The Formation Mechanism Of Travellers' Intention To Use IT-Based Ride-sharing Services

With the rapid development of information and communication technology,the shift in people's consumption idea from ownership to access and the enhancement of environmental awareness,IT-enabled ride-sharing,as an important component of the sharing economy in the transportation sector,is rapidly becoming an increasingly popular mode of travel in urban transportation.By using vacant seats,IT-enabled ride-sharing can not only provides passengers with affordable and convenient travel options,but also effectively reduces the vehicle vacancy rate and the number of vehicles used for personal travel.IT-enabled ride-sharing is considered to be an effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and alleviate urban traffic congestion.Despite the rapid development of IT-enabled ride-sharing in recent years,it has not yet been widely accepted by passengers.Therefore,to promote IT-enabled ride-sharing,it is necessary to deeply explore the factors that affect passengers' intention to use IT-enabled ride-sharing services,and provide reasonable management suggestions for ride-sharing platform managers.Although a few studies have explored the formation mechanism of passengers'ride-sharing behavior based on reational choice model,the studies are still limited and insufficient.Based on this,the study will consider the salient charateristics of ride-sharing,and explore the formation mechanism of passengers' ride-sharing intention from three different aspects.First,the study will focus on the diffusion process of IT-enabled ride-sharing innovation,and explore the influence mechanism of personal innovativeness,social influence,and ride-sharing beliefs on passengers'ride-sharing intention.Secondly,the study will focus on the safety of IT-enabled ride-sharing,and identify platform quality and reputation as ride-sharing safety-related information as well as gender as an information processing motivation factor that affects passengers'perception of ride-sharing safety,and explore their impact on passenger ride-sharing safety concerns and intention.Finally,the study will focus on the pro-environmental nature of ride-sharing,and explore the activation of passengers,personal norms for ride-shairng and the influence mechanism of personal norms on ride-sharing intention.The current study mainly includes three sub-studies,specifically:Study 1:The influence mechanism of personal traits,social influence,and ride-sharing beliefs on passengers' ride-sharing intention.Based on the technology acceptance model,the study focuses on the diffusion process of IT-enabled ride-sharing innovation,and explores whether and how personal innovativeness,social influence,and ride-sharing beliefs affect passengers' ride-sharing intention.Through structural equation model analysis,the results show that:(1)Passengers'personal innovativeness has significant positive impact on their ride-sharing intention and perceived ease of use;(2)Social influence significantly affect ride-sharing intention,and perception factors;(3)Perceived risk has a significant negative impact on ride-sharing intention.Study 2:The influence mechanism of platform characteristics and gender on passengers' ride-sharing safety concerns and intention.Based on the elaboration likelihood model,the study focuses on the safety of IT-enabled ride-sharing,the study identifies platform information quality and service quality as central cues as well as platform system quality and reputation as peripheral cues,and explores their impact on passengers' safety concerns about ride-sharing.The study also analyzes the moderating role of gender in the relationship between platform characteristics and safety concerns,as well as the relationship between safety concerns and ride-sharing intention.Through hierarchical regression analysis,the results show that:(1)Platform information quality,service quality,system quality and reputation negatively affect passengers' safety concerns about ride-sharing;(2)Female passengers are more concerned about the central cue of platform service quality than men in the process of forming ride-sharing safety cognition;(3)Female passengers are less concerned about peripheral cues of platform system quality and reputation,than men in the process of in the process of forming ride-sharing safety cognition;(4)Female passengers are less likely to ride-sharng than men when they perceive higher safety risks of ride-sharing.Study 3:The activation of personal norms and its influence mechanism on ride-sharing intention.Based on the norm activation model,the study focuses on the pro-environmental nature of ride-sharing,and explores the factors that motivate passengers'personal norms for carpooling and the influence of personal norms on ride-sharing intention.The study also analyzes the moderating role of ride-sharing safety concerns in the relationship between personal norms and ride-sharing intention.Through structural equation model analysis,the results show that:(1)Passengers'awareness of the environmental consequences of traditional and online ride-hailing travel modes,attribution of responsibility as well as perceived environmental benefits of ride-sharing,positively affect their personal norms for ride-sharing;Personal norms significantly affect ride-sharing intention;(3)Safety concerns negatively moderate the positive relationship between personal norms and ride-sharing intention.The theoretical contributions of the study mainly include:(1)By integrating personal innovativeness,social influence and perceived risk into technology acceptance model,the study develops an extended technology acceptance model of ride-sharing,explores the influence factors and formation mechanism of passenger ride-sharing intention from the perspective of innovation diffusion process,deepens the understanding of the impact mechanism of personal characteristics and social influence on ride-sharing intention;(2)the study focuses on the safety of IT-enabled ride-sharing and the importance of passenger ride-sharing safety cognitions on their ride-sharing behavior,examines the moderating role of gender difference in the relationship between platform characteristics(platform information,service and system quality and platform reputation)and ride-sharing safety concerns,deepens the understanding of the influence mechanism of platform characteristics on ride-sharing safety cognitions,and supplements the research on gender and sharing economic safety;(3)By adding perceived environmental benefits and safety concerns into the norm activation model,the study explores the influencing factors and influence mechanism of passenger ride-sharing intention from the perspective of pro-environmental behavior,deepens the understanding of the role of personal social psychosocial factors in the ride-sharing decision-making process,and complements the research perspective on passenger ride-sharing intention.This study provides some management suggestions for managers of ride-sharing platforms.First of all,platforms should put the improvement of users1 travel utility in the first place,strengthen users' perceptions of the cheapness and convenience of IT-enabled ride-sharing services,and improve system accessibility and humanization.Second,platforms can increase subsidies to attract early ride-sharing users,improve their direct experience and perceptions,and encourage users to recommend ride-sharing services to people around them through rewards.Furthermore,platforms should also take measures,such as improving users'information protection standards and purchasing comprehensive insurance for users,to strictly control the risks that passengers may face during the ride-sharing process.Platforms should take protecting the personal safety of passengers and reducing their safety concerns as the top priority at this stage.Specifically,platforms can increase investment from three aspects of its system,service and information,and it can also take measures to improve reputation.In addition,for users of different genders,platforms can adopt differentiated strategies to reduce their safety concerns about ride-sharing.Finally,platforms can also increase cooperation with government departments and universities,and strengthen the promotion of the negative environmental consequences of traditional travel modes and the environmental and social benefits of ride-sharing.