Ride On: Pandemic in the Backseat - A quantitative study exploring and explaining consumer behavior and intention in on-demand ridesourcing during the Covid-19 pandemic in Sweden

Sammanfattning: On-demand ridesourcing (ODRS) has become a globally accepted form of transportation among individuals. Anchored in the Sharing Economy and grown with the help of technological advancements and mobile applications offered by companies such as Uber or Bolt, previous research has brought forward a few factors that drive consumer intention to participate in ODRS (e.g., trust), as well as some attempts to explain behavior (e.g., through economic benefits). However, little is known to how and to what extent ODRS behavior and intention are influenced during and by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Focusing on Sweden, this work has used a quantitative approach and administered a cross-sectional questionnaire to test and explain the effect of seven explanatory variables, i.e., pre-pandemic participation in ODRS, perceived economic situation, anxiety and hygiene concerns, service trust, working from home, need for experience, and social distancing, on both consumer behavior (participation) during the pandemic and intention to participate. 227 individual survey responses were collected and examined by using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) analysis to test hypotheses. Findings and a revised model show that ODRS participation during the pandemic is mainly explained by pre-pandemic participation and only partially by anxiety and hygiene concerns, service trust, and social distancing. Intention is mostly influenced by both participation before and during the pandemic and only to some extent by the need for experience. This implies that Covid-19 related factors influence ODRS behavior and intention in Sweden during the pandemic to a minor extent, while the effect of past behavior in form of habits is indicating to be the leading explanatory force for both. The results are of great value to research in general and to ODRS companies, managers, as well as municipalities, who should incentivize participation for new customers and focus on the communication of high safety, trust, and ODRS as means to satisfy need for experience, if they aim for increased and continuous participation and high intention.