The innovation catalyst: the role of motivated consumers in accelerating driverless taxi adoption through confirmation-driven satisfaction

Driverless taxis have attracted considerable attention as promising solutions to mitigate traffic congestion, enhance road safety, and improve transportation efficiency. Although prior research has examined public perceptions of autonomous vehicles (AVs), the role of motivated consumer innovativeness (MCI) in sustaining adoption of driverless taxi services remains underexplored. This study integrates MCI with expectation confirmation theory (ECT) to develop a novel framework in which innovation-driven motivations influence repurchase intention through the sequential mediation of expectation confirmation and satisfaction. Drawing on a nationwide survey of 512 users of driverless taxis in China, we analyze travel behaviours and preferences using path analysis within a structural model to identify latent relationships among key variables. The results indicate that MCI significantly influences their repurchase intention, highlighting the crucial mediating roles of expectation confirmation and satisfaction in this process. These findings offer actionable guidance for policymakers seeking to accelerate the integration of driverless taxis, underscoring the need to align policy design with consumer innovativeness. This research contributes to management scholarship by elucidating the interplay between transport psychology and technology adoption, while offering empirically grounded strategies for stakeholders navigating the autonomous vehicle landscape.