Revving towards sustainability: Environmentalism impact on electric motorcycle adoption

Abstract

Recognising hydrocarbon vehicles as significant greenhouse gas emitters, mainly CO2, driving climate change underscores the urgent need to transition to sustainable, eco-friendly transportation. Existing literature has explored electric vehicles extensively, but there needs to be more research on electric motorcycles, especially in the Ecuadorian context. This study aims to fill this gap by investigating how environmentalism, a second-order construct formed by awareness, concern, and ecological value, influences the intention to buy electric motorcycles. Using the diffusion of innovation model, mediating variables like observability, complexity, relative advantage, compatibility, and attitude towards electric motorcycles are studied. A survey of 634 e-motorbikes is used to conduct the research, and the PLS-SEM technique is employed to analyse the results. The findings reveal that environmentalism significantly influences attitudes and purchase intention, indicating environmental concern's pivotal role in shaping electric motorcycles' attitudes and purchase intentions.Additionally, compatibility and observability have relevant impacts on attitude and purchase intention. In contrast, complexity and relative advantage do not significantly affect the endogenous variables, suggesting that observability effectively covers considerations of electric motorcycle advantages. The study's robust predictive capacity highlights the connections between environmentalism, innovation diffusion variables, attitude, and purchase intentions for electric motorcycles.