Users' adoption intentions of ridesharing services in Lahore, Pakistan: An empirical examination with an extended technology acceptance model

The advancement of information and communication technologies (ICT), especially smartphones have fueled the growth of the sharing economy. Ridesharing is a sustainable and viable future transport mode that efficiently matches passengers with similar origins and destinations in the same vehicle. It is imperative to understand the determining factors that influence the users' intent towards these services. This research extends the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by incorporating user innovativeness (UI), environmental awareness (ENA), trust (TRU), and perceived risk (PR) to analyze intentions towards ridesharing. The theoretical model was tested using the data collected through a questionnaire survey from 302 users in Lahore, Pakistan. The results showed the positive association of factors such as UI, perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), TRU and ENA with attitude towards the use (ATU), which indirectly leads to the adoption of such services whereas the factors such as PR has a negative association with users' attitude towards ridesharing services. Furthermore, the users' attitude has a positive relationship with their intentions towards the adoption of such services. Research has identified gender, profession, car ownership, and age as significant factors in determining behavior towards adopting ridesharing services. The research suggests implementing effective policy measures to authorities based on these results.