Exploring intention to travel with eco-friendly airlines: A dual-stage SEM-ANN approach

Abstract

Recently, due to increasing pollution and global warming, eco-friendly consumer behaviors have garnered global interest in the aviation industry. This study aims to investigate the antecedents of the intention to travel with eco-friendly airlines. Building on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework, it examines the effects of environmental awareness, green image, and perceived price on the intention to travel with eco-friendly airlines directly and through perceived consumer effectiveness. It also investigates the moderating role of collectivism within the proposed model. Data were gathered from 394 passengers at Erzurum Airport, Turkey, using a self-administered questionnaire. A dual-stage approach, combining structural equation modeling (SEM) and artificial neural network (ANN) analysis, was employed to examine the relationships. The findings reveal that environmental awareness, green image, and perceived consumer effectiveness positively influence the intention to travel, with perceived consumer effectiveness mediating these relationships. However, collectivism does not moderate the relationship between environmental awareness and perceived consumer effectiveness. The ANN outcomes align with SEM findings, highlighting the strong predictive capability of environmental awareness and perceived consumer effectiveness. This study offers insights to help practitioners in the airline industry better understand how consumers form intentions to travel with eco-friendly airlines.