Does Online Ride-Hailing Affect Car Purchasing Intention Under the Sharing Economy?

Abstract

Car purchasing intentions are related to changes in urban motor vehicle ownership changes, which further affect urban mobility, livability, and sustainable development. The exploration of car purchasing intention investigation is crucial to help better understand future urban transportation and the adjustment of planning and management strategies. Driven by Internet-based techniques and business innovation, online ride-hailing has transformed the traditional traveling mode, which may bring some changes to private car consumption. Previous publications mainly investigated the characteristic portraits of online ride-hailing users and the influential factors while failing to probe into the potential influences of online ride-hailing on private car consumption intention. This study tries to shift our eyes to the influential mechanism of online ride-hailing on car purchasing intention by employing an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) considering perceived value, perceived risk, and environmental awareness factors. The questionnaire survey is designed and 519 research data samples are collected by online questionnaire. The partial least squares structural equation model is formulated to validate the proposed hypotheses based on the formulated expanded TPB, aiming to scrutinize the influential paths of online ride-hailing on car purchasing intention. Results indicate that the purchasing intention of consumers is positively related to their attitude and subjective norms, while it is not correlated with perceived behavioral control. Both attitudes and subjective norms play a mediation role during the potential influence of perceived value, perceived risk, and environmental awareness on consumers’ purchasing intention. Besides, the heterogeneity analysis tests are also conducted to investigate the discrepant influential mechanisms for different consumers’ demographic characteristics. This study extends academic research on consumer behavior by investigating the influential mechanisms of online ride-hailing on car purchasing intention, as well as providing strategic implications for local government and industrial sectors.