EXPRESS: The passenger waiting behavior with sunk waiting time: an empirical study in ride-sourcing market

Understanding passengers' waiting behavior is crucial in the ride-sourcing market, as it offers valuable insights into customer preferences, tolerance thresholds, and decision-making processes. During the waiting period, passengers receive updated delay announcements; however, the remaining wait time in these updates may not decrease as anticipated due to the platform's limited predictive accuracy or unexpected traffic conditions. Such expectation disconfirmation can lead to increased frustration and, in some cases, result in customers abandoning the service. In this study, we perform an empirical analysis of passengers' waiting behavior in four metropolitan areas in China using the survival analysis model. Our findings reveal an asymmetric response to expectation disconfirmation during the waiting process and display dynamic sensitivity to disconfirmation based on sunk waiting time. Furthermore, we introduce the concept of willingness-to-wait (WTW) to examine passengers' waiting behavior with the combined effects of sunk waiting time and expectation disconfirmation. The results indicate that WTW follows a non-linear decline and exhibits distinct patterns across different areas and time periods. These insights provide actionable guidance for platforms to optimize subsequent delay announcements, enhancing their ability to improve service quality.