences toward Electric Vehicles Using the Theory of Planned Behavior in Lahore, Pakistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-17, February.
    6. Li, Jingjing & Jiao, Jianling & Tang, Yunshu, 2019. "An evolutionary analysis on the effect of government policies on electric vehicle diffusion in complex network," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 1-12.
    7. Wang, Ning & Tang, Linhao & Zhang, Wenjian & Guo, Jiahui, 2019. "How to face the challenges caused by the abolishment of subsidies for electric vehicles in China?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 359-372.
    8. Kong, Deyang & Xia, Quhong & Xue, Yixi & Zhao, Xin, 2020. "Effects of multi policies on electric vehicle diffusion under subsidy policy abolishment in China: A multi-actor perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    9. Lin, Boqiang & Du, Zhili, 2015. "How China׳s urbanization impacts transport energy consumption in the face of income disparity," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 1693-1701.
    10. Wang, Shanyong & Wang, Jing & Li, Jun & Wang, Jinpeng & Liang, Liang, 2018. "Policy implications for promoting the adoption of electric vehicles: Do consumer’s knowledge, perceived risk and financial incentive policy matter?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 58-69.
    11. Breetz, Hanna L. & Salon, Deborah, 2018. "Do electric vehicles need subsidies? Ownership costs for conventional, hybrid, and electric vehicles in 14 U.S. cities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 238-249.
    12. Du, Jiuyu & Ouyang, Danhua, 2017. "Progress of Chinese electric vehicles industrialization in 2015: A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 529-546.
    13. Priessner, Alfons & Sposato, Robert & Hampl, Nina, 2018. "Predictors of electric vehicle adoption: An analysis of potential electric vehicle drivers in Austria," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 701-714.
    14. Hardman, Scott & Shiu, Eric & Steinberger-Wilckens, Robert, 2016. "Comparing high-end and low-end early adopters of battery electric vehicles," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 40-57.
    15. Peter, J Paul & Tarpey, Lawrence X, Sr, 1975. "A Comparative Analysis of Three Consumer Decision Strategies," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 2(1), pages 29-37, June.
    16. Han, Liu & Wang, Shanyong & Zhao, Dingtao & Li, Jun, 2017. "The intention to adopt electric vehicles: Driven by functional and non-functional values," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 185-197.
    17. Kim, Moon-Koo & Oh, Jeesun & Park, Jong-Hyun & Joo, Changlim, 2018. "Perceived value and adoption intention for electric vehicles in Korea: Moderating effects of environmental traits and government supports," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 799-809.
    18. She, Zhen-Yu & Qing Sun, & Ma, Jia-Jun & Xie, Bai-Chen, 2017. "What are the barriers to widespread adoption of battery electric vehicles? A survey of public perception in Tianjin, China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 29-40.
    19. Egnér, Filippa & Trosvik, Lina, 2018. "Electric vehicle adoption in Sweden and the impact of local policy instruments," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 584-596.
    20. Skippon, Stephen M. & Kinnear, Neale & Lloyd, Louise & Stannard, Jenny, 2016. "How experience of use influences mass-market drivers’ willingness to consider a battery electric vehicle: A randomised controlled trial," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 26-42.
    21. Zhang, Xian & Wang, Ke & Hao, Yu & Fan, Jing-Li & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2013. "The impact of government policy on preference for NEVs: The evidence from China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 382-393.
    22. White, Lee V. & Sintov, Nicole D., 2017. "You are what you drive: Environmentalist and social innovator symbolism drives electric vehicle adoption intentions," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 94-113.
    23. Abedini Koshksaray, Amir & Franklin, Drew & Heidarzadeh Hanzaee, Kambiz, 2015. "The relationship between e-lifestyle and Internet advertising avoidance," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 38-48.
    24. Zhang, Haoran & Song, Xuan & Xia, Tianqi & Yuan, Meng & Fan, Zipei & Shibasaki, Ryosuke & Liang, Yongtu, 2018. "Battery electric vehicles in Japan: Human mobile behavior based adoption potential analysis and policy target response," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 527-535.
    25. Hofmann, Jana & Guan, Dabo & Chalvatzis, Konstantinos & Huo, Hong, 2016. "Assessment of electrical vehicles as a successful driver for reducing CO2 emissions in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 995-1003.
    26. Kaplan, Sigal & Gruber, Johannes & Reinthaler, Martin & Klauenberg, Jens, 2016. "Intentions to introduce electric vehicles in the commercial sector: A model based on the theory of planned behaviour," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 12-19.
    27. Indra Gunawan & Anak Agung Ngurah Perwira Redi & Ahmad Arif Santosa & Meilinda Fitriani Nur Maghfiroh & Andante Hadi Pandyaswargo & Adji Candra Kurniawan, 2022. "Determinants of Customer Intentions to Use Electric Vehicle in Indonesia: An Integrated Model Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-22, February.
    28. Wang, Shanyong & Li, Jun & Zhao, Dingtao, 2017. "The impact of policy measures on consumer intention to adopt electric vehicles: Evidence from China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 14-26.
    29. Li, Wenbo & Long, Ruyin & Chen, Hong & Yang, Tong & Geng, Jichao & Yang, Muyi, 2018. "Effects of personal carbon trading on the decision to adopt battery electric vehicles: Analysis based on a choice experiment in Jiangsu, China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 478-488.
    30. Ozaki, Ritsuko & Sevastyanova, Katerina, 2011. "Going hybrid: An analysis of consumer purchase motivations," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 2217-2227, May.
    31. Jenn, Alan & Springel, Katalin & Gopal, Anand R., 2018. "Effectiveness of electric vehicle incentives in the United States," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 349-356.
    32. Bireswar Dutta & Hsin-Ginn Hwang, 2021. "Consumers Purchase Intentions of Green Electric Vehicles: The Influence of Consumers Technological and Environmental Considerations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-23, October.
    33. Schuitema, Geertje & Anable, Jillian & Skippon, Stephen & Kinnear, Neale, 2013. "The role of instrumental, hedonic and symbolic attributes in the intention to adopt electric vehicles," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 39-49.
    34. Muhammad Yaseen Bhutto & Mussadiq Ali Khan & Myriam Ertz & Haowei Sun, 2022. "Investigating the Role of Ethical Self-Identity and Its Effect on Consumption Values and Intentions to Adopt Green Vehicles among Generation Z," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-18, March.
    35. Christopher L. Shook & David J. Ketchen & G. Tomas M. Hult & K. Michele Kacmar, 2004. "An assessment of the use of structural equation modeling in strategic management research," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(4), pages 397-404, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Roberta Riverso & Carmela Altamura & Francesco La Barbera, 2023. "Consumer Intention to Buy Electric Cars: Integrating Uncertainty in the Theory of Planned Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-13, May.
    2. Hassan Qudrat-Ullah, 2022. "Adoption and Growth of Fuel Cell Vehicles in China: The Case of BYD," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-18, October.
    3. Tuğba Yeğin & Muhammad Ikram, 2022. "Analysis of Consumers’ Electric Vehicle Purchase Intentions: An Expansion of the Theory of Planned Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-27, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jaiswal, Deepak & Kaushal, Vikrant & Kant, Rishi & Kumar Singh, Pankaj, 2021. "Consumer adoption intention for electric vehicles: Insights and evidence from Indian sustainable transportation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    2. Zimm, Caroline, 2021. "Improving the understanding of electric vehicle technology and policy diffusion across countries," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 54-66.
    3. Ye, Fei & Kang, Wanlin & Li, Lixu & Wang, Zhiqiang, 2021. "Why do consumers choose to buy electric vehicles? A paired data analysis of purchase intention configurations," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 14-27.
    4. Chandra, Minal, 2022. "Investigating the impact of policies, socio-demography and national commitments on electric-vehicle demand: Cross-country study," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    5. Wang, Shanyong & Wang, Jing & Li, Jun & Wang, Jinpeng & Liang, Liang, 2018. "Policy implications for promoting the adoption of electric vehicles: Do consumer’s knowledge, perceived risk and financial incentive policy matter?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 58-69.
    6. Eunsung Kim & Eunnyeong Heo, 2019. "Key Drivers behind the Adoption of Electric Vehicle in Korea: An Analysis of the Revealed Preferences," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-15, December.
    7. Tuğba Yeğin & Muhammad Ikram, 2022. "Analysis of Consumers’ Electric Vehicle Purchase Intentions: An Expansion of the Theory of Planned Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-27, September.
    8. Elena Higueras-Castillo & Sebastian Molinillo & J. Andres Coca-Stefaniak & Francisco Liébana-Cabanillas, 2020. "Potential Early Adopters of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles in Spain—Towards a Customer Profile," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-18, May.
    9. Hu, Xianfeng & Wang, Shanyong & Zhou, Rongting & Gao, Lan & Zhu, Zujun, 2023. "Policy driven or consumer trait driven? Unpacking the EVs purchase intention of consumers from the policy and consumer trait perspective," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    10. Jingnan Zhang & Shichun Xu & Zhengxia He & Chengze Li & Xiaona Meng, 2022. "Factors Influencing Adoption Intention for Electric Vehicles under a Subsidy Deduction: From Different City-Level Perspectives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-24, May.
    11. Yang, Shu & Cheng, Peng & Li, Jun & Wang, Shanyong, 2019. "Which group should policies target? Effects of incentive policies and product cognitions for electric vehicle adoption among Chinese consumers," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    12. Lin, Boqiang & Shi, Lei, 2022. "Do environmental quality and policy changes affect the evolution of consumers’ intentions to buy new energy vehicles," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 310(C).
    13. Wang, Xiao-Wu & Cao, Yu-Mei & Zhang, Ning, 2021. "The influences of incentive policy perceptions and consumer social attributes on battery electric vehicle purchase intentions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    14. Kim, Moon-Koo & Oh, Jeesun & Park, Jong-Hyun & Joo, Changlim, 2018. "Perceived value and adoption intention for electric vehicles in Korea: Moderating effects of environmental traits and government supports," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 799-809.
    15. Huang, Youlin & Qian, Lixian, 2021. "Consumer adoption of electric vehicles in alternative business models," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    16. Goel, Pooja & Kumar, Aalok & Parayitam, Satyanarayana & Luthra, Sunil, 2023. "Understanding transport users' preferences for adopting electric vehicle based mobility for sustainable city: A moderated moderated-mediation model," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    17. Shi, Lei & Wu, Rongxin & Lin, Boqiang, 2023. "Where will go for electric vehicles in China after the government subsidy incentives are abolished? A controversial consumer perspective," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 262(PA).
    18. Nie, Qingyun & Zhang, Lihui & Tong, Zihao & Hubacek, Klaus, 2022. "Strategies for applying carbon trading to the new energy vehicle market in China: An improved evolutionary game analysis for the bus industry," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    19. Wang, Yitong & Fan, Ruguo & Du, Kang & Bao, Xuguang, 2023. "Exploring incentives to promote electric vehicles diffusion under subsidy abolition: An evolutionary analysis on multiplex consumer social networks," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    20. Qingyou Yan & Guangyu Qin & Meijuan Zhang & Bowen Xiao, 2019. "Research on Real Purchasing Behavior Analysis of Electric Cars in Beijing Based on Structural Equation Modeling and Multinomial Logit Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-15, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:8:p:4467-:d:789910. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.