Motivating small-displacement car purchasing in China

Ying Qu, Yakun Liu, Qinghua Zhu and Yue Liu

Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 2014, vol. 67, issue C, 47-58

Abstract: Due to the rapid development of the automobile industry and the ever-increasing quantities of produced and sold automobiles in China, many problems such as fuel scarcity and air pollution have emerged. To alleviate such problems, one solution is to promote households to purchase small-displacement (engine) cars (SDCs). Based on the theory of planned behavior, we develop a theoretical framework to examine how influencing factors such as environmental attitude, subjective norm, self-image and environmental knowledge motivate SDC purchasing behavior through SDC purchasing intention in China. We further extend the research framework to examine whether the factor of economic incentives moderates the relationships between SDC purchasing intention and behaviors. Using an empirical study with 232 usable questionnaire responses, we observe that SDC purchasing intention partly mediates the relationship between three of four influencing factors (environmental attitude, self-image, environmental knowledge) and SDC purchasing behavior. Statistical results also show that the factor of economic incentives moderates the relationship between SDC purchasing intention and behavior. Our results indicate that three of four influencing factors can yield SDC purchasing behavior, especially when SDC purchasing intention exists. Economic incentives such as financial support from the government could promote SDC purchasing intention to transform into purchasing behavior.

Keywords: Small-displacement car; Influencing factors; Purchasing intention; Purchasing behavior; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856414001426
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:transa:v:67:y:2014:i:c:p:47-58

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
https://shop.elsevie ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2014.06.002

Access Statistics for this article

Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice is currently edited by John (J.M.) Rose

More articles in Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().