•This study focuses on rural residents’ acceptance of autonomous vehicles.•A model is proposed based on the characteristics of AVs and rural road network.•Technology reliability and road traffic ...security are the dominant factors.
Autonomous vehicles have the potential to address transportation challenges in rural areas, making rural traffic more efficient and secure. Currently, Level 3 (conditional) autonomous vehicles have already appeared on the market, yet their successful implementation in rural areas depends highly on the acceptance of rural residents. We proposed an acceptance model and conducted an online cross-sectional questionnaire investigation to obtain research data in rural China. Partial least squares structural equation modeling is employed to examine the validity of the proposed theoretical research model. The research model interprets 79.2% of the variance in the acceptance. The results show that technology reliability and road traffic security were the strongest antecedents of rural residents' acceptance. Travel accessibility, perceived enjoyment, and effort expectancy were also significant predictors. Additionally, loss of privacy negatively impacts rural residents' willingness to use autonomous vehicles. Research findings provided theoretical findings and practical suggestions for developing and promoting autonomous vehicles.
Solar PV (photovoltaic) technology has gained considerable attention worldwide, as it can help reduce the adverse effects of CO2 emissions. Though the government of Pakistan is adopting solar PV ...technology due to its environmental friendliness nature, studies focusing on consumer’s acceptance of solar PV are limited in the country. This research aims to close this knowledge gap by looking into the various considerations that may influence consumers’ willingness to adopt (WTA) solar PV for household purposes. The study further contributes by expanding the conceptual framework of the theory of planned behavior by including three novel factors (perceived risk, perception of self-efficacy, and openness to technology). The analysis is based on questionnaire data collected from 683 households in Pakistan’s provincial capitals, including Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta, Gilgit, and Karachi. The proposed hypotheses are investigated using the state-of-the-art structural equation modeling approach. The empirical results reveal that social norms, perception of self-efficacy, and belief about solar PV benefits positively influence consumers’ WTA solar PV. On the contrary, the perceived risk and solar PV cost have negative effects. Notably, the openness to technology has an insignificant effect. This study can help government officials and policymakers explore cost-effective, risk-free technologies to lessen the environmental burden and make the country more sustainable. Based on research results, study limitations, as well as prospective research directions, are also addressed.
This paper examines the impacts of conformity tendencies (including conformity to rich villagers, conformity to relatives, conformity to neighbors and conformity to village cadres) on households’ ...willingness to adopt energy utilization of crop straw exampled by biogas in rural areas in China. Particularly, to address estimation errors caused by possible sample self-selection biases, propensity score matching is employed to further ensure the robustness of the regression results obtained by Binary Logistic model. The empirical results highlight that, in contrast to the significantly negative impact of conformity to rich villagers, conformity to relatives, neighbors and village cadres all have positive and statistically significant influences on households’ willingness to adopt energy utilization of crop straw exampled by biogas. These findings suggest the potential importance of providing households with quick and convenient access to the relatives’, neighbors’ and village cadres’ adoption information of energy utilization of crop straw exampled by biogas but carefully filtering out rich villagers’ adoption information in promoting energy utilization of crop straw exampled by biogas in rural areas.
•Conformity to relatives has a prominent positive influence.•Conformity to neighbors has a prominent positive influence.•Conformity to rich villagers has a prominent negative influence.•Conformity to village cadres has a prominent positive influence.•Propensity score matching technique is employed.
Biogas is a methane-rich gas that is produced by the anaerobic fermentation of organic material, such as animal dung. Pakistan has the sixth largest livestock-based economy in the world and thus ...demonstrates great potential for biogas production. The government has already started the Biogas Support Program (BSP) in a few selected areas of the country. With that in mind, this study was designed to determine a household's predicted willingness-to-adopt a biogas system in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. The study is based on primary data collected from four districts: Peshawar, Nowshera, Charsadda, and Mardan. Data was collected from 200 livestock farming households selected through an equal allocation technique. Probit analysis was used to identify those factors influencing the willingness of a household to adopt a biogas system. The results of the probit model reveal that the education level of the respondents, total daily electric shortfall, the effect of electric shortfall on childrens' education and female drudgery, and respondents' awareness regarding the pros and cons of using biogas were statistically significant factors. On the basis of p < 0.001 for the overall regression model, which means that the overall model was highly significant, it is concluded that the socio-economic characteristics of the population are the main factors contributing to the adoption of a biogas system in the area. The study recommends that increased public and private investments should be encouraged and the government's financial policies made in a pro-poor fashion for the large-scale promotion of biogas technology in Pakistan.
•Strong positive attitudes towards MaaS are recognised in Madrid (Spain).•Four clusters of MaaS users are identified according to attitudinal and personality factors.•Low technology affinity and low ...openness to “new mobilities” are the main barriers for adopting MaaS.•MaaS-lovers seem the most likely to reduce their private car usage in favour of alternative modes.
Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is expected to significantly change our mobility patterns. However, it is still not clear who will accept this new mobility paradigm and how it will affect travellers’ behaviours. In this study, we identify a set of attitudinal and personality factors relevant for MaaS adoption based on a survey comprising 1,000 respondents in the metropolitan area of Madrid (Spain). The results show strong positive attitudes towards MaaS after being validated through a structural equation model. The higher the percentage of multimodal travellers, the more they are open to “new mobilities”, the greater their technological capabilities and curiosity, and the lower their cost sensitivity, then the higher the adoption potential for MaaS. Our analysis reveals four clusters in terms of individuals’ intention to use MaaS technologies (technological car-followers, unimodal travellers, MaaS-lovers and active public-transport supporters). Motivated by a significant environmental sensibility, MaaS-lovers appear to be the most likely to reduce their private car usage in favour of alternative modes. Overall, we recognise two main barriers that can frustrate MaaS adoption: low technology affinity and low openness to sharing-mobility services. Policies that focus on these two aspects can encourage MaaS acceptance.
Conventionally, public transportation has been the responsibility of the government. In developing countries, however, government-provided public transportation is often inadequate: people’s mobility ...needs are best met by private modes, such as shared auto-rickshaws. In India, auto-rickshaws serve as a popular last-mile transportation alternative as well as a public transportation substitute. The mode share of auto-rickshaws in major Indian cities is significant. Electrifying this mode will certainly result in a significant reduction in air pollution levels. It is therefore imperative to identify the factors which influence rickshaw operators (ROs)’ willingness to adopt battery-operated rickshaws (BORs) in India. The present study aims to identify and explore the factors that contribute to the adaptability of battery electric vehicles in India and measure the satisfaction level of ROs with the selected factors. By using structural equation modeling, the present research found that, from the viewpoint of 478 ROs, vehicle-related attributes and economy-related attributes are most influential on the adaptability of BORs. Furthermore, the one-way analysis of variance revealed that willingness to adopt BORs is significantly related to the age of the ROs. From the standpoint of government, as well as electric vehicle manufacturers, this study would be helpful in understanding the tastes, expectations, and needs of ROs if they adopt BORs.
•Full driving automation is perceived as a useful technology, but raises concerns regarding safetyand cost issues.•The desire to experiment autonomous driving is generally very high among all ...socioeconomic categories of consumers.•Willingness to adopt autonomous vehicles can be explained by both consumers’ latent traits and observable characteristics.•Consumers’ willingness to share and ride autonomous vehicles is greater than their willingness to own.
It is still unclear whether autonomous vehicles will mainly bring benefits or not to the sustainable development of people's mobility. Opinion among various stakeholders diverge since autonomous driving may have different use cases, and potential impacts will depend on how consumers will deal with it: following an ownership-based or a consumption-based approach, using autonomous vehicles as individual (as a private car), shared (as a taxi service), or collective (as a public transport service) means of transport. This paper aims at shedding light on future mobility scenarios by investigating travelers’ expectations, attitudes, and intentions towards adopting autonomous vehicles. The research method involves the estimation of hybrid choice models based on data collected through a Stated Intention survey. Results of an exploratory study conducted in Italy show that the willingness-to-adopt autonomous vehicles can be explained by both observable and latent traits of individuals, giving evidence of different policy implications. Moreover, the desire to experiment autonomous driving is on average very high, but consumers are more willing to share or ride autonomous vehicles, rather than purchasing them for personal use.
The research aimed to understand farmers’ willingness to adopt (WTA) and willingness to pay (WTP) for precision pesticide technologies and analyzed the determinants of farmers’ decision-making. We ...used a two-stage approach to consider farmers’ WTA and WTP for precision pesticide technologies. A survey of 545 apple farmers was administered in Bohai Bay and the Loess Plateau in China. The data were analyzed using the double-hurdle model. The results indicated that 78.72% of respondents were willing to apply precision pesticide technologies provided by service organizations such as cooperatives and dedicated enterprises, and 69.72% were willing to buy the equipment for using precision pesticide technologies. The results of the determinant analysis indicated that farmers’ perceived perceptions, farm scale, cooperative membership, access to digital information, and availability of financial services had significant and positive impacts on farmers’ WTA precision pesticide technologies. Cooperative membership, technical training, and adherence to environmental regulations increased farmers’ WTP for precision pesticide technologies. Moreover, nonlinear relationships between age, agricultural experience, and farmers’ WTA and WTP for precision pesticide technology services were found.
A Method to increase the capacity of farmers is through farmer institutions. BUMP or know as (Farmer-Owned Enterprise) is one of the farmer institutions which incorporate in the agricultural ...commodity association. BUMP is helpful association for increasing farmer’s income and knowledge, facilitating farmers in obtaining production facilities and also capital, and facilitating the sale of crops to increase the productivity of agricultural products. However, behind the benefits provided, there are challenges that must be faced related to the willingness of farmers to adopt innovations. This study pays attention to how the influence of self-efficacy and attitude on the willingness to adopt is supported by the variables Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness. This research was conducted in Dadaplangu Village, Ponggok District, Blitar Regency. Respondents in the study consist of 35 members of Gapoktan Rukun Sentosa who were taken by a saturated sampling technique. The result analysis of this study using SEM PLS showed that self-efficacy, attitude, perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness influenced the farmers' willingness to adopt the innovation.
The present study examines, through a behavioral survey, the self-reported intentions of consumers in Greece, Portugal and Spain, in relation to a residential hybrid system that offers ...heating/cooling and domestic hot water (DHW); the system combines ground source heat pumps, solar thermal panels and thermal energy storage. A positive attitude concerning the adoption intention of the system has been recorded, while the results on Willingness to Pay (WTP) and acceptable payback period reveal that there is a potential market for the hybrid system in the three countries. The analysis indicates that consumers’ intentions are similar among the three countries, with the only statistical significant difference occurring between Spain and Portugal on the subject of WTP for the system. The socioeconomic factors that are identified to have an effect on consumers’ intentions in relation to the hybrid system are gender, income, educational level, occupation, past investments in thermal energy systems and percentage of income spent on household energy needs; the corresponding residence characteristics include location, building type, dwelling size, year of construction and existing system for space heating and DHW. The study’s findings can contribute to the broader understanding of consumers’ behavior concerning the adoption of residential heating/cooling and DHW systems.
•Consumers’ intentions for a hybrid system offering heating/cooling and DHW were investigated.•The system combines ground source heat pumps, solar thermal panels and thermal energy storage.•A behavioral survey was performed in Greece, Portugal and Spain.•Perceived benefits, willingness to accept, willingness to pay and acceptable payback period were examined.•Various socioeconomic and residence characteristics were identified to affect the issues under investigation.
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