An empirical investigation into carpooling behaviour for sustainability

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Highlights

  • Study the behavioural aspects of commuters to unearth psychological motives that can elicit pro environmental behaviour when stimulated.

  • Check if cognitive complexity experienced by commuters while opting for a pro environmental mode of transport has any influence on its adoption.

  • Check if providing adequate empowerment feel to commuters can elicit a pro environmental behaviour from them.

  • Check the influence of value beliefs and perceptional constructs on adoption of pro environmental behaviour.

Abstract

Carpooling is a sustainable, economical, and environmental friendly solution that can significantly reduce air pollution and traffic congestion in urban areas. In spite of its numerous benefits, commuters are still skeptic about adopting it as a routine choice for transportation. This study attempts to map commuters’ attitude towards carpooling services. The study has focused on a few motivational constructs that can have an influence on commuters’ behavior. The study has looked at the role of cognitive complexity and empowerment perceptions of commuters to check if these constructs significantly intervene in the behavioral outcomes. The methodology used is a scenario-based 2 × 2 survey design where the sample is an individual who has experience with carpooling. The survey has used two levels (high, low) each of cognitive complexity and psychological empowerment to give rise to four scenarios. The final sample consisted of 400 carpoolers selected from an IT park having more than 5000 employees. MANOVA analysis showed that cognitive complexity and psychological empowerment had significant influence on the motivational constructs used in the study. Value beliefs, safety and platform quality perceptions were found to have a direct impact on attitude formation and intention to engage in carpooling behavior. The findings offer many implications for managers in the sense that that they can focus on creating suitable communication that creates favorable perceptions towards carpooling to bring about better adoption intentions.

Introduction

Transport is a major sector of the economy of any country. Demand for travel has increased in developing countries (Chowdhury, Uddin, Datta, & Taraz, 2018). This has caused significant pressures on the environment and health by emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases (IEA, 2015). It causes traffic congestion and pollution in urban areas. Keeping these pressing issues in mind, focus of policy makers across the globe has been to frame sustainable and healthy transport policies. Carpooling has emerged as one of the solutions to the above mentioned problems (Chan and Shaheen, 2012, Lee et al., 2016, Lee et al., 2016, Wang and Chen, 2012). Carpooling is a form of collaborative consumption practice where a single vehicle is shared by commuters leading to efficient management of resources for all the parties involved (Montes, Sanchez, Villar, & Herrera, 2018).

According to Belk (2007), collaborative consumption practices are facilitated through online channels and he defined it as “technology-driven consumption in which people are coordinating the acquisition and distribution of a resource for a fee or other compensation.” In a study Ertz, Durif, & Arcand (2016) pointed to the fact that collaborative consumption practices have always existed through offline channels and in essence technology has only increased the scope and scale of an already existing phenomenon. They opined that offline exchanges should not be excluded from the purview of collaborative consumption practices.

Carpooling happens through “casual grouping of travelers” into trips in a single vehicle (Chan & Shaheen, 2012). It is “an agreement between two or more persons, not living in the same household” to share the same private vehicle to reduce the number of single occupancy vehicle per journey (Neoh, Chipulu, & Marshall, 2017). Commuters find carpooling to be flexible and comfortable (Levin, 1982, Vredin Johansson et al., 2006), cost and time saving (Coilura, 1994, Shoup, 1997, Wang and Chen, 2012) and environmental friendly (Benkler, 2004, Coilura, 1994, Vredin Johansson et al., 2006). Organizations promote carpooling behavior among its employees by incentivizing them (Malodia and Singla, 2016, Vanoutrive et al., 2012) since it contributes to reduction in pollution and at the same time contributes to time and cost saving. Although commuters are aware of the myriad benefits of carpooling, still there is a reluctance towards its complete adoption in emerging economies.1 Table 1 lists few factors that act as deterrents to carpooling as per literature.

Multiple concerns related to technology use, conflict with individual value systems, and concerns about security, privacy, app authenticity, etc. prevent a section of commuters from confidently opting for this model. Commuters develop a negative attitude towards carpooling due to the above mentioned factors.

Attitude refers to the mental feeling of an individual towards his or her behaviour which is formed from strength of beliefs about outcomes of the behaviour and the evaluation of the outcomes as positive or negative (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1977). The theory of reasoned action (TRA) and theory of planned behaviour (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991) proposes that attitudes and subjective norms predict ‘intention’ which is the antecedent to actual behaviour. Subjective norm explains the belief of the individual about the social acceptance of his or her behaviour, influenced by his or her normative beliefs and motivation to observe such norms. Literature provides multiple evidences about application of the TPB framework to understand carpooling behaviour (Horowitz and Sheth, 1977, Levin, 1982, Vredin Johansson et al., 2006, Wang and Chen, 2012).

This study has looked at commuters’ behavior towards carpooling from the lens of certain psychographic and behavioural constructs. These constructs act as antecedents to attitude formation and subsequent behaviour. The constructs included in this study are value beliefs of commuters, their perception towards self-efficacy, security and platform quality. A brief description about each antecedent is given below.

Value Beliefs: Values are the internal or psychological incentives for performing a behaviour (Eccles & Wigfield, 2002). From a psychological perspective, values form an implicit part of criteria used by consumers in making a preference judgment (Williams & Rokeach, 1974). The individual value system refers to the set of philosophies or ethics that guide the behaviour of an individual. The value theory (Schwartz, 1992) propose that human values have six implicit features such as (1) values are beliefs linked to affect component of attitude, (2) values are motivators for action to achieve goals, (3) values exceed specific actions and situations and are abstract goals, (4) values are standards, (5) relative importance of values are specific to individual, and (6) importance to multiple values guides behaviour/action. The ten basic values having dynamic relationships among them are “self-direction, stimulation, hedonism, achievement, power, security, conformity, tradition, benevolence, and universalism” (Schwartz, 1992, 2005).

Self-efficacy perceptions: The theory of planned behaviour suggests that occurrence of a behaviour emanates from the perception of the individual about the ability to perform. The concept of behavioural control relates to the self-efficacy belief grounded in the social cognition theory (Bandura, 1982). Self-efficacy is “people’s belief in their capabilities” (Bandura, 2012). Self-efficacy contributes to self-development that affects the emotional states and self-regulation capacity of the individual, in turn to influence the decisions/ behaviours. The carpooling applications require efficacy to understand and effectively use technology. Therefore, examination of self-efficacy perceptions of commuters and its effect on attitude formation in favour of carpooling has practical implications.

Safety Perceptions: The rational expectation theory (Muth, 1961) assumes that customers are rational, and hence effectively use every information available to them for decision making, whereby minimizing the uncertainties about outcomes. The literature points to financial, social, physical, functional, and time related uncertainties that affect decision making (Jacoby & Kaplan, 1972). Hence, perception of safety (PS) is an essential belief that motivates individuals to adopt a behaviour. Online transactions require sharing of private information, and concerns about privacy and safety is a major deterrent to adoption behaviour (Damghanian et al., 2016, Dixit and Datta, 2010, Laforet and Li, 2005). The sense of safety develops a feeling of trust, and if commuters fail to evaluate the level of risk in carpooling, adoption is unlikely. Cognitive factors are responsible for estimation of risk perceptions (Sjöberg, 2002). The estimation of risk depends on the cognitive ability of an individual (Slovic, Fischhoff, & Lichtenstein, 1979), and personal factors decide the risk avoidance behaviour. Therefore, an examination of prevailing perception of safety in carpooling and its effect on commuter’s attitude for adoption has practical implications.

Perceptions about technology platform quality: An online platform refers to the online facilitator of services through website and mobile applications. The quality perceived in such interactions is critical in attitude formation (Cheng and Huang, 2013, DeLone and McLean, 2003). Also, when users perceive technology platforms to be facilitating, smooth, and responsive to transactions and interactions, they may continue to use the service (Cheng and Huang, 2013, Kuan et al., 2008, Lee et al., 2016). Therefore, an understanding of the effect of online platform quality (PQ) on commuter’s attitude towards carpooling is beneficial.

There is another stream of literature that propounds that behaviour is affected by cognitive factors and not just by the consequences of individual perceptions and motivations (Stipek, 1996). Therefore, this study assumes cognitive complexity to have an influence on formation of attitude and behavioural intention.

Cognitive Complexity: Cognitive complexity is a variable of interest in Psychology literature that supposedly affects people’s evaluations and perceptions of events, objects, and concepts (Barron, 1953, Mayo and Crockett, 1964, Scott, 1962). It was originally proposed by Bieri (1955) as a “structural feature of the system of personal constructs.” It is a mental disposition to evaluate or view person and objects in one’s social environment as complex or differentiated (Berkowitz, 1957, Bieri, 1955). Thus cognitive complexity in decision making is vital to understand consumer behaviour because it can override the rational decision making tendency in a consumer. The theory of bounded rationality (Simon, 1982) considers cognitive limitations of individuals as a threat to rationality. If the cognitive structure of the individual is complex, then decisions emerge after careful evaluation of all relevant perspectives (Van Hiel & Mervielde, 2003). Individuals with complex cognitive structures understand nuances and indirect implications about the outcomes of a decision better than individuals with simple cognitive structures. Thus, an individual’s ability to engage in a cognitive exercise can influence their attitude towards adoption of a new idea/product. Additionally, the cognitive complexity level of the individual may influence beliefs, norms, and evaluations about facilitating conditions. Literature on role of cognitive complexity in the context of carpooling is scarce. Therefore, we include cognitive complexity as an antecedent in the framework.

It has been observed that consumers learn from their consumption behaviours. To maintain a desired behaviour (purchase of a good or service) it is essential for consumers to feel a sense of control on their learning process from their behaviour (Lai, 2011). This makes us to look into the concept of psychological empowerment which has control as a major element.

Psychological Empowerment: It refers to the “intrinsic task motivation reflecting a sense of self-control in relation to one’s work and an active involvement with one’s work role” (Seibert, Wang, & Courtright, 2011). The usage of empowerment refers to the belief of the individual that he or she can understand and control the occurrences in the surrounding social, economic and political environment to aim for and achieve higher levels of goals (Lee, 2005, Wilson, 1996). Psychological empowerment theory (Rappaport, 1987, Zimmerman and Rappaport, 1988, Zimmerman, 1995) focuses on the “sense of personal competence” to initiate a behaviour for the benefit of self or society (Zimmerman & Rappaport, 1988). Perception of psychological empowerment induces the highest expression to adopt an innovation (Macintosh, 2004). Literature suggest that four aspects of cognition such as “meaning, competence, self-determination and impact” develop the perception of empowerment (Peterson, 2014, Seibert et al., 2011, Spreitzer, 1995, Thomas and Velthouse, 1990). Here, the dimension of “meaning” refers to alignment between beliefs/values, and behaviour; “self-determination” is sense of autonomy or control; “competence” represents capability; and “impact” denotes the belief of the individual that the behaviour contributes to the anticipated effect. The carpooling facility provides higher levels of autonomy, convenience, and feeling of self -sufficiency. Also, many cues included in the carpooling application offer a sense of control and make people feel better empowered. We posit that commuters who perceive higher levels of psychological empowerment will develop significant positive beliefs about variables and contribute in adoption behaviour to carpooling.

The current study looks at the role of cognitive complexity and psychological empowerment on shaping commuter behaviour towards carpooling along with the motivational and perceptional antecedents as discussed above. We expect that an understanding about prevailing customer beliefs and their role in attitude formation towards carpooling intentions will help service providers to devise strategies for better user satisfaction and service penetration.

The study contributes to existing literature by focusing on the importance of certain motivation and perceptional constructs in better proliferation of certain consumption models. The study brings to the fore the role of cognitive complexity and psychological empowerment in the evaluation of consumer knowledge related to decision making.

The objectives of the study are as follows:

  • 1.

    To assess the perceptions of commuters towards carpooling behavior and determine the factors that are critical in fostering carpooling behavior.

  • 2.

    To understand the role of cognitive complexity and psychological empowerment in creating a favourable/unfavourable attitude towards carpooling behavior of commuters.

  • 3.

    To estimate or measure the factors in order to determine the degree to which they exert an influence on attitude formation towards carpooling behavior.

To examine the potential of carpooling adoption, it is essential to empirically verify the power of attitude towards carpooling in predicting the behavioural intention to adopt the sharing system. Similarly, in the adoption of new ideas like carpooling, the value beliefs and perceptions related to safety, platform quality, and self-efficacy are likely to influence customer attitude. It is also proposed that cognitive complexity and psychological empowerment do exert significant influence on an individual’s value beliefs and perceptions related to safety, platform quality, and self-efficacy leading to a direct or indirect impact on behaviour through attitude formation. The hypotheses related to the above propositions are mentioned in Table 2.

Based on the observations from literature review and objectives for this study, a theoretical model has been proposed as shown in Fig. 1.

Section snippets

Participants

The participants to the study were selected in 3 stages as described below:

  • Stage 1: We selected an IT park in the metropolitan city of Cochin in Kerala, India. This IT park hosted more than 150 IT firms that together employed more than 8000 people.

  • Stage 2: On a judgmental basis, we identified 10 IT firms that employed more than 50 employees.

  • Stage 3: We identified employees who had experience with carpooling from the selected IT firms to respond to our survey. The final selection was on

Interpretation of results

There were many valid observations from this study. The observations related to various antecedents used in the study and their role on attitude formation and behavioural intention are described in subsequent sections:

Discussion and conclusion

This study attempted to understand the role of a few selected factors in developing an attitude and behaviour towards carpooling in urban areas. Theoretically, this study generalized the attitude – behaviour linkage to the carpooling context and revisited a few cognitive and psychological foundations in attitude formation. Theories, such as, “Elaboration Likelihood Model” (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986), and the “Heuristic- Systematic Model” (Chaiken, Liberman, & Eagly, 1989) assumed that depending on

Limitations

Even though our study attempted to examine the role of a few motivational and perception related variables on attitude and intention towards carpooling, many relevant themes deciding consumer behaviour might have been omitted. Further, the role of factors like individual innovativeness, effectiveness beliefs, social connectedness, environmental awareness, etc. might have offered more clarity on consumer behaviour generalizable to all types of sustainable consumption behahviours.

In addition, the

Scope for further research

In this research, we have not attempted to develop contextual measures for cognitive complexity or psychological empowerment. Also, the explorations related to self-efficacy requires more support. Future research on scale development for cognitive complexity and psychological empowerment specific to sustainable consumption, the role of social beliefs on sustainable consumption, webscape design for optimum experience in aggregator business, etc. can contribute to the literature on collaborative

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