Umeå University's logo

Despite the climate emergency, marketing managers in the automotive industry face challenges in stimulating demand for innovations that can decrease greenhouse gas emissions, such as electric vehicles (EVs). Applying the value-identity-personal norm model, this study investigates the influence of normative factors on eco-friendly brand experience and brand loyalty for electric vehicles. We use structural equation modelling to analyse survey data collected from owners of electric vehicles in Sweden. The results show that personal norms directly and positively impact eco-friendly brand experience but not brand loyalty. The impact of personal norms on brand loyalty is found to be fully mediated by eco-friendly brand experience. Based on the findings, we encourage future research to explore the interrelationships between norms and branding, and their potential to stimulate pro-environmental behaviour. 

Worldwide greenhouse gas emissions are still ascending. A significant part of the emissions stems from privately used vehicles running on the combustion of fossil fuels. Replacing combustion engine vehicles with electric vehicles would decrease the greenhouse gas emissions caused by traffic. Therefore, purchasing and using electric vehicles contributes to a more sustainable society, and can be conceptualized as sustainable consumption. To support the transition towards electric vehicles, this doctoral dissertation investigates the effects of norms, branding, and spillover on purchasing of electric vehicles.

The dissertation is composed of four different papers – one literature review and three empirical quantitative papers – that address different aspects of the topic as a whole. The first paper is a systematic literature review on branding in the automotive industry and highlights four major themes in the field. These themes are cornerstones of previous research and promising avenues for future research. The second paper incorporates aspects from the first paper and investigates the effects of normative considerations on eco-friendly brand experience and brand loyalty of electric vehicle owners. Normative considerations are a set of variables from the value-identity-personal norm (VIP) model, a norm-based theory designed to explain pro-environmental behavior and sustainable consumption. Eco-friendly brand experience refers to the degree different car brands are experienced as eco-friendly. Brand loyalty measures how loyal consumers are to their car brand. The third paper follows the connection between norms and branding, and adds spillover to the analysis. The result is a taxonomy of electric vehicle owners based on a cluster analysis according to the owners' normative considerations, spillover, and brand loyalty. The investigated spillover aims at understanding if electric vehicle owners believe that trying electric vehicles at the workplace causes private interest in electric vehicles. Finally, paper four culminates in measuring effects on private purchase intention of employees who drive electric vehicles at work. Specifically, this paper analyses the effects of normative considerations on eco-friendly brand experience, spillover, and purchasing intention.

The synthesized results demonstrate that the VIP model can explain how consumers build eco-friendly brand experience. In return, the latter impacts consumers' brand loyalty and purchase intention. Importantly, the effect of eco-friendly brand experience on purchase intention is mediated by spillover, which means that consumers who make eco-friendly brand experience at work are more likely to develop private purchase intention. These findings spark several implications for research, namely that branding can play an important role for fostering sustainable consumption, and that synchronizing consumers' norms with a brand is particularly impactful. For practitioners, the findings of this dissertation imply that electric vehicles should be marketed more frequently towards companies and organizations, because employees who drive electric vehicles at work often become interested in electric vehicles privately too. In those cases, the workplace functions like a try-out area, where employees gain positive experience with electric vehicles.

De globala utsläppen av växthusgaser fortsätter att öka. En avsevärd del av utsläppen kommer från bilar i privat användning som drivs av fossila bränslen. Växthusgasutsläppen orsakade av trafiken skulle minska om man ersatte bilar med förbränningsmotor med elbilar. Därför bidrar köp och användning av elbilar till ett mer hållbart samhälle och kan betraktas som hållbar konsumtion. För att stödja övergången till elbilar undersöker denna doktorsavhandling effekterna av normer, branding och spillover på köp av elbilar.

Avhandlingen består av fyra olika artiklar – en litteraturöversikt och tre empiriskt kvantitativa artiklar – som behandlar olika aspekter av ämnet som helhet. Den första artikeln är en systematisk litteraturöversikt av branding inom bilindustrin och belyser fyra huvudteman inom området. Dessa teman är hörnstenar i tidigare forskning och visar lovande vägar för framtida forskning. Den andra artikeln införlivar aspekter från den första artikeln och undersöker effekterna av normativa överväganden på miljövänlig varumärkeserfarenhet och varumärkeslojalitet hos ägare av elbilar. Normativa överväganden är en uppsättning variabler från värderings-identitets-personlig norm (VIP)-modellen, en normbaserad teori som utformats för att förklara miljövänligt beteende och hållbar konsumtion. Miljövänlig varumärkeserfarenhet avser den utsträckning som olika bilmärken upplevs som miljövänliga. Varumärkeslojalitet mäter hur lojala konsumenter är mot sitt bilmärke. Den tredje artikeln följer sambandet mellan normer och branding och lägger spillover till analysen. Resultatet är en taxonomi av elbilsägare baserad på en klusteranalys enligt ägarnas normativa överväganden, spillover och varumärkeslojalitet. De undersökta spillover-effekterna syftar till att förstå om elbilsägare tror att prova elbilar på arbetsplatsen väcker ett privat intresse för elbilar. Slutligen kulminerar artikel fyra i att mäta effekterna på privat köpintention hos anställda som kör elbil i tjänsten. Mer specifikt analyserar denna artikel effekterna av normativa överväganden på miljövänlig varumärkeserfarenhet, spillover och köpintention.

De syntetiserade resultaten visar att VIP-modellen kan förklara hur konsumenter bygger upp miljövänlig varumärkeserfarenhet. Denna påverkar i sin tur konsumenternas varumärkeslojalitet och köpintention. Det är viktigt att effekten från miljövänlig varumärkeserfarenhet på köpintentionen medieras av spillover-effekten, vilket betyder att konsumenter som har miljövänlig varumärkeserfarenhet på jobbet är mer benägna att utveckla privat köpintention. Dessa resultat ger upphov till flera implikationer för forskningen, nämligen att varumärken kan spela en viktig roll för att främja hållbar konsumtion, och att det är särskilt effektfullt när konsumenternas normer synkroniseras med ett varumärke. Ur ett praktiskt perspektiv tyder resultaten av denna avhandling att elbilar bör marknadsföras oftare mot företag och organisationer, eftersom anställda som kör elbilar på jobbet ofta blir intresserade av elbilar även privat. I dessa fall fungerar arbetsplatsen som ett testområde, där anställda får positiva erfarenheter av elbilar.

This master thesis analyzes the influence of psychological barriers of consumers from Germany, Sweden, and Iran for using sustainable transportation modes. Climate change has started to change the way people travel. Yet prior research has shown that consumers from all over the world lack consistency between their behavioral intention and their actual behavior. In the case of traveling, this means that a significant number of consumers intends to use sustainable transportation modes, but fails to use them in the end. The reasons for this so-called intention-behavior gap in consumers' minds have been researched successfully and frequently in the past two decades. The novelty of this present thesis is the international comparison of travelers from three different countries and the explicit focus on voluntary travel. The according research questions are:

RQ 1:  To what extent is there a gap between the intention and behavior of leisure travelers          regarding choosing sustainable transportation vehicles?

RQ 2:  Which group of consumers (inclined abstainers or disinclined actors^[1]) plays the bigger      role in creating this gap?

RQ 3:  What are the determinants and barriers of using more sustainable transportation     vehicles in leisure transportation?

RQ 4:  How is the sustainable behavior of leisure travelers in Sweden, Germany, and Iran            different?

To answer the research questions, an online survey in Swedish (n₁ = 130), German (n₂ = 128), and Persian (n₃ = 127) language was carried out ( ∑ n = 385) in April 2020 with a convenience sampling method and analyzed in May 2020. The results show that there is a slightly positive intention-behavior gap in the Swedish sample and a slightly negative intention-behavior gap in the Iranian sample. In the German sample, no significant intention-behavior gap has been found. Moreover, a higher level of environmental attitude, a higher level of environmental knowledge, a higher level of perceived effectiveness (of the consumers' own actions), and a higher level of social norms increases the intention of leisure travelers in Sweden, Germany, and Iran to use sustainable vehicles for leisure traveling - both for short and for long trips. The impact of perceived value and perceived price of sustainable transportation modes, as well as the impact of consumers' sustainable lifestyle on the on the travel intention are not supported in all three countries. Additionally, distance between origin and destination has been found to moderate the impact of determinants on intention. The moderating role of distance also varies in different countries.

^[1] See the literature review chapter for an explanation