Role of Innovativeness in US Electric Air Taxi Adoption Dynamics
DOI: 10.32866/001c.133789
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Summary
This study investigates the behavioral intentions of United States travelers regarding the adoption of Electric Air Taxis (EAT) for long-distance airport access. Motivated by the underexplored application of EAT in Regional Air Mobility (RAM) compared to Urban Air Mobility, the research integrates two theoretical frameworks: the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory. The primary objective was to determine how innovativeness levels categorize adopters and how specific technology acceptance determinants—performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions—shape usage intentions across these groups. The researchers conducted an online survey between May and June 2024, collecting data from 910 US adults who had traveled 75–200 miles to or from an airport within the preceding six months. To classify respondents, the study employed confirmatory factor analysis to validate innovativeness measures, followed by k-means clustering to segment participants into early adopters, the majority, and laggards. Factorial invariance testing ensured measurement consistency across groups. The analysis utilized structural mean modeling to compare latent variable means and multi-group structural equation modeling to examine the relationships between UTAUT constructs and behavioral intention across the three innovativeness categories. The findings validated Rogers’ classification, revealing that early adopters exhibited the highest intention to use EAT, while laggards showed the lowest intention and notable resistance. Early adopters reported higher perceptions of facilitating conditions and social influence compared to other groups, whereas laggards demonstrated lower perceptions across all UTAUT constructs. In terms of predictive power, performance expectancy was a key driver of intention for the majority and laggards but was less critical for early adopters. Conversely, social influence had the strongest impact on early adopters’ intentions. Effort expectancy consistently predicted intention across all groups, with a slightly stronger effect for early adopters. Facilitating conditions were not significant predictors for any group, indicating that resource availability and support are not primary drivers of adoption intention. The study concludes that perceived ease of use, social validation, and the utility of EAT for airport access are the primary motivators for potential adopters. The results suggest that EAT functions as a disruptive innovation, initially appealing to early adopters through superior performance and social influence before diffusing to the broader market. These findings highlight the importance of integrating innovativeness-based categorization with technology acceptance models to accurately predict adoption dynamics for emerging mobility technologies.
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| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | Crossref | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-25 |
| archive | success | canonical_url | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-26 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-25 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-25 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-06-25 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-25 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 6 | 2026-06-25 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-26; verification: verified.
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