Research highlights ► Social interactions can influence car buyer perceptions of PHEVs. ► Social proximity provides a useful basis for mapping car buyers’ social networks. ► Interactions addressing societal PHEV benefits or involving very close people experienced with alternative fuels are more influential for PHEV drivers.

    Abstract We explore the role of interpersonal influence in car buyer’s perceptions of plug-in hybrid vehicles. The context is a PHEV demonstration project at the University of California, Davis, from which individuals from the social networks of 10 households participated in a four to six-week trial. Social interactions were observed between participants and members of their social networks, i.e., alters. The work included social network mapping, a social episode diary, and ranking of experience influences. It is found that interpersonal influence plays an important role in participants’ assessment of plug-in hybrid vehicles technology and that interactions between participants and an alter are more likely to influence the participant’s assessment if: societal aspects of the plug-in hybrid vehicles are addressed, the alter has relatively more alternative-fuel expertise, or the participant and alter are very close socially.


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    Title :

    Interpersonal influence in the early plug-in hybrid market: Observing social interactions with an exploratory multi-method approach


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    2010-01-01


    Size :

    10 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English





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