Transition to sustainable transport: understanding the antecedents of consumer's intention to adopt electric vehicles from the emotional research perspective.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are recognized as one of the effective measures to realize sustainable transport. Therefore, many countries have issued related policy initiatives and measures to promote EVs. However, consumer's cognition and acceptance of EVs is not ideal, which affects the early diffusion speed of EVs on the market. This research attempts to explore how consumer's driving experience affects EVs adoption intention from the perspective of consumer's emotional response (satisfaction and trust) by using stimulus-organism-response framework. Based on the analysis of 692 sample data collected through questionnaire survey, we found that consumer's driving experience has a significant and positive impact on EVs adoption intention. Meanwhile, driving experience also significantly and positively affects consumer's satisfaction while has no significant effect on trust. Furthermore, satisfaction has a significantly positive effect on trust, and satisfaction and trust are both significantly and positively associated with EVs adoption intention. The results further uncovered that satisfaction not only plays a mediating role between driving experience and adoption intention but also plays a multiple mediating role between driving experience and adoption intention together with trust. On this basis, relevant recommendations have been made to promote the development of EVs from the perspective of government and enterprise.

Moving towards sustainable purchase behavior: examining the determinants of consumers' intentions to adopt electric vehicles.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are known to be effective in reducing dependence on fossil fuels, in turn reducing the emission of greenhouse gas and other pollutants. To promote EVs, considerable efforts and measures have been taken. However, the public's awareness and acceptance of EVs are still low, which has affected the diffusion of EVs in the market. Based on the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework, this research aims to explore how consumers' EV driving experience (S) affects their emotions and cognitions regarding EVs (O: perceived relative advantage, perceived ease of use, and perceived risk of EVs) and then activates their intentions to adopt EVs (R). Based on survey data from 692 respondents, the results suggested that consumers' EV driving experience has a significantly positive effect on perceived relative advantage and perceived ease of use, and then perceived relative advantage and perceived ease of use positively affect consumers' intentions to adopt EVs. The EV driving experience negatively affects perceived risk, and perceived risk is also negatively associated with EV adoption intentions. Furthermore, consumers' EV driving experience also has a significant direct effect on EV adoption intentions. Based on the research results, relevant recommendations and suggestions have been proposed to promote EVs from the government and enterprise perspectives.

Climate-change information, health-risk perception and residents' environmental complaint behavior: an empirical study in China.

Motivating residents to deliver environmental complaints is beneficial for environmental authorities to help them manage environmental issues and alleviate the adverse effects caused by climate change. The major aim of the present study is to understand how climate-change information and residents' health-risk perceptions (both physical and mental dimensions) affect residents' environmental complaint behavior. The research framework was developed according to planned behavior theory, risk perception behavior and information behavior models. This framework was empirically assessed by employing questionnaire survey data gathered from 1273 respondents in China. The results indicate that climate-change information and residents' health-risk perceptions have all significantly positive effects on residents' attitudes toward environmental complaints and their intention to submit environmental complaints. Meanwhile, residents' health-risk perception is also positively affected by climate-change information. Mental health-risk perception plays a much stronger role in determining a residents' attitude and intention to submit an environmental complaint than does physical health-risk perception. Furthermore, attitude toward environmental complaint, perceived behavioral control and subjective norm all have significantly positive effects on a residents' intention to submit an environmental complaint. Additionally, this study also addresses the intention-behavior gap and suggests a positive relationship between intention and behavior. The present study may provide some practical implications to motivate residents to submit environmental complaints.

Understanding corporate surplus food donation in China: testing the roles of environmental concern, altruism, past experience, and perceived risk.

This paper investigates the motives behind corporate giving and determines whether perceived risk plays a major role in corporate surplus food donation intention. A conceptual model is developed from the perspectives of perceived risk, economic concern, past behavior, and moral motives. A questionnaire survey is conducted among food manufacturers and retailers in the Sichuan Province in China. A total of 143 valid observations are used to conduct structural equation modeling analysis. The results show that corporate reputation, legislation, and business risks are the main sub dimensions of risks that corporations perceive. Perceived risk, past behavior, environmental concern, and altruism affect corporate donation intention significantly. Implications of the findings for promoting surplus food donation are also discussed.

An Augmented Risk Information Seeking Model: Perceived Food Safety Risk Related to Food Recalls.

Food safety is of worldwide concern. As an effective mechanism governing food safety, food recalls are widely applied around the world. Though it is well known that food recalls can have substantial, negative impacts on corporate reputation and marketing, we know relatively little related to what factors motivate people to seek related information after the recall announcement. This study attempts to elucidate the determinants of information-seeking intention in the context of food safety in food recalls by using an augmented risk information-seeking model. A survey of 631 Chinese residents was used to explore the proposed framework. The results show that current knowledge, risk perception, perceived channel beliefs, and perceived information-gathering capacity (PIGC) are all significant predictors of information need and information-seeking intention. It was also confirmed that risk perception has a positive correlation with seeking need. These findings are important for policymakers, recalling manufacturers, and retailers to develop strategies for better risk communication in food recall announcements.

Communicating Online Diet-Nutrition Information and Influencing Health Behavioral Intention: The Role of Risk Perceptions, Problem Recognition, and Situational Motivation.

Despite the concerns raised about the impact of online health information on users, research has not specifically explored different types of information behaviors people exhibit during the communicative process. In this article, we address this research gap by combining the Situational Theory of Problem Solving with considerations of multiple dimensions of risk perception, such as affective and deliberative. This study constructs a hypothetical model to explore how online users' risk perceptions and information behaviors (information seeking, forefending, and forwarding) influence their health behavioral intention. A survey collected data from 1,463 participants at two healthcare centers in China. Based on the structural equation modeling, multiple dimensions of risk perception play a distinctive role in communicating online health information and forming health behavioral intention. Furthermore, information forwarding, an essential information behavior, influences deliberative risk perception more than information forefending, and it is a much better predictor of individuals' health intention than information seeking. Implications and suggestions for health communication research are discussed.

Determinants and the Moderating Effect of Perceived Policy Effectiveness on Residents' Separation Intention for Rural Household Solid Waste.

Currently, villages "besieged with garbage" have become a serious problem in rural areas of China. Separation of rural residential solid waste (RRSW) is one of the main strategies for waste reduction. Although previous studies have analyzed the social and psychological motivations of residents' separation intention for municipal solid waste (MSW), little attention has been paid to the situation in rural areas. This paper investigates key factors influencing rural residents' separation intention, as well as analyzing the moderating effects of perceived policy effectiveness on the relationship between the determinants and the intention, using survey data of 538 rural residents in the province of Sichuan in China. The results show that all the proposed key factors influence the separation intention significantly. Furthermore, the policies were divided into two types and the moderating effects were tested for each type. The results show that the perceived effectiveness of both the inducement policy and the capacity building policy moderated the relationship between attitude and separation intention positively, while the perceived effectiveness of the inducement policy moderated the relationship between subjective norms and intention negatively. The findings provide insightful information for policymakers to design effective RRSW separation policies.

Confucian Culture as Determinants of Consumers' Food Leftover Generation: Evidence from Chengdu, China.

Food waste is a worldwide problem due to its effects on carbon emission, water pollution, and arable lands. Previous studies of food waste generation and reduction focus on demographic, psychological, and situational factors, whereas the effects of culture in different countries have been ignored. This paper investigates the influence of Confucian culture on behaviors that waste food, considering additional factors of face saving and group conformity. We used an integrated behavioral intention model combining the TPB model and Lee's modified Fishbein model. The results show that including the constructors of Confucian culture increases the predictive power of the model. Face saving and group conformity are found to significantly influence attitude toward food waste reduction. Face saving can greatly reduce the intention to pack leftovers, and group conformity has a significant effect on the ordering of small portion sizes. Based on these results, we give a discussion and put forward with suggestions to the government and the catering industry. Limitations and implications for future research are provided accordingly.

An Empirical Study of the Volkswagen Crisis in China: Customers' Information Processing and Behavioral Intentions.

Product-harm crises usually lead to product recalls, which may cause consumers concern about the product quality and safety. This study systematically examines customers' immediate responses to the Volkswagen product recall crisis in China. Particular attention was given to customers' responses to the risk information influencing their behavioral intentions. By combining the protective action decision model and the heuristic-systematic model, we constructed a hypothetical model to explore this issue. A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data involving 467 participants drawn from the customers of Volkswagen. We used structural equation modeling to explore the model. The results show that customers' product knowledge plays an important role in their responses to the crisis. Having more knowledge would make them perceive a lower risk, but they might need even more information, making them more likely to seek and process information, and subsequently increasing their positive behavioral intentions toward the firm (that is pro-firm behavioral intentions). Risk perception increased customers' information needs, information seeking, and information processing but decreased their pro-firm behavioral intentions. In addition to promoting information seeking, information needed to also facilitate customers' systematic processing and thus increase their behavioral intentions to take corrective action. Customers' behavioral intentions were also spurred by systematic processing, but failed to be predicted by information seeking. In summary, theoretical and practical implications and suggestions for further research are also discussed.

Modeling pollution control and performance in China's provinces.

The paper constructs a pollution control performance (PCP) evaluation model by introducing the norm of n-dimensional space. The PCP of 30 Chinese provinces for the period of 2003-2008 is evaluated based on the model and the factors influencing China's pollution control are further examined. It is found that: (1) China's PCP has improved rapidly but there is a large regional imbalance with the PCP of Eastern China being much better than that of Central and Western China; (2) to improve the level of China's PCP, government policies should consider industrial structure adjustment, restricting industry entries and increased investment in pollution abatement and R&D.

Timing crisis information release via television.

When and how often to release information on television are important issues in crisis and emergency risk communication. There is a lot of crisis information, including warnings and news, to which people should have access, but most of it is not significantly urgent to interrupt the broadcasting of television programmes. Hence, the right timing for the release of crisis information should be selected based on the importance of the crisis and any associated communication requirements. Using recursive methods, this paper builds an audience coverage model of crisis information release. Based on 2007 Household Using TV (HUT) data for Hefei City, China, the optimal combination of broadcasting sequence (with frequencies between one and eight times) is obtained using the implicit enumeration method. The developed model is applicable to effective transmission of crisis information, with the aim of reducing interference with the normal television transmission process and decreasing the psychological effect on audiences. The same model can be employed for other purposes, such as news coverage and weather and road information.