Table 1_Awareness without intention, attitude without action: a multi-method (SEM–ANN–fsQCA) study of Gen Z sustainable transport adoption in smart cities.xlsx

While the concept of sustainable transport is attracting attention, previous studies have mainly adopted linear analysis methods, which fail to explain various aspects of transport behavior. In response, this research employs a multi-pronged approach using a combination of ‘Structural Equation Modelling (SEM)’, ‘Artificial Neural Networks (ANN)’ and ‘fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA)’.

The study surveyed 433 Generation Z participants with a questionnaire. SEM findings highlight the importance of ‘perceived sustainability’, ‘perceived behavioural control and social influence’ in predicting adoption intention, which in turn has a strong association with use intention, with no significant direct effects observed for attitude and environmental awareness. ANN findings, by accounting for the effects of non-linearity, further improve the predictive powers by considering environmental awareness as the strongest predictor and perceived sustainability as the second strongest.