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

Ingo Kastner,Sebastian Bobeth,Annalena Becker,Ellen Matthies

doi:10.3390/su13052496

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.

Highlights

Politicians and scientists widely agree that the human way of living and consuming has to change fundamentally if the natural environment is to be preserved for future generations [1]
We measured only injunctive norms with one item (“I think that the staff of my organization would support that I purchase an electric car instead of a combustion engine car.”), as we found it unlikely that the decision makers knew whether their employees had electric cars or not
We will discuss the relevance of each predictor included, and the differences in the overall of the explained variances of the models depending on different social norms (Hypothesis 2)

Summary

Introduction

Politicians and scientists widely agree that the human way of living and consuming has to change fundamentally if the natural environment is to be preserved for future generations [1]. One key element to reach this goal lies in the energy system. Worldwide energy consumption and production is mainly based on fossil fuels, which cause substantial emissions and contribute to climate change and other environmental problems [2,3]. In the last few years, several actions have been taken in order to make energy production and consumption more sustainable. Positive examples can especially be found in electricity production, where several countries have reached high shares of renewable energies [3]. Germany is one positive example where the transition in the electricity sector has made significant progress [4]

Methods

Results

Conclusion