Purpose

Access-based services (ABS) have been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to validate customer barriers to ABS focusing on the contamination barrier. As service employees’ presence violates the COVID-19 physical distancing norms and heightens contamination fear, this paper tests its effects on continued use intentions of ABS. This study also empirically examines the role of conspicuous virtue signaling and organizational response.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was conducted in the context of scooter sharing and uses a mixed-method to explore the relatively under-researched problem of contamination fear in ABS. Study one uses the survey method and study two uses a 2 × 2 matrix between-subject design.

Findings

The results reveal that perceptions of resource sufficiency positively affect continued use intentions of ABS. The presence of a service employee hurts continued use intentions. Further, there are a three-way interaction between ABS type (service employee presence/absence), organizational response (solution-oriented/general information) and resource sufficiency perceptions. Organizational response mitigates the negative effect of service employee presence on the link between resource adequacy perceptions and ABS continued use intentions.

Originality/value

In contrast with prior research, this study shows that contamination fear invokes protection motivation, resulting in better preparedness and continued use intentions of ABS. The predicted difference is primarily between customers who attribute responsibility and ABS type differently (presence/absence of service employee). This study also explores the role of organizational response to COVID-19.

中文翻译：

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COVID-19 期间的污染恐惧和 ABS

目的

基于访问的服务 (ABS) 受到 COVID-19 大流行的不利影响。本研究旨在验证客户对 ABS 的障碍，重点是污染障碍。由于服务员工的存在违反了 COVID-19 物理距离规范并加剧了对污染的恐惧，本文测试了其对 ABS 继续使用意图的影响。本研究还实证检验了显赫美德信号和组织反应的作用。

设计/方法/方法

该研究是在共享滑板车的背景下进行的，并使用混合方法来探索 ABS 中相对研究不足的污染恐惧问题。研究一采用调查方法，研究二采用 2 × 2 矩阵的受试者间设计。

发现

结果表明，对资源充足性的看法对获取和惠益分享的持续使用意愿有积极影响。服务员工的存在会损害继续使用的意图。此外，ABS 类型（服务员工在场/不在场）、组织响应（面向解决方案/一般信息）和资源充足性感知之间存在三向相互作用。组织响应减轻了服务人员的存在对资源充足感知与 ABS 持续使用意图之间的联系的负面影响。

原创性/价值

与之前的研究相比，这项研究表明，污染恐惧会引发保护动机，从而更好地准备和持续使用 ABS。预测的差异主要是归因于责任和 ABS 类型不同的客户（服务员工的存在/不存在）。本研究还探讨了组织应对 COVID-19 的作用。