Are Professionals Rationals? How Organizations and Households Make E-Car Investments

Abstract

This study attempts to identify the main drivers for e-car investments in households and organizations. We questioned 227 decision makers in households currently considering car purchases, and 101 decision makers in small businesses. The businesses were private care services, because their driving profiles widely fit the capabilities of modern e-cars. The main investment drivers were compared in an integrated action model involving elements of the theory of planned behavior and the norm-activation model, i.e., investment intentions, attitudes, personal (ecological) and social norms, and perceived behavioral control. For each group, different models were calculated in order to investigate the relevance of different types of social norms within the decision process, i.e., injunctive or descriptive norms. As expected, the household and organizational decisions were found to be based on different key factors: the decision makers in households mostly considered personal and descriptive social norms; the organizational decisions were mostly grounded in attitudes and injunctive social norms concerning staff expectations. The results suggest the need for tailored policy measures for each target group.