Exploring consumers' intention toward domestic energy-saving vehicles: Some insights from China

Zi-Xu Wang; Amer Hamzah Bin Jantan; Ruo-Xi Wu; Yue Gong; Meng-Ru Cao; Philip Pong Weng Wong; Lei Wang

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.927709

Exploring consumers' intention toward domestic energy-saving vehicles: Some insights from China

Front Psychol. 2022 Sep 6:13:927709. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.927709. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Zi-Xu Wang^{1

2}, Amer Hamzah Bin Jantan³, Ruo-Xi Wu⁴, Yue Gong⁵, Meng-Ru Cao⁵, Philip Pong Weng Wong⁶, Lei Wang⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Continuing Education, Xuzhou University of Technology, Xuzhou, China.
² School of Management, City University Malaysia, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.
³ City Graduate School, City University Malaysia, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.
⁴ School of Physical Culture, Xuzhou University of Technology, Xuzhou, China.
⁵ Department of Hospitality and Tourism, School of Management, Xuzhou University of Technology, Xuzhou, China.
⁶ School of Hospitality, Sunway University, Bandar Sunway, Malaysia.

Abstract

Policies to promote the usage of energy-saving vehicles (EVs), such as electric vehicles and hybrids, were introduced and implemented in many countries due to increasing awareness of the potential benefits of such vehicles on environmental and energy conservation. However, despite consumers' claims of their concerns and positive attitudes toward environmental issues, those claims have not been translated into energy-saving vehicles' purchasing behavior. Prior studies neglected the interrelationship between consumer ethnocentrism (CE), perceived value (PV), and consumer knowledge (CK) in influencing consumer behavior, including pro-environmental behavior. This study examines the relationship between CE, PV, CK, perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEU), attitude and intention to purchase domestic energy-saving vehicles. A total of 396 completed questionnaires were collected through convenience sampling in Xuzhou, China. The survey data were subjected to descriptive analysis and analysis of variance using SPSS. In addition, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) were utilized for the hypotheses testing. The results revealed that CE positively influenced PV and CK; PV and CK positively influenced PU and PEU. CK positively influenced PV, while PU and PEU positively influenced attitude and intention, and PEU was shown to influence PU. Furthermore, attitude was shown to significantly influence intention to purchase domestic energy-saving vehicles. Lastly, the theoretical and practical implications of the outcomes were discussed, including the limitations of the research.

Keywords: consumer ethnocentrism; consumer knowledge; domestic energy-saving vehicles; perceived value; technology acceptance model.