Understanding e-mobility adoption intention among university students in Bangladesh: evidence from an integrated PLS-SEM and fsQCA approach

Introduction Urban transport systems in developing countries face growing sustainability challenges. Yet adoption behavior for accessible e-mobility options among young populations remains underexplored, especially beyond the dominant focus on electric cars. Methods This study examines e-mobility adoption intention among 618 public and private university students in Bangladesh. The study extends the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) by incorporating consumer innovativeness, environmental concern, perceived risk, and price value. A hybrid partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) approach was applied. Results The structural model explained 57.4% of the variance in adoption intention. Price value showed the strongest direct association with adoption intention, followed by performance expectancy and perceived risk. Consumer innovativeness was associated with adoption intention both directly and indirectly, whereas environmental concern was related to adoption intention only through performance expectancy and facilitating conditions. This pattern indicates a persistent attitude-behavior gap. The fsQCA results identified six alternative configurations sufficient for high adoption intention, showing that similar outcomes may arise from different combinations of affordability, usefulness, infrastructure, risk, and innovation-related conditions. Multi-group analysis further showed that price value was more salient among financially constrained public university students, while facilitating conditions and the risk-performance relationship were more prominent among private university students. Discussion Overall, e-mobility diffusion in Bangladesh is shaped by affordability, perceived usefulness, safety, infrastructure readiness, and socioeconomic inequality. The study contributes to e-mobility adoption theory by integrating net-effect and configurational perspectives in a developing-country context. It also offers policy guidance aligned with UN SDGs 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, and 17. The findings suggest that integrated affordability, safety, infrastructure, education, and clean-energy policy packages are more suitable than isolated interventions for advancing equitable and sustainable e-mobility diffusion.