Exploring the Impact of Innovation Resistance on Public Adoption of Urban Air Mobility: Environmental Concern and Innovativeness as Moderators

Urban air mobility (UAM) helps to revolutionize intra‐ and intercity transportation systems and fosters a more sustainable future. Prior research has primarily concentrated on consumers’ adoption of UAM from the perspective of technology acceptance and diffusion, overlooking the crucial dimension of innovation resistance. This study addresses this oversight by integrating the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) framework with the innovation resistance theory (IRT). Specifically, it employs personal innovativeness and environmental awareness as moderating variables and negative attitude as a mediation factor. An online survey in 2024 in China, and 695 valid responses were used to test the proposed hypotheses. The results indicate that usage barriers, value concerns, risk perceptions, and traditional norms are significantly and positively correlated with negative attitudes, ultimately leading to a diminished intention to adopt UAM. Notably, personal innovativeness and environmental awareness mitigate the impact of risk perceptions and traditional norms on these negative effects. The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of consumer resistance toward UAM and provide valuable insights for scholars and marketers in devising strategies to overcome these barriers and facilitate the adoption of UAM systems.