THE ENTREPRENEURS’ PROPENSITY TO ADOPT ELECTRIC MOBILITY IN THE SHORT FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN

Abstract

In the last years, Short Food Supply Chain (SFSC) has gained relevant attention among the consumers, for its characteristics of environmental, economic and social sustainability. At the same time, recently some doubts has been raised about the environmental negative impacts that also SFSC is causing, despite the intrinsic “local” label. In particular, the reference is on the transport system and related CO2 emissions of SFSC that undermines the full achievement of environmental concerns. To deal with this challenge, electric vehicles (EVs) are seen as a viable and very promising alternative. Starting from these considerations, this study investigates the propensity of entrepreneurs operating in the SFSC to introduce EVs inside their business. In particular, in order to understand which factors affect this behaviour, the Theory of Planned Behaviour and New Ecological Paradigm have been used. Results show that farmers with high attitudes towards the shift from carbon transport systems to electrical ones, and which are more sensitive to ecological and environmental sustainability issues, are more willing to adopt EVs in their business. This is the first work that investigates the intention of local producers, operating in the SFSC, to introduce an EV for the freight transports, providing interesting theoretical, managerial and political implication, and addressing scholars towards future researches.