Next Article in Journal
Microstructure and Hydrogen Storage Performance of Ball-Milled MgH2 Catalyzed by FeTi
Previous Article in Journal
Testing and Modeling of Vehicle Li-Ion Battery Module with Prismatic Cells under Abuse Conditions
 
 
Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
Journals
Energies
Volume 16
Issue 3
10.3390/en16031062
energies-logo
Submit to this Journal Review for this Journal Propose a Special Issue
► Article Menu

Article Menu

share Share announcement Help format_quote Cite question_answer Discuss in SciProfiles thumb_up
...
Endorse textsms
...
Comment
first_page
settings
Order Article Reprints
Font Type:
Arial Georgia Verdana
Font Size:
Aa Aa Aa
Line Spacing:
Column Width:
Background:
Article

The Impact of Awareness for the Consequences from Adopting Electric Scooters—The Crucial Role of Warm Glow and Extrinsic Appeal

by
Chien-Wei Ho
1,2,
Chi-Chuan Wu
3,* and
Min-Tzu Hsieh
1
1
School of Management, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei 106335, Taiwan
2
Artificial Intelligence for Operations Management Research Center, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei 106335, Taiwan
3
Department of Business Management, Tatung University, Taipei 104, Taiwan
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Energies 2023, 16(3), 1062; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16031062
Submission received: 16 December 2022 / Revised: 13 January 2023 / Accepted: 16 January 2023 / Published: 18 January 2023
(This article belongs to the Section C: Energy Economics and Policy)
Browse Figures
Versions Notes

Abstract

:
With the rapidly development of electricity technology and renewable energy, adopting electric vehicles (EVs) not only can efficiently collaborate with renewable energy, but also can help decrease the negative environmental effects of traditional vehicles. However, even though electric vehicles offer many advantages, most consumers still hesitate to buy or even rent them. While there is a large growing body of studies focusing on topics related to electric public transportation and electric cars, there is still a shortage of them examining electric scooters (ESs). Based on the norm activation model (NAM), green consumption effect, and extrinsic motivation, this study aims to present the crucial antecedence of consumers’ intention to adopt ESs. As a main transportation for most of the people in Taiwan, this research adopts design of experiments and develops two studies to collect data from Taiwan. The results show that warm glow mediates the positive relationship between awareness of consequences and intention to adopt them. Moreover, the interacting effect of awareness of consequences and extrinsic appeal on intention to adopt ESs is mediated by the warm glow. For academia, the results herein fill the gap related to electric transportation. In real-world practice, this study provides valuable suggestions for governments that want to abate any negative impact from traditional scooters.

1. Introduction

Based on a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, around 14% of greenhouse gas emissions could be attributed to the transportation industry [1]. IEA [2] also noted that the transport sector accounts for around 25% of total global greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, Sang and Bekhet [3] found that private vehicles consumed petroleum at about 36 million barrels per day and emitted many tons of carbon dioxide. In conclusion, transportation is one of the major reasons for greenhouse gases as well as consumption of fossil fuels.
One possible solution to help abate the negative effect of traditional vehicles (with internal combustion engines) is a shift to electric vehicles (EVs) [3]. Adopting EVs has many advantages. From the viewpoint of energy, because of the rapid development of energy storage systems and renewable energy technology, EVs could use the electricity produced by renewable energy and thus lower fossil fuel consumption [4]. From the viewpoint of the environment, an uptake of EVs could contribute to mitigating global warming as well as GHG and CO2 emissions [5]. Many countries even have announced an end year when internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) can no longer be sold: for example, India from 2030 and the UK by 2040 [6].
Although EVs have many advantages, their usage rate is still low [7]. IEA [8] showed that Norway is the only country where the usage rate of EVs conforms to expectancy. Thus, consumers’ adoption of EVs is relatively low globally [5], and many still keep a wait-and-see attitude for electric transportation [9]. Therefore, it is necessary to pinpoint the crucial antecedence for consumers’ intention to use electric transportation. Furthermore, most research has explored people’s general behavior or intention toward EVs [10,11], with scant research focusing on specific EVs, such as electric scooters (ESs). As a major form of transportation in Africa and Asia, traditional two-wheel scooters use a fuel engine and have a big impact on the environment [12]. Compare to traditional scooters, ESs can charge their battery by incorporating renewable energy and decreasing fossil fuel consumption. For this reason, this study targets ESs and fills the gap in related literature with its findings.
As mention above, the findings in this research herein make up for the shortage in the area of government policy and provide valuable suggestions for countries that would like to decrease the negative consequences resulted by the traditional scooters. Based on the norm activation model (NAM), green consumption effect, and extrinsic motivation, this presents two studies that examine the impact of awareness of consequences on the intention to adopt ESs. The second section of literature review and hypotheses’ development will introduce the conceptual framework of NAM and the relationship among AC, warm glow, intention to adopt ESs and extrinsic appeal. Further on, we develop two studies and discuss the procedure and results for each study. Specifically, study 1 will investigate our prediction that AC positively affects consumers’ intention to adopt ESs. Study 2 will explore the mediating role of warm glow between AC and consumers’ intention to adopt ESs as well as moderated mediation effect of extrinsic appeal. Finally, the results and discussion section presents the findings followed by managerial and theoretical implications as well as limitations and future research. The research framework displays in Figure 1.

2. Literature Review and Hypotheses’ Development

2.1. The Effect of Awareness of Consequences

Schwartz [13] proposed the concept of norm activation model (NAM), which subsequently form a basis for the psychological process to predict prosocial behavior [14]. NAM includes three crucial factors: awareness of consequences (AC), ascription of responsibility (AR), and personal norm (PN). Personal norm mediates the relationship between ascription of responsibility and personal pro-social intention or behavior, and ascription of responsibility is influenced by awareness of consequences [14], as shown in Figure 2. Awareness of consequences is defined as “whether someone is aware of the negative outcomes for others or for other thing one values when not acting pro-socially” [14] (p. 426). The definition of ascription of responsibility is “feelings of responsibility for the negative outcomes of not acting pro-socially” [14] (p. 426). Personal norm is defined as “moral obligation to perform or refrain from specific actions” [15] (p. 191).
NAM has been used to predict pro-social intention and behavior, such as blood donation behavior [16], volunteering [17], and helping behavior in emergency conditions [18]. In recent years, NAM also has been applied to explore the issue of environment and energy, such as industrial worker behavior regarding energy savings [19], residents’ habitual energy-saving behavior [20], environmental friendly behavior, intentions to use a smart energy system [21], as well as intentions to adopt a smart meter [22]. Taso et al. [22] also discovered that awareness of consequences positively affects consumers’ intention to adopt a smart meter. Wang et al. [20] regarded that citizens who are aware of negative outcomes from the misuse of natural resources improve their saving energy behavior.
On the basis of the above insights, this research believes that awareness of consequences affects intention to adopt ESs. To be more specific, when consumers realize that the negative consequences of traditional scooters, such as greenhouse effect, air pollution, and CO emissions, they are made to feel responsible for abating those scooters’ negative effects, and they will exhibit a greater intention to adopt ESs. Dong et al. [23] also found through personal norms that awareness of consequences influences purchase intention of electric vehicles in China. Accordingly, Hypothesis 1 is formulated as follows.
Hypothesis 1 (H1). 
Awareness of consequences positively influences intention to adopt ESs.

2.2. Mediating Effect of Warm Glow

Isen [24] proposed the term warm glow and revealed that a potential helper’s positive affective state influences helpfulness. Andreoni [25,26] then introduced the concept of warm glow and regarded that people may experience mental benefits from prosocial behavior. Research has displayed that experiencing pleasure feelings improves an individual’s possibility of engaging in pro-social behavior, such as charitable donation behavior [26] and inducing helping behavior (Cunningham et al., 1980). In recent years, warm glow has received much more attention in the environment field. Giebelhausen et al. [27] found when consumers are devoted to a re-use towel plan that they feel more intense warm glow. Taufik et al. [28] provided support that acting pro-environmentally can be psychologically rewarding, and this reward can be a way to motivate environmentally friendly activities. Sun et al. [29] also showed that psychological benefits of warm glow and nature experience positively impact attitude toward rooftop photovoltaic (PV) installation.
The operationalized definition of warm glow in this research is “a feeling of pleasure and satisfaction derived from the cognitive appraisal of contribution to the wellbeing of environmental protection” [30] (p. 45). When consumers are aware of the connection between traditional scooters and negative outcomes, it makes them feel an obligation or responsibility to diminish the negative outcomes. Therefore, if consumers expect that using ESs can abate the negative effects from traditional scooters, then it may arouse the experience of a feeling of moral satisfaction or pleasure derived from using ESs and further enhance their possibility of intention to adopt them.
As mentioned above, this study believes that warm glow plays a crucial mediating role between awareness of consequences and intention to adopt ESs. In more detail, when people realize the negative effects of traditional scooters, they may expect to experience a feeling of satisfaction derived from their contribution to the environment via adopting ESs, thus improving consumers’ intention to use ESs. This leads to Hypothesis 2.
Hypothesis 2 (H2). 
Warm glow mediates the relationship between awareness of consequences and intention to adopt ESs.

2.3. Moderating Effect of Extrinsic Appeals

Previous studies have focused on two categories of extrinsic motives. First, many papers have concentrated on the functional or material benefits coming from the product itself, such as better product performance, discounts, or gifts [31]. The second concerns the benefits of psychosocial or image, as consumers could obtain some social recognition or status when they conduct socially responsible behavior [32,33]. Dang et al. [34] found that extrinsic motivation has a positive effect on purchase intention in organic drinking products. Through the theory of Motivation-Opportunity-Ability and Self-Determination, Hasbullah et al. [35] regarded extrinsic motivation as an important driver that significantly impacts sustainable apparel purchase intention in Malaysia’s millennial generation.
A large body of studies also points to the adverse effect of extrinsic motivations [36,37]. From Edinger-Schons et al. [38], for instance, in the products of organic bed linen and fair trade coffee, adding an extrinsic appeal to an intrinsic appeal-based communication reduces consumers’ possibilities of purchasing behavior. This is because extrinsic appeal makes people less certain about a pure motivation and decreases the positive impact from intrinsic appeal.
On the basis of these insights, this study regards that the interactive effect of AC and extrinsic appeals have an influence on warm glow and further raise consumers’ intention for adopting ESs. Indeed, consumers who perceive they might gain recognition or status benefits upon adopting eco-friendly transportation vehicles will become confused on their prosocial behavior, have doubts of their own motives, and decrease their moral pleasure. Therefore, compared to the condition of extrinsic appeals, consumers in a condition without extrinsic appeals will have a greater impact on warm glow and further increase their intention to use ESs, leading to the last hypothesis.
Hypothesis 3 (H3). 
Extrinsic appeal moderates the mediation effect of warm glow between AC and intention to adopt ESs.

3. Study 1

Study 1 develops an experiment design to collect data and adopts one-way ANOVA (Analysis of variance) to analyze the effects of AC on intention. More specifically, people would be more willing to adopt ESs when they realize that traditional scooters result in negative consequences to the environment versus those people who do not perceive the negative consequences.

3.1. Design and Procedure

Study 1 used a single-factor (awareness of consequences: no versus yes) between-subject design and recruited participants for this research. Before participating in this experiment, we promised that any answers would remain confidential and only for academic use. If participants then agreed to take part, they were randomly assigned to view either an experiment condition or control condition.
For participants in the AC condition, they not only read general information about ESs, but also read objective information about the negative effects of traditional scooters. After viewing the introduction, participants were asked to fill in the items of intention to adopt ESs and AC. This study utilized three items developed by He and Zhan [39] to measure intention to adopt ESs: “Next time I buy a scooter, I will consider buying an ESs”, “I expect to use ESs in the near future”, and “I have the intention to drive an ES in the near future” (anchored by 1 = totally disagree and 7 = totally agree). As a manipulation check, participants rated their AC with four items from Wang et al. [20]: “Using traditional scooters will exacerbate climate change”, “Using traditional scooters will exacerbate environmental pollution”, “Using traditional scooters will affect the quality of life for future generations”, and “On the whole, using traditional scooters can have some negative effects” (anchored by 1 = totally disagree and 7 = totally agree). In the last section of the survey participants provided demographic information. In addition, we conducted attention check and asked the respondents to choose what type of vehicles shown in this experiment (e.g., public transport, automobile, or scooter). For participants in the control condition, they only read general information about ESs and filled in the same content and order as those under the AC condition. Cronbach’s values for AC and intention to adopt ESs are 0.919 as well as 0.895, respectively. All variables exceed the thresholds of acceptance with respect to Cronbach’s values.
Before the formal test, this study conducted a pre-test to verify the effect of manipulation. We gathered 43 participants in total (65.1% male; 34.9% female) and found that the participants have higher AC in the experiment condition than participants in the control condition (M = 6.216, SD = 0.179 versus M = 5.512, SD = 0.185, t = 2.278, p < 0.01).
This research excluded any respondents who provided incomplete information. In order to collect quality data, this study conducted an attention check and those who answered wrong were excluded from analysis. Thirty-three participants were removed from the data because of failing the attention check and providing incomplete information. In total, we have 117 valid participants and an effective response rate of 78%. Among respondents, males account for 69.2% and females account for 30.8%; the majority of respondents have experiences in using ESs (57.3%). Most of our respondents commute with public transportation (44.4%), followed by the riding scooters (39.3%).

3.2. Results and Discussion

Manipulation checks on the AC index display that participants in the experiment condition have a higher AC score than those in the control condition (Mac = 6.284, SD = 0.673 versus Mnormal = 5.835, SD = 0.814; t = 3.070, p < 0.01). Therefore, the manipulation of AC in study 1 is successful.
Study 1 primarily investigates the positive relationship between AC and intention to adopt ESs. As predicted, AC has an positive impact on such intention (F(1, 115) = 12.439, p = 0.001). Participants in the AC condition have greater intention to adopt ESs (M = 5.356, SD = 1.219) compared to participants in the control condition (M = 4.488, SD = 1.328). Figure 3 shows the difference between the two conditions, supporting that AC influences consumers’ intention to adopt ESs.

4. Study 2

Study 2 develops an experiment design to collect data and conducts two-way ANOVA (Analysis of variance) to examine the effects of AC and extrinsic appeal on intention. In addition, study 2 also explores the mediating role of warm glow between AC and consumers’ intention to adopt ESs. More specifically, realizing the negative impact on the environment from traditional scooters will arouse a warm glow in consumers’ mind and further enhance the possibility to adopt ESs. This research also examines the moderated mediation effect of extrinsic appeal. In other words, we regard that the interactive effect of AC and extrinsic appeal through warm glow influences intention to adopt ESs.

4.1. Design and Procedure

Study 2 adopts a 2 (awareness of consequences: no versus yes) × 2 (extrinsic appeal: no versus yes) between-subject design and recruited participants for this research. Before participating in the experiment, we promised that participants’ answers would remain confidential and only for academic use. If they then agreed to take part, they were randomly assigned to view one of the four experiments.
For participants in the condition of AC and extrinsic appeal, they not only read general information about ESs, but also read objective information about the negative effects from traditional scooters. In addition, they read a statement that “the people around me, such as parents and close friends, all regard that using ESs is a wonderful decision and is beneficial to the environment as well”. After viewing the introduction and statement, participants were asked to fill in the items of intention to adopt ESs and AC as mentioned as above and to fill in the items of warm glow. This study used three items developed by Sun et al. [29] to measure warm glow: “An owner of an electric scooter can feel good, because it helps protect the environment”, “With an electric scooter, I have the feeling of contributing to the well-being of humanity and nature”, and “An owner of an electric scooter can feel better, because it does not harm the environment” (anchored by 1 = totally disagree and 7 = totally agree). In the last section of the survey the participants provided demographic information. In addition, we conducted an attention check and asked the respondents to choose what type of vehicles shown in this experiment (e.g., public transport, automobile, or scooter). For participants in the control condition and extrinsic appeal, they only read information about ESs as well as statement of extrinsic appeal. The control condition without extrinsic appeal and AC condition without extrinsic appeal are the same as in study 1.
As Table 1 presents, all variables exceed the thresholds of acceptance with respect to Cronbach’s values, meaning all variables have great reliability. The factor loading (ranging from 0.883 to 0.923) and component reliability (ranging from 0.927 to 0.945) are higher than 0.7, implying that each variable has great convergent validity (Hair et al., 2010). Based on Table 2, the squared root of average variance extracted (ranging from 0.883 to 0.923) exceeds the inter-variable correlations, thus providing support for the discriminant validity.
This research excluded respondents who provided incomplete information. In addition, in order to collect quality data, this study conducted an attention check and those who answered wrong were excluded from analysis. Therefore, twenty-three participants were removed from the data, because of failing the attention check and providing incomplete information. In total, we have 183 valid participants and an effective response rate is 76.25%. Among respondents, males account for 70.5% and females account for 29.5%; the majority of respondents have no experiences in using ESs (55.7%). Most of our respondents commute with riding scooters (40.9%), followed by the public transportation (39.8%).

4.2. Results and Discussion

Manipulation checks on the AC index show that participants in the AC condition have a higher AC score than those in the control condition (Mac = 6.258, SD = 0.848 versus Mnormal = 5.846, SD = 1.124; t = 2.764, p < 0.01). Therefore, the manipulation of AC in study 2 is successful.
Study 2 examines the mediating role of warm glow between AC and intention to adopt ESs. In order to test the mediation effect of warm glow, this study adopts model 4 of PROCESS, a regression-based mediation analysis with a bootstrap sample of 5000 for 95% bootstrap confidence interval. As seen in Table 3, the bootstrapped 95% confidence interval for the mediation effect does not include zero (LLCI = 0.163, ULCI = 0.650). Therefore, the mediation effect proposed by Hypothesis 2 is supported.
Study 2 also investigates the moderated mediation effect of extrinsic appeal. This research adopts model 7 of PROCESS, a moderated mediation analysis with a bootstrap sample of 5000 for 95% bootstrap CI. The results reveal that the bootstrapped 95% CI for the mediation effect includes zero (LLCI = −1.088, ULCI = −0.145), which means that extrinsic appeal moderates the mediation effect of warm glow between AC and intention to adopt ESs. More specifically, for the condition without extrinsic appeal, the bootstrapping results display that the moderation of extrinsic appeal is significant (effect = 0.990, SE = 0.247, LLCI = 0.502, and ULCI = 1.478). However, for the condition with extrinsic appeal, the bootstrapping results show that the moderation of extrinsic appeal is not significant (effect = 0.072, SE = 0.258, LLCI = −0.476, and ULCI = 0.619). Thus, the moderated mediation effect proposed by Hypothesis 3 is supported.

5. Results and Discussion

Based on the norm activation model (NAM), warm glow, and extrinsic appeal, this study explores the psychological mechanism of using ESs. Specifically, this research adopts two studies to unfold the relationships among AC, warm glow, extrinsic appeal, and intention to adopt ESs. We manipulate AC in study 1, and the results reveal that AC has a positive effect on people’s intention to adopt ESs. This study also manipulates two factors of AC and extrinsic appeal in study 2 to examine the mediating effect of warm glow as well as moderated mediation of extrinsic appeal. Giebelhausen et al. [27] and Taufik et al. [28] regard that warm glow is an important psychological mechanism for environmentally friendly behavior, and the analysis results confirm that warm glow is a crucial psychological mechanism and mediates the relationship between AC and consumers’ intention to adopt ESs. Moreover, extrinsic appeal moderates the mediation effect of warm glow between AC and intention to adopt ESs.

5.1. Managerial and Theoretical Implications

The results of this research have some valuable implications for government policy that would like to abate the negative impact from tradition vehicles. First, this study reveals that warm glow mediates the relationship between AC and intention to adopt ESs. When consumers realize the negative outcomes resulting from their day-to-day transportation, such as emissions of PM2.5, CO2, and greenhouse gases, as well as using lots of fossil fuel, this will motivate them to adopt electric vehicles, because they expect that using electric vehicles is beneficial for the environment. In other words, using environmentally friendly products make consumers exhibit positive emotion [28] and therefore will increase their intention or actual behavior to this product. For this reason, if governments want to spur citizens to adopt ESs, then they could do so through different sources, such as TV, magazines, broadcast, Facebook, or Instagram, and provide objective information about the negative consequences of traditional vehicles and the positive consequences of ESs.
Second, the results of this research show that extrinsic appeal moderates the mediated relationship between AC and intention to adopt ESs through warm glow. Specifically, the moderating effect is significant for the condition without extrinsic appeal. The result supports the conclusion by Benabou and Tirole [37], who claimed that highlighting the image rewards tied to environmentally friendly behaviors can result in people doubting their true motives and further crowd out their prosocial behavior. If a person decides to adopt ESs without getting any image rewards, then the behavior is obviously due to the person’s intrinsic wish to conduct a great deed. Nevertheless, if a person receives social recognition for his/her behavior, then doubts may arise in the person about his/her true motives, inducing him/her to be less likely to adopt ESs [38]. Therefore, in order to encourage people to use electric vehicles, instead of emphasizing the psychosocial or image benefits, governments can focus on information of the negative outcomes caused by traditional vehicles through social media or traditional media in order to raise people’s intention to adopt ESs.
Despite the growing research have focused on the extrinsic appeal issues [35,38], there is no consistent results [35,38] and have a shortage of understanding the effect of extrinsic appeal in electric vehicles. The results show that the mediation effect of warm glow between AC and intention to adopt ESs is moderated by extrinsic appeal. For the condition without extrinsic appeal, the results display that the moderation of extrinsic appeal is significant. However, there is no significant moderating effect for the condition with extrinsic appeal. Some studies regard that extrinsic motive will confuse consumers about their true motives for acting prosocially [40,41]. In other words, they will not obtain warm glow because they are confused about acting out of pure intrinsic motives [42]. Therefore, extrinsic motivation will dilute the significantly impact of AC on consumers’ intention to use ESs. This study fills the gap in the literature of government policy and regards that it should be careful the negative effect from extrinsic appeal.

5.2. Limitations and Future Research

As scooters are a main form of transportation in Taiwan, it is suitable to collect data there and conduct related analysis. However, in order to make the research of ESs more comprehensive, future studies can focus on countries with scooters also as their main transportation vehicle, such as China, Vietnam, and India. This will further benefit our understanding of EVs.
Second, this study views NAM as our theoretical foundation to propose the research framework and examine the impact of AC on intention to adopt ESs. There are many potential theories that could be adopted to explain the behavior in EVs in future research. They cover technology acceptance model (TAM) or extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2).
Third, previous literature has also shown that the characteristics of consumers or people have an impact on them using a technology product or service. For instance, Patil et al. [43] regarded that personal innovativeness affects attitude positively and further influences consumer adoption of mobile payment in India. Therefore, future studies might consider including some variables related to personal characteristics.
Fourth, intention to adopt an electric vehicle could be influenced by many other objective factors. For example, She et al. [44] suggested that the factors of vehicle performance, infrastructure, and finance shape public acceptance of battery electric vehicles (BEVs). Thus, future research could involve these objective factors into the research framework to examine their effect on the intention to adopt ESs.
Finally, the results in this study may lead to cheap talk and an overestimation of real action. Therefore, future studies can evaluate actual behavior in adopting ESs in Taiwan.

5.3. Conclusions

Drawing on the existing literature, this study through experimental design develops two studies and examines the mediating effect of warm glow and moderating effect of extrinsic appeal. The results displayed that warm glow mediated the relationship between AC and consumers’ intention to adopt ESs. Moreover, extrinsic appeal moderates the mediation effect of warm glow between AC and intention to adopt ESs. These findings offer ponderable suggestions for the government policy that want to encourage people adopting electric vehicles. Specifically, in order to encourage people to use electric scooters, instead of emphasizing the image benefits, governments can focus on information of the negative outcomes caused by traditional scooters.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, C.-W.H.; methodology, C.-W.H.; validation, C.-C.W.; formal analysis, C.-W.H.; investigation, C.-W.H., C.-C.W. and M.-T.H.; writing—original draft preparation, C.-W.H. and C.-C.W.; funding acquisition, C.-W.H. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research was funded by National Science and Technology Council, grant number MOST 110-2410-H-011-006-.

Data Availability Statement

Not applicable.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

  1. IPCC. Climate Change 2014 Synthesis Report Summary for Policymakers; The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): Geneva, Switzerland, 2014. [Google Scholar]
  2. International Energy Agency (IEA). World Energy Outlook 2016; International Energy Agency (IEA): Paris, France, 2016. [Google Scholar]
  3. Sang, Y.N.; Bekhet, H.A. Modelling electric vehicle usage intentions: An empirical study in Malaysia. J. Clean. Prod. 2015, 92, 75–83. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  4. Wang, H.; Hasanzadeh, A.; Khaligh, A. Transportation electrification: Conductive charging of electrified vehicles. IEEE Electrif. Mag. 2013, 1, 46–58. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  5. Sovacool, B.K.; Abrahamse, W.; Zhang, L.; Ren, J. Pleasure or profit? Surveying the purchasing intentions of potential electric vehicle adopters in China. Transp. Res. Part A 2019, 124, 69–81. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  6. Lee, J. In 2025, the price of EV will be lowered and that of internal combustion engines will be expensive. It is important to raise the market to a competitive without government subsidies. ECONOMY Chosun 2017, 229, 42–43. [Google Scholar]
  7. Kumar, R.R.; Alok, K. Adoption of electric vehicle: A literature review and prospects for sustainability. J. Clean. Prod. 2020, 253, 119911. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  8. International Energy Agency (IEA). Global EV Outlook 2018; International Energy Agency (IEA): Paris, France, 2018. [Google Scholar]
  9. Shi, H.; Fan, J.; Zhao, D. Predicting household PM2. 5-reduction behavior in Chinese urban areas: An integrative model of Theory of Planned Behavior and Norm Activation Theory. J. Clean. Prod. 2017, 145, 64–73. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  10. Shalender, K.; Sharma, N. Using extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) to predict adoption intention of electric vehicles in India. Environ. Dev. Sustain. 2021, 23, 665–681. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  11. Jaiswal, D.; Kaushal, V.; Kant, R.; Singh, P.K. Consumer adoption intention for electric vehicles: Insights and evidence from Indian sustainable transportation. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Change 2021, 173, 121089. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  12. IRENA. Innovation Outlook: Smart Charging for Electric Vehicles; International Renewable Energy Agency: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 2019. [Google Scholar]
  13. Schwartz, S.H. Normative influences on altruism. Adv. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 1977, 10, 221–279. [Google Scholar]
  14. De Groot, J.I.M.; Steg, L. Morality and prosocial behavior: The Role of awareness, responsibility, and norms in the norm activation model. J. Soc. Psychol. 2009, 149, 425–449. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  15. Schwartz, S.H.; Howard, J.A. A normative decision-making model of altruism. Altruism Help. Behav. 1981, 189–211. [Google Scholar]
  16. Zuckerman, M.; Reis, H. Comparison of three models for predicting altruistic behavior. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 1978, 36, 498–510. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  17. Schwartz, S.H.; Howard, J.A. Explanations of the moderating effect of responsibility denial on the personal norm-behavior relationship. Soc. Psychol. Q. 1980, 43, 441–446. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  18. Schwartz, S.H.; David, A.B. Responsibility and helping in an emergency: Effects of blame, ability and denial of responsibility. Sociometry 1976, 39, 406–415. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  19. Lopes, J.R.N.; de Araújo Kalid, R.; Rodríguez, J.L.M.; Ávila Filho, S. A new model for assessing industrial worker behavior regarding energy saving considering the theory of planned behavior, norm activation model and human reliability. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 2019, 145, 268–278. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  20. Wang, B.; Wang, X.; Guo, D.; Zhang, B.; Wang, Z. Analysis of factors influencing residents’ habitual energy-saving behavior based on NAM and TPB models: Egoism and altruism? Energy Policy 2018, 116, 68–77. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  21. Nordlund, A.M.; Garvill, J. Value structures behind pro-environmental behavior. Environ. Behav. 2002, 34, 740–756. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  22. Taso, Y.C.; Ho, C.W.; Chen, R.S. The impact of problem awareness and biospheric values on the intention to use a smart meter. Energy Policy 2020, 147, 111873. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  23. Dong, X.; Zhang, B.; Wang, B.; Wang, Z. Urban households’ purchase intentions for pure electric vehicles under subsidy contexts in China: Do cost factors matter? Transp. Res. Part A 2020, 135, 183–197. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  24. Isen, A.M. Success, failure, attention, and reaction to others: The warm glow of success. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 1970, 15, 294–301. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  25. Andreoni, J. Giving with impure altruism: Applications to charity and ricardian equivalence. J. Political Econ. 1989, 97, 1447–1458. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  26. Andreoni, J. Impure altruism and donations to public goods: A theory of warm-glowing giving. Econ. J. 1990, 100, 464–477. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
  27. Giebelhausen, M.; Chun, H.H.; Cronin, J.J., Jr.; Hult, G.T.M. Adjusting the Warm-Glow Thermostat: How Incentivizing Participation in Voluntary Green Programs Moderates Their Impact on Service Satisfaction. J. Mark. 2016, 80, 56–71. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  28. Taufik, D.; Bolderdijk, J.W.; Steg, L. Acting Green Elicits a Literal Warm Glow. Nat. Clim. Change 2015, 5, 37–40. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  29. Sun, P.C.; Wang, H.M.; Huang, H.L.; Ho, C.W. Consumer attitude and purchase intention toward rooftop photovoltaic installation: The roles of personal trait, psychological benefit, and government incentives. Energy Environ. 2018, 31, 21–39. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  30. Hartmann, P.; Eisend, M.; Apaolaza, V.; D’Souza, C. Warm glow vs. altruistic values: How important is intrinsic emotional reward in pro-environmental behavior? J. Environ. Psychol. 2017, 52, 43–55. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  31. Wenjing, L.; Bhutto, T.A.; Xuhui, W.; Maitlo, Q.; Zafar, A.U.; Bhutto, N. Unlocking employees’ green creativity: The effects of green transformational leadership, green intrinsic, and extrinsic motivation. J. Clean. Prod. 2020, 225, 120229. [Google Scholar]
  32. Griskevicius, V.; Tybur, J.M.; van den Bergh, B. Going green to be seen: Status, reputation, and conspicuous conservation. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 2010, 98, 392–404. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed] [Green Version]
  33. Soetevent, A.R. Anonymity in giving in a natural context—A field experiment in 30 churches. J. Public Econ. 2005, 89, 2301–2323. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
  34. Dang, V.T.; Wang, J.; Nguyen, H.V.; Nguyen, Q.H.; Nguyen, N. A moderated mediation study of consumer extrinsic motivation and CSR beliefs toward organic drinking products in an emerging economy. Br. Food J. 2022, 124, 1103–1123. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  35. Hasbullas, N.; Sulaiman, Z.; Mas’od, A.; Ahmad Sugiran, H.S. Drivers of Sustainable apparel purchase intention: An empirical study of Malaysian millennial consumers. Sustainability 2022, 14, 1945. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  36. Huang, Y.-C.; Yang, M.-L.; Wong, Y.-J. The effect of internal factors and family influence on firms’ adoption of green product innovation. Manag. Res. Rev. 2016, 39, 1167–1198. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  37. Benabou, R.; Tirole, J. Incentives and prosocial behavior. Am. Econ. Rev. 2006, 96, 1652–1678. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
  38. Edinger-Schons, L.M.; Sipilä, J.; Sen, S.; Mende, G.; Wieseke, J. Are two reasons better than one? The role of appeal type in consumer responses to sustainable products. J. Consum. Psychol. 2018, 28, 644–664. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  39. He, X.; Zhan, W. How to Activate Moral Norm to Adopt Electric Vehicles in China? An Empirical Study Based on Extended Norm Activation Theory. J. Clean. Prod. 2017, 172, 3546–3556. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  40. Lepper, M.R.; Greene, D.; Nisbett, R.E. Undermining children’s intrinsic interest with extrinsic rewards: A test of the overjustification hypothesis. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 1973, 23, 129–137. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
  41. Deci, E.L. Intrinsic Motivation; Plenum Press: New York, NY, USA, 1975. [Google Scholar]
  42. Gneezy, A.; Gneezy, U.; Riener, G.; Nelson, L.D. Pay-what-you-want, identity, and self-signaling in markets. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2012, 109, 7236–7240. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
  43. Patil, P.; Tamilmani, K.; Rana, N.P.; Raghavan, V. Understanding consumer adoption of mobile payment in India: Extending Meta-UTAUT model with personal innovativeness, anxiety, trust, and grievance redressal. Int. J. Inf. Manag. 2020, 54, 102144. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  44. She, Z.Y.; Sun, Q.; Ma, J.J.; Xie, B.C. What are the barriers to widespread adoption of battery electric vehicles? A survey of public perception in Tianjin, China. Transp. Policy 2017, 56, 29–40. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
Energies 16 01062 g001 550
Figure 1. Research framework.
Figure 1. Research framework.
Energies 16 01062 g001
Energies 16 01062 g002 550
Figure 2. The framework of norm activation model.
Figure 2. The framework of norm activation model.
Energies 16 01062 g002
Energies 16 01062 g003 550
Figure 3. Intention to adopt ESs in Study 1.
Figure 3. Intention to adopt ESs in Study 1.
Energies 16 01062 g003
Table
Table 1. Reliability and validity in study 2.
Table 1. Reliability and validity in study 2.
VariableItemFactor LoadingCronbach’s ValueCRAVE
Awareness of consequencesac10.8730.9330.9340.781
ac20.899
ac30.879
ac40.885
Warm glowwg10.8790.9470.9450.852
wg20.964
wg30.925
Intention to adopt ESsin10.8410.9260.9270.809
in20.901
in30.954
Note: CR = component reliability; AVE = average variance extracted.
Table
Table 2. Descriptive statistics in study 2.
Table 2. Descriptive statistics in study 2.
VariableMeanSDACWGINT
AC6.0381.023(0.883)
WG5.4441.2900.644(0.923)
INT4.8251.5060.4240.568(0.899)
Note: AC = Awareness of consequences; WG = Warm glow; INT = Intention to adopt ESs. The values in the round brackets are squared root of AVE.
Table
Table 3. Mediation analysis in study 2.
Table 3. Mediation analysis in study 2.
Path95% Confidence Level
EffectSELLCIULCI
Indirect effect: AC > WG > INT0.3980.1250.1630.650
Direct effect:
AC > INT		−0.0280.190−0.4020.347
Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Ho, C.-W.; Wu, C.-C.; Hsieh, M.-T. The Impact of Awareness for the Consequences from Adopting Electric Scooters—The Crucial Role of Warm Glow and Extrinsic Appeal. Energies 2023, 16, 1062. https://doi.org/10.3390/en16031062

AMA Style

Ho C-W, Wu C-C, Hsieh M-T. The Impact of Awareness for the Consequences from Adopting Electric Scooters—The Crucial Role of Warm Glow and Extrinsic Appeal. Energies. 2023; 16(3):1062. https://doi.org/10.3390/en16031062

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ho, Chien-Wei, Chi-Chuan Wu, and Min-Tzu Hsieh. 2023. "The Impact of Awareness for the Consequences from Adopting Electric Scooters—The Crucial Role of Warm Glow and Extrinsic Appeal" Energies 16, no. 3: 1062. https://doi.org/10.3390/en16031062

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Back to TopTop