The dynamics of electric vehicle acceptance in corporate fleets: Evidence from Germany

Roemer, E., & Henseler, J. (2022). The dynamics of electric vehicle acceptance in corporate fleets: Evidence from Germany. Technology in Society, 68, 1-11. [101938]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2022.101938 ----------- Funding Information: We would like to thank Elina Petersone, Lukas Burs, Jannis Lux and Mathias Musiol for their support in this research project. Moreover, we thank Ulya Faupel and Sarah Lahmeyer for their constructive comments on earlier versions of the paper. The data collection for this research was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (Grant No. 16SBS001B ).Electric vehicles as part of corporate fleets play a key role in reducing CO2 emissions. However, business practice has shown that employees often refrain from using these newly procured fleet vehicles. The aim of this paper is therefore to explain the drivers and barriers of acceptance of electric vehicles on the employee's level. Based on a Grounded Theory approach, the authors extracted five main determinants from interviews with 16 experts. They were cross-checked with the literature including technology acceptance literature and electric vehicle research. To understand the dynamics of acceptance, panel data was collected in a longitudinal study with three waves in Germany. The panel data was analyzed using partial least squares (PLS) path modelling. Results show that employees' environmental concern as an attitudinal factor is the only short-term determinant triggering the first electric vehicle usage. Later, the influence of environmental concern disappears, while the impact of product-related determinants, such as enjoyment, ease of use, perceived risks, and relative advantage increases. Furthermore, a mediating effect of enjoyment emerges between ease of use on the intention to use an electric vehicle. Several important implications for decision-makers in management and policy are deduced to support short- and long-term usage of electric vehicles in corporate fleets.publishersversionpublishe

Design and marketing: Intersections and challenges

This editorial article reports on interdisciplinary research being conducted at the interface between the scientific disciplines of marketing and design. It reviews the 11 academic papers from the special issue situated at this intersection, thereby showing the richness of research happening in this liminal area. At the same time, the paper observes how the disciplines' different scopes as well as their different modi operandi inhibit the collaboration between marketing and design research. Whereas marketing largely follows the paradigm of empirical realism asking how the current world works, design largely follows the pragmatist paradigm asking how a future world can be shaped. Finally, this paper contains a number of suggestions on how to foster cooperation between the two disciplines.FCT:UIDB/04020/2020info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

How to determine the optimum weights?

Di̇rsehan, T., & Henseler, J. (2022). Modeling indices using partial least squares: How to determine the optimum weights? Quality & Quantity. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-022-01515-5. ---- Funding: Jörg Henseler gratefully acknowledges financial support from FCT Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal), national funding through a research grant from the Information Management Research Center – MagIC/NOVA IMS (UIDB/04152/2020).Indices are often used to model theoretical concepts in economics and finance. Beyond the econometric models used to test the relationships between these variables, partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM) allows the study of complex models, but it is an estimator that is still in its infancy in economics and finance research. Thus, the use of PLS-PM for composite analysis needs to be explored further. As one such attempt, this paper is focused on the determination of the indices’ optimum weights. For this purpose, the effects of the market potential index (MPI) on foreign direct investment (FDI) and gross domestic product (GDP) were analysed by implementing different weighting schemes. The assessment of the model shows that PLS Mode B leads to better model fit.publishersversionepub_ahead_of_prin

Using confirmatory composite analysis to assess emergent variables in business research

Henseler, J., & Schuberth, F. (2020). Using confirmatory composite analysis to assess emergent variables in business research. Journal of Business Research, 120, 147-156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.07.026Confirmatory composite analysis (CCA) was invented by Jörg Henseler and Theo K. Dijkstra in 2014 and elaborated by Schuberth et al. (2018b) as an innovative set of procedures for specifying and assessing composite models. Composite models consist of two or more interrelated constructs, all of which emerge as linear combinations of extant variables, hence the term ‘emergent variables’. In a recent JBR paper, Hair et al. (2020) mistook CCA for the measurement model evaluation step of partial least squares structural equation modeling. In order to clear up potential confusion among JBR readers, the paper at hand explains CCA as it was originally developed, including its key steps: model specification, identification, estimation, and assessment. Moreover, it illustrates the use of CCA by means of an empirical study on business value of information technology. A final discussion aims to help analysts in business research to decide which type of covariance structure analysis to use.publishersversionpublishe

Goodness-of-fit indices for partial least squares path modeling

This paper discusses a recent development in partial least squares (PLS) path modeling, namely goodness-of-fit indices. In order to illustrate the behavior of the goodness-of-fit index (GoF) and the relative goodness-of-fit index (GoFrel), we estimate PLS path models with simulated data, and contrast their values with fit indices commonly used in covariance-based structural equation modeling. The simulation shows that the GoF and the GoFrel are not suitable for model validation. However, the GoF can be useful to assess how well a PLS path model can explain different sets of dat

The Communication Effects of the Relative Width of Males’ Faces in Business Portraits

van Zeeland, E., & Henseler, J. (2021). E-perceptions and Business ‘Mating’: The Communication Effects of the Relative Width of Males’ Faces in Business Portraits. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 1-17. [605926]. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.605926This study investigates the relative impacts of the facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR) on the first impressions business professionals form of business consultants when seeing their photographs on a corporate website or LinkedIn page. By applying conjoint analysis on field experiment data (n = 381), we find that in a zero-acquaintance situation business professionals prefer low-fWHR business consultants. This implies that they prefer a face that communicates trustworthiness to one that communicates success. Further, we have investigated the words that business professionals use to describe their preferred consultant. These approach motivations help practitioners to improve the picture-text alignment. The results underline the necessity to critically assess the pictures and text used on websites and media platforms such as LinkedIn for business purposes, and to see them as a key element of business and self-communication that can be altered in order to improve business ‘mating.’publishersversionpublishe

A Model of Response Strategies in Strategic Alliances :: A PLS Analysis of a Circumplex Structure

The few studies investigating partners’ response behavior in strategic alliances often fail to provide empirical support for a large proportion of the relationships they hypothesized. This discrepancy between theory and empirical findings could be attributed to a misconceptualization of response strategies as independent from each other. Indeed, response strategies could be better conceptualized as a circumplex structure rather than as discrete responses. Whereas the circumplex structure of response strategies has been empirically established, it has not yet been taken into account when detecting the effects of potential antecedents on response strategies. A model that accounts for the circumplex structure thus should exhibit superior explanatory power by reducing Type II error. PLS pathmodeling is particularly suited to substantiate the superiority of such a model, however PLS path modeling as implemented in extant software is not equipped to estimate circumplex structures. Therefore, the objective of the present study is twofold. First, we extend PLS path modeling so that it can handle circumplex structures. Second, building on a circumplex structure of response strategies, we develop and test a model of alliance partners’ response strategies and key antecedents. The results of a survey of alliance managers corroborate our expectations and demonstrate that non-significant antecedents become significant when accounting for the circumplex structure. This study thus advances PLS path modeling and contributes to a better understanding of managers’ complex decision-making processes in strategic alliances