Predicting consumer purchase intention toward hybrid vehicles : testing the moderating role of price sensitivity

Abstract
Purpose Today, global warming is one of the most acute challenges in the world, prominently caused by greenhouse gases. The introduction of hybrid-vehicles (HVs) is thus, one of the industrial initiatives to tackle this challenge by allowing at least some proportionate reduction in global-gas-emissions. Such initiatives like HVs have also affected the consumers’ green-purchase-intention (GPI). Hence, underpinned into the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), this study aims to analyze consumers’ response in terms of GPI for HVs, in addition to exploring the moderating-effect of price-sensitivity between independent-variables (attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control) and consumers’ GPI for HVs. Design/methodology/approach The data was collected from 266 automobile-consumers with the help of questionnaires. A two-step approach was used to analyse the given hypothesis with the help of partial least squares structural equation modelling (Smart-PLS 3.2.7). Findings First, significant empirical-evidence was secured regarding the impact of given independent-variables (i.e. attitude, subjective norms and perceived behaviour control) on consumer’s GPI for HVs. Second, the empirical-evidence for the moderating effect of price-sensitivity onto the association between given independent-variables (except for the perceived-behavioural-control) and the consumers’ GPI for HVs, also turned out to be quite substantial in this study. Originality/value In-line-with the TPB, this study extends the existing body of literature regarding consumers’ GPI as it was significantly contingent to the given independent variables of the study, whereby, the price-sensitivity has been recognized as a key moderator particularly in the context of developing countries such as Pakistan. The present study thus provides in depth-insights to guide automobile manufacturers and marketers to redefine their pricing strategies to further strengthen the consumer’s GPI for HVs within certain socio-contextual setup. Automobile establishments should thus, invest in HVs’ adoption that serves both the eco-system (particularly human-well-being) and sustainable-organizational-growth.
Main Authors
Format
Articles Research article
Published
2022
Series
Subjects
Publication in research information system
Publisher
Emerald
The permanent address of the publication
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-202103111936Use this for linking
Review status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0955-534X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1108/EBR-10-2019-0274
Language
English
Published in
European Business Review
Citation
  • Bhutto, M. H., Tariq, B., Azhar, S., Ahmed, K., Khuwaja, F. M., & Han, H. (2022). Predicting consumer purchase intention toward hybrid vehicles : testing the moderating role of price sensitivity. European Business Review, 34(1), 62-84. https://doi.org/10.1108/EBR-10-2019-0274
License
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0Open Access
Additional information about funding
The authors received no financial support for this paper.
Copyright© 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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