An exploratory study on factors associated with consumers’ post-purchase dissonance of electric vehicles

Abstract

Consumers’ post-purchase dissonance usually instigates after the purchase decisions are considered extremely important for marketers, resulting in severe consequences on consumer satisfaction and switching behavior. The current study aims to investigate the potential effect of consumer knowledge of electric vehicles (EVs), perceived risk, functional characteristics of EVs, attitude towards EVs on consumer post-purchase dissonance. The paper uses a quantitative approach by designing and distributing an online questionnaire to respondents. A total of 268 respondents participated and filled the online questionnaire. The data analysis revealed that functional characteristics emerge to be the leading factor per the consumer’s response, followed by perceived risk. The hypotheses testing results showed that functional characteristics, knowledge, and attitude have a statistically significant effect on post-purchase dissonance while concerning the perceived risk of EV. The results show that it has no statistically significant influence on post-purchase dissonance. Based on the results, it is critical to enhance consumer knowledge about the functional characteristics of electric vehicles to create a positive attitude that contributes to reducing post-purchase dissonance.