Antecedents and outcomes of customer engagement with climate-friendly transportation services

Abstract

Despite widespread awareness of climate change, more environmentally friendly products often struggle to generate customer engagement (CE). To address this disconnect, the paper investigates the antecedents and outcomes of CE with climate-friendly services in the transportation sector through two empirical studies. Study 1 uses an online experiment (n = 261) to investigate CE with an e‑cargo bike delivery service, employing PLS-SEM to test how openness-to-experience, conscientiousness, and message framing affect CE. Results show that both personality traits positively influence CE, and that altruistic message appeals generate significantly higher CE than egoistic appeals. CE, in turn, enhances consumer attitudes and purchase intentions. Study 2 (n = 400) extends the investigation to an EV hire service, testing the psychological mechanism underpinning message framing effects. It identifies that altruistic appeals enhance self-worth, which in turn increases CE with climate-friendly services. Together, the studies advance CE theory and offer guidance for designing communication strategies. © 2026 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/