Telecommuting Adoption: Conceptual Framework and Model Estimation

The substitution of travel by telecommunications has long been advocated as an approach that might alleviate congestion on transportation facilities during peak periods. Among the various applications of telecommunications, telecommuting is considered a promising substitute for work trips, the major determinants of traffic congestion and air pollution during peak hours. Although positive effects from telecommuting have been demonstrated through small-scale pilot projects in the United States, systematic research is still limited, especially on the adoption of telecommuting, which ultimately determines the magnitude of its impact. A framework of the telecommuting adoption process is proposed, and a mathematical model of the employee’s telecommuting adoption process on the basis of a dynamic generalized ordinal probit model is developed. The framework identifies two principal factors in the decision process, employees and employers. Stated preferences for various telecommuting programs are elicited from employees and used to estimate the adoption model. To address correlations among responses from the same individual, a general error structure is also specified in the model. Estimation results confirm that employee adoption is affected by his or her personal, household, and job characteristics; commuting trip attributes; attitudes toward telecommuting; and the program design, defined on the basis of who assumes the additional costs of telecommuting and the corresponding salary changes for the telecommuter.