The deployment of electric vehicles (EVs) contributes significantly to the sustainability of world economic growth. However, despite the intensive promotion of EVs by car manufacturers and governments, majority of the drivers remains in the wait-and-see stage. Therefore, to understand how characteristics and adoption mechanisms of potential customers might shed light on the increasing of EV adoption. In this study, we investigate how lead userness is associated with EV adoption. Build on the diffusion of innovation theory, we examine the mechanisms through which lead userness affects EV adoption. By empirically analysing a sample collected from 307 members of China's EV online community, we show that lead userness plays a significant role in predicting EV adoption. In addition, we find that social capital and domain-specific innovativeness jointly mediate this positive relationship while ecological attitudes positively moderate the effect of lead userness on EV adoption. Our findings contribute to research of EV adoption behaviour and provide recommendations to policymakers and manufacturers for promoting EVs.

The past decade has seen the rapid emergence of research on Big Data and its implications in our society, yet research on its impact on organizations' sustainability challenges is still at an early stage. Based on the organizational learning theory, we develop a framework to investigate the effects of Big Data capability (BDC) and further intellectual capital on a firm's sustainability‐oriented innovation performance (SIP). Using a multi‐source data collected from 358 Chinese firms, we tested our proposed hypotheses using the partial least squares‐structural equation modeling (PLS‐SEM) and the fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The results show that BDC is positively related to SIP and economic innovation performance (EIP), mediated by intellectual capital. The fsQCA results further reveal that three configurative combinations, that is, “external capability‐internal resource promotion,” “external capability and relationship building help,” and “external relationship collaboration compensation,” can lead to high SIP. This study provides new insights for firms to develop sustainability‐oriented innovation and to coordinate sustainability innovation and economic innovation practices in order to create balanced outcomes.