What drives consumers’ sustainable mobility behavior? An empirical investigation

Abstract

The current mobility behavior of the consumers has threatened the life of the people and the eco-system. Thus, it becomes imperative to explore the motives and hurdles blocking the way towards a cleaner, safer and affordable mobility system. The present study therefore, investigates the determinants of consumers’ sustainable mobility behavior using the extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). For this, the study incorporates four additional variables (environmental knowledge, government actions, personal norms, and product attributes) into the original TPB model. Using a self-administered questionnaire, data is collected from a sample of 440 Indian consumers, and hypotheses are tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). The result reveals a significant positive impact of the product attributes, perceived behavioral control, attitude, environmental knowledge, and personal norms on the behavioral intentions of consumers to adopt sustainable mobility behavior, while social norms and government actions are not found to affect the consumer’s sustainable mobility intentions. Besides, the study finds that the respondents do not prefer to pool or share their private vehicles much and are also reluctant to use public transport for daily commute to their workplace. They pay greater importance to the quality, trust and user-friendliness of the products while making a consumption decision. The study thus suggests a mix of strategies that can be taken into consideration by the producers, marketers, and policymakers to encourage the consumers‘ sustainable mobility behavior.