Intention to purchase electric vehicles: Evidence from an emerging market

The present study examines the effect of the need for uniqueness on motivated consumer innovativeness and its impact on attitude toward and intention to purchase electric vehicles among Turkish consumers. The study also analyzes the attitude-intention link related to purchasing electric vehicles. The data are collected from a sample consisting of 342 consumers living in several cities of Turkey through an online survey and analyzed with the Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling. The results confirm a positive relationship between consumers' need for uniqueness and motivated innovativeness. Consumers who prefer creative and unpopular product choices have high functionally, hedonically, socially, and cognitively motivated innovativeness levels. Moreover, consumers' similarity avoidance positively influences socially motivated consumer innovativeness, and motivated consumer innovativeness has a positive impact on attitude toward and intention to purchase electric vehicles. Consumers with high hedonically motivated innovativeness have a favorable attitude toward purchasing electric vehicles. Those with high cognitively motivated innovativeness are likely to purchase electric vehicles. Finally, a positive relationship exists between consumers' attitudes and intention to purchase electric vehicles. This study introduces a novel personal antecedent of electric vehicle purchase intention, examining the impact of all dimensions of motivated consumer innovativeness and focusing on the consumer perspective in an emerging market.