Attitude-behaviour Gap Research Articles

Assessing the factors of sustainable entrepreneurial attitude in context of educational institutions: AHP and DEMATEL approach

PurposeOne of the key causes of the attitude-behavior gap is inconsistency in established entrepreneurial attitude in entrepreneurship-driven educational programmes. The purpose of this research is to look at the factors that contribute to the development of sustainable entrepreneurial attitude in educational institutions.Design/methodology/approachThe multi-criteria decision-making approach has been utilized for this purpose. During the study, eight factors are extracted through experts' opinions that altogether develop the sustainable entrepreneurial attitude. Extracted factors are also classified in cause-and-effect groups for better understanding. To foster sustainability through identified factors, a structured process is also suggested through the analysis.FindingsThe outcome of the study has extracted eight factors that altogether develop and upgrade general attitude into sustainable entrepreneurial attitude; systematic execution of identified factors also ensure the sustainability of evolved entrepreneurial attitude.Originality/valueThe outcome of the study can be used by educational institutions while designing curriculum and teaching-learning pedagogy to develop sustainable entrepreneurial attitude among future entrepreneurs; concluded factors can also be used for the screening purpose while admitting potential students for the program.

Driving Green Consumption: Exploring Generation Z Consumers’ Action Issues on Sustainable Fashion in China

Environmental pollution brought by the fashion industry are increasingly a cause for concern. The rise of Generation Z has significant implications for the sustainable fashion market in China. Previous studies found an attitude-behaviour gap among this population, they recognized the importance of sustainable fashion while not taking action. This study applied mix method in two phases to find out how Chinese Generation Z is influenced by environmental knowledge and corporate social responsibility (CSR) through social media, and other factors that influence attitude- behaviour gap in sustainable fashion consumption. With the online survey completed by 168 consumers and the semi-structured interview with six Gen Z consumers, there are four major finding of this study: 1) This study found that Generation Z consumers were more positive and aware of their attitudes and behaviour towards buying sustainable fashion than non-Generation Z consumers; 2) Generation Z consumers were more consistent in their attitudes and behaviour than non-Generation Z consumers; 3) Influenced by environmental knowledge factors and brands CSR through social media, Gen Z consumers are more likely to purchase sustainable fashion products than non-Generation Z consumers. 4) Other factors such as government promotion and school education helped to mitigate the attitude-behaviour gap among Gen Z. Therefore, this study provides applicable implications for fashion companies and government on the strategies to mitigate attitude-behaviour gap among Gen Z.

Organic food consumption and contextual factors: An attitude–behavior–context perspective

AbstractThis study is grounded within the theoretical framework of attitude–behavior–context. The study examines how perceived health risk shapes both health and environmental attitudes, leading to organic food consumption. Further, we also assess the role of perceived effectiveness and green trust in moderating the proposed relationships. The data were collected from 461 consumers through Amazon Mechanical Turk platform. Our findings indicate that consumers' perception of health risk plays a significant role in developing positive environmental and health attitudes. Consequently, this leads consumers to adopt organic food. Further, this study confirms that there is an attitude–behavior gap, as both environmental and health attitudes seem to have a weak Cohen f2 effect on organic food consumption. Though perceived effectiveness moderates the relationship of organic food consumption with perceived health risk and attitude, green trust does not bridge the attitude–behavior gap. This study may help organic food marketers, policy‐makers, and retailers bridge the consumers' attitude–behavior gap.

Understanding the Gap between University Ambitions to Teach and Deliver Climate Change Education

This paper aims to determine why there is a gap between university ambitions to teach climate change education, even where formal commitments and institutional incentives exist to encourage action. To explore this, acknowledgement of prior conceptual work is considered. A new matrix emerges, which conceptualizes the influences of organizational values, organisational culture, personal values and positionality-identity on the integration of climate change education into the curriculum. The role and influence of the researcher is addressed using an auto-ethnographic approach. A thematic analysis is applied to data collected from program leaders for an undergraduate curriculum review at a medium-sized university Business School, in north-west England. Five clusters are used to structure the results and explore the narrative, before applying these to the new matrix for illustrative purposes. The discussion suggests a lack of knowledge by staff or confusion over the communicated organizational values; an organizational culture that perceives sustainability and climate change are not priorities for the institution; and an attitude-behavior gap that can be attributed to personal values. In conclusion, organizational culture can be changed to increase the priority of sustainability and climate change through an objective in staff annual Personal Development Reviews, for example. Recommendations are made for further research.

A model of behavioral climate change education for higher educational institutions

This paper puts forth a novel model of Climate Change Education (CCE) targeting to bridge the attitude-behavior gap in students’ climate action, called the behavioral CCE. It refers to relevant literature retrieved through the PRISMA model to identify the determinants of behaviors and pedagogies of CCE, prior to synthesizing a model of behavioral CCE. The model proposes CCE that comprises three domains, namely the knowledge aspect, the practical CCE and the community CCE. The knowledge aspect conveys the basic concepts and modelling of climate change as well as addresses the misconceptions and biases related to climate change. Practical CCE equips students with skills related to lifecycle assessment and carbon footprint calculations while guiding them through identifying, reducing, changing and eliminating daily activities and habits contributing significantly to anthropogenic carbon emission. Community CCE enables students to make an impact on the community and motivate the community towards climate action, thus consolidating the attitude and behavioral changes resulted from the other two CCE components.

European food quality schemes in everyday food consumption: An exploration of sayings and doings through pragmatic regimes of engagement

While European consumers generally support the principles underpinning Food Quality Schemes (FQS) sales of certified products remain modest. This phenomenon is known as ‘attitude-behaviour gap’ and considerable scholarly and policy efforts have been geared towards ‘filling’ or ‘bridging’ the gap. This study aims at casting new light on this ‘discrepancy’ between consumers' sayings and doings through a study of everyday food practices connected to FQS. We used a qualitative, multi-method research design comprising extensive ethnographic fieldwork data, gathered from 41 households across seven European countries, including interviews, walk-along tours, and food diaries, in order to understand consumers' perceptions of FQS in relation to their everyday food consumption practices. Building on convention theory and Thévenot's work, we showed that food practices can be understood through different ‘regimes of engagement’, namely different ways of thinking and behaving, following different logics corresponding to varying levels of knowledge and interest. We thus argue that the ‘attitude-behaviour gap’ should be reconceptualised as the co-existence of multiple regimes of engagement, namely a dynamic and always evolving process of adjustment through which consumers understand and engage with FQS in everyday food practices.

Sustainable Food Consumption: Demand for Local Produce in Singapore

The rapid pace of climate change has exacerbated Singapore’s ever-present vulnerability to food shortages. While most of Singapore’s current food supply is imported, the country is working towards becoming self-sufficient in at least 30% of its food demand by 2030. Though a high proportion of Singaporeans have pro-environmental views and believe that buying locally grown food is more eco-friendly, the demand for local produce remains low. To better understand the cause of this attitude–behaviour gap, this study investigated the factors influencing the purchasing decisions of local consumers, as well as their willingness to pay a premium for locally produced vegetables, eggs, and seafood in Singapore. The estimation results suggested that what primarily hinders the local produce demand of consumers with positive perceptions towards sustainability is not their income or product price. Instead, product-specific factors, such as freshness and quality of the produce, and easiness to identify the product at store were found to be positively associated with local produce purchase. Ensuring these factors can potentially lead to higher demand for local produce in Singapore. Attitudes and behaviours related to sustainability played a larger role in the willingness to pay (WTP) than purchase decision making. Thus, to enhance the WTP for local produce, educating the public regarding the sustainability aspect of local produce may prove to be effective.

Solving the luxury fashion and sustainable development “oxymoron”: A cross‐cultural analysis of green luxury consumption enablers and disablers

AbstractGreen luxury is a promising stream in the environmental marketing and sustainable development literature. Yet, scholars are still investigating why green consumers show a positive attitude toward ethical consumption but then act inconsistently by preferring conventional products due to price or quality criteria, especially in the luxury sector. Building on Heider's balance theory, this study investigates the underlying mechanisms of green luxury consumption focusing on how consumers' psychological imbalance fosters their attitude–behavior gap. The authors used partial least squares structural equation modeling to assess the green enablers and disablers predicting consumers' purchase intention. Multigroup analysis is performed on a cross‐cultural sample of 792 luxury consumers belonging to collectivistic (China) and individualistic (Italy) cultures. Moderation analysis shows how consumers' self‐enhancement and self‐transcendence impact the relationships between green enablers, disablers, and attitudes toward green luxury. An importance‐performance map analysis is conducted to identify which aspects are most important in explaining consumers' intentions to purchase green luxury products.

Promotion strategies for environmentally friendly packaging: a stochastic differential game perspective.

With the evolution of the e-commerce and express delivery industry, the consumption of packaging materials is increasing rapidly. Many members of society encourage using environmentally friendly packaging. However, due to the attitude-behavior gap, i.e., expressing concerns about environmental issues does not necessarily lead to green consumption, promoting the use of green packaging remains a challenge. This paper considers a stochastic differential game between green packaging manufacturers and e-commerce platforms. The optimal promotion strategies are derived for scenarios involving cooperation as well as non-cooperation. In addition, a welfare allocation mechanism for attaining stable cooperation is also discussed under the bargaining model. Numerical simulations and a sensitivity analysis were conducted to demonstrate the results. This paper finds that the cooperation between manufacturers and platforms can expand the actual market demand and promote the consumption of green packaging. The proposed model provides an effective tool for manufacturers and platforms to devise optimal strategies for promoting the use of green packaging.

Achieving sustainability: Determinants of conscious green purchasing behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID‐19 pandemic has spread worldwide, resulting in crises in public health and sustainable development. Aimed at understanding the determinants of conscious green purchasing behavior (GPB), this paper developed a comprehensive framework linking the moderating effect of negative environmental affective reactions (NEAR) to COVID‐19 based on the S–O–R paradigm. Using randomly selected urban residents from China's Yangtze River Delta and Bohai Rim regions, the empirical study was conducted using 559 valid responses. The results show that media and peers are the major social forces activating altruistic and egoistic motivations, while family influence was not significant. Dual motivations significantly mediated the relationships of unconditional and conditional GPB with media exposure and peer influence. Contrary to expectations, NEAR negatively moderated the formation process of conscious GPB. The findings indicate that the influence of peers on conscious GPB through dual motivations is stronger compared to media. Negative affective reactions to COVID‐19 were also found to inhibit the impact of peer influence on altruistic and egoistic motivations, as well as the path of altruistic motivation on unconditional GPB. The results of this study have important theoretical and practical implications for enterprise marketing and environmental campaigns, and narrowing the green attitude‐behavior gap.

The witzenhausen food inventory – organic food (WFI-OeL) an itemset for measuring consumers' attitudes and preferences for organic food in Germany

It is well known in consumer research on ethical and sustainable products that the attitudes of consumers recorded in studies and consumers' actual purchasing behaviour often differ. This gap between expressed attitude and actual behaviour is called the 'attitude-behaviour gap'. In this study, an item set for 'organic food' was developed, which less identify intentions and motivations but rather the actual attitudes and preferences of consumers. To this end, 21 items from 16 different literature sources and research projects have been collected and tested using an online access panel in Germany. Subsequently, an item analysis was carried out, and the reliability and validity of the items were checked. An approximately normally distributed scale comprising five items was thus created. This scale was applied in a subsequent survey. Even though the results of this study need to be verified in a further representative field survey, the newly developed item set allows a more precise recording of the actual attitudes and preferences of respondents for 'organic food'.

Toward a better understanding of the attitude–behavior gap in organic food conative loyalty: a moderation and moderated mediation analysis

PurposePrevious research has found mixed evidence of an attitude–behavior gap in organic food consumption. However, the complex mechanisms underlying this gap warrant further investigation. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of word-of-mouth (WOM), trust, and involvement in the relationship between consumer organic food attitudes and conative loyalty. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was used as underlying framework for modeling our conceptualized arguments.Design/methodology/approachA moderation and moderated mediation analysis was performed on a cross-sectional sample of 1,011 Australian organic food consumers.FindingsThe results support the TPB-inspired moderated-mediation model. Specifically, the authors found moderated mediation effects of WOM, trust, and involvement on conative loyalty via attitudes toward organics.Research limitations/implicationsThe cross-sectional research design and the focus solely on Australian consumers constitute limitations of this study.Practical implicationsThe authors' findings imply that an analysis of the attitude–behavior gap should go beyond the testing of contingent consistency hypotheses and instead combine moderation and mediation mechanisms to better model consumer decision-making leading to conative loyalty. Practitioners would face a resource challenge when targeting low-trust, low-involvement, and low-WOM consumers as developing conative loyalty of these segments would require a longer-term approach through building favorable attitudes toward organic foods.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first to demonstrate the potential of examining the attitude–behavior gap in the organic food context through a moderated mediation lens in explaining the dynamics of conative loyalty.

Energy Transition towards Sustainable Development: Perspective of Individuals’ Engagement Amid Transition Process

The energy transition towards sustainable development is a significant propeller to achieving carbon neutrality and reducing the further impact of human-induced climate change through decarbonizing the energy sector. Yet, the discussion often neglects individual engagement and participation. Emerging studies and research focus on energy transition readiness and the attitude–behavior gap on both (inter-) national and public participation levels. Still, similar bottom-up research and studies on individual engagement in energy transition are rare in the context of Asia. Based on an online questionnaire (N = 150) conducted in Hong Kong from February to March 2022, this study followed the Attitude-Behavior-Context (A-B-C) Model to investigate whether individual pro-energy transition behavior was affected by both internal socio-psychological variables and the external socio-economic context. The data collected was analyzed by Cronbach’s alpha and multiple regression analysis. Statistical results show that individuals’ internal socio-psychological variables significantly contributed to the pro-energy transition behavior of Hong Kong citizens in terms of their pro-energy transition practices and other engagements in energy transition-related activities. In contrast, pro-energy transition behavior was less explained by the socio-economic context perceived by the respondents, and the explained behavior was limited to the respondents’ other engagements in energy-transition-related activities. The above findings suggest that citizens are in line with the related policies or more readily equipped for energy transition than the government. Government bodies are encouraged to set more ambitious targets and actions to achieve the 2050 carbon neutrality goal. The conceptualization of energy behavior and habit formation may help reduce the disparity of transition readiness among different stakeholders in Hong Kong.

Does tourism development shift residents’ attitudes to the environment and protected area management?

ABSTRACT Tourism is commonly introduced or encouraged in rural areas of developing countries to improve local livelihoods and enhance conservation. While understanding resultant shifts in residents’ attitudes are important for effective management, there is scant longitudinal knowledge. This study investigated residents’ attitudes to the environment, protected area management, and tourism through a longitudinal mixed-method study from 2011 to 2020 in an Iranian rural village during early tourism stages. Quantitative and qualitative primary data were collected through surveys of residents, interviews with government officials and the village leader, and observations combined with secondary data collected over the nine-year period. This study specifically tested, and confirmed, that residents’ attitudes to the environment and protected area management must be measured separately. As attitudes to the environment and its management are commonly combined, this is the first study to measure residents’ attitudes to protected area management longitudinally. The findings revealed no significant shift in residents’ attitudes to the environment but a significant positive shift regarding protected area management. Also tested were residents’ attitudes to tourism, which were initially positive and shifted to be more positive. Finally, this study demonstrated significant negative environmental impacts, and an attitude-behaviour gap, which provide theoretical and practical contributions.

Exploring the influencing factors of Chinese rural households’ clean heating choice considering the attitude–behavior gap based on two-level classification methods

Although the Chinese government accelerated the clean heating transition in rural areas, the phenomenon of households returning to bulk coal heating remains. In previous studies applying customer satisfaction index models to predict households’ clean heating choice, the attitude–behavior gap is always ignored. To clarify the influencing factors of households’ clean heating choice considering the attitude–behavior gap, a two-level classification method was proposed in this study. On the first level, households were divided into consistent and inconsistent groups according to their corresponding satisfaction with and willingness to use clean heating. On the second level, targeted clean heating policies were proposed based on further household classification, considering the diverse effects of influencing factors. The results show that: (1) In the consistent group, rural households’ satisfaction is most vulnerable to internal psychological factors, including perceived warmth, perceived air quality, and perceived family support; in the inconsistent group, rural households’ satisfaction is most vulnerable to the heating information from householders’ working places and the subsidies’ rationality. (2) The satisfaction of households that actively approve clean heating is higher than that of households that passively accept clean heating. (3) Households without government support that do not passively accept clean heating have the highest risk of resuming bulk coal heating, followed by those who don’t actively approve and are unable to afford clean heating, but it is easier for the former to adopt clean heating through government guidance.

Impact of online convenience on generation Z online impulsive buying behavior: The moderating role of social media celebrity.

This research aims to determine which dimensions of online convenience influence generation z consumers’ cognitive and affective attitudes and online impulsive buying behavior. The moderating effect of social media celebrity is also investigated to examine the attitude-behavior gap. A total of 348 responses from Chinese users who followed digital celebrities were received using purposive sampling. Data analysis and hypothesis testing were carried out using SmartPLS, version 3 (partial least squares). The results indicated that relationship convenience, possession convenience, post possession conveniences, transaction convenience, and evaluation convenience have a crucial impact on cognitive and affective attitudes. Similarly, cognitive and affective attitudes are significant and positive predictors of generation z consumers’ online impulsive buying behavior. Moreover, empirical results supported the moderating role of social media celebrities that aid marketers in selecting a product endorser. The implications for marketers and policymakers are discussed based on the above research findings. Moreover, future research directions are suggested.

Differentiating the Attitude-Behavior Gap: A Consumer Typology

While most studies in the field of consumer research acknowledge differences between consumption patterns of distinct consumer groups, research dealing with the attitude-behavior gap has hitherto not been sufficiently linked with these findings. As a result, attitude-behavior gap has been often conceptualized as a uniform phenomenon for all consumer groups leaving variances across distinct groups largely unexplored. Based on a representative survey (N=1000) among German consumers, this paper challenges this assumption and presents five consumer clusters with different attitude-behavior gaps related to distinct demographic and socio-psychological characteristics. This typology enables analyzing the determinants of the attitude-behavior gap across different social groups and allows for more differentiated empirical research and managerial analysis. The findings contribute to the ethical consumption literature in that they differentiate applied ethics across distinct consumer groups as well as to the broader consumer research by demonstrating the relationship between individual characteristics and distinct attitude-behavior gaps.

Market adoption simulation of electric vehicle based on social network model considering nudge policies

The promotion of electric vehicle (EV) is crucial for China to achieve the carbon neutrality by 2060. However, apart from economic incentives, the large-scale market penetration of EV is still hindered by consumer behavior factors like preference and attitude, which were rarely analyzed in the existing studies. Therefore, in the present study, the market adoption of EV among the consumers with bounded rationality and attitude-behavior gap in different policy scenarios was studied by using a developed social network model, and the data mining methods were applied to collect and analyze consumers’ online behavior data. Moreover, the key nudge policies were proposed and simulated by using the developed model, and the obtained results show that: i) The nudge policy of information propaganda promotion has a considerable promotion effect on EV adoption, and combining nudge polices and charging infrastructure has much more promotion effects comparing with charging subsidy; ii) The consumers’ over communication will have negative effects on the adoption of EV, therefore nudge polices are necessary to control or reduce the over-communication properly. iii) The purchase subsidy is obviously important for promoting EV adoption at present, thus its phaseout should be carried out step by step.

Drivers and barriers for sustainable fashion consumption in Spain: a comparison between sustainable and non-sustainable consumers

ABSTRACT This research identifies and portrays the under-researched segment of sustainable fashion consumers, drawing a comparison with the average consumers in Spain, and defines the drivers and barriers for sustainable fashion consumption, further contributing to the attitude-behaviour gap literature. Based on a sample of 1,063 respondents and 23 focus group participants, and following the Theory of Planned Behaviour, the results indicate that lack of trust in fashion companies and their sustainable statements is the main reason preventing consumers from buying sustainable products or doing it more often, followed by higher prices. It appears that the more sustainably conscious consumers are, the less they buy brand-new, preferring alternatives such as second-hand (mainly) and renting. Sustainable fashion consumers demonstrate greater fashion consciousness, environmental concern, perceived consumer effectiveness, and a higher subjective norm than average consumers. Conversely, price is still a critical purchasing driver for the average consumer.

The impact of empathy with nature on green purchase behavior: An ERP study

Due to the attitude-behavior gap in green consumption, it is necessary to conduct more research on consumers’ actual purchase behavior. At present, few studies have been conducted on the impact of empathy with nature on green purchase behavior. This research explored the underlying neural mechanism of empathy with nature on consumers’ green purchase decisions by applying the event-related potentials (ERPs) approach. Behaviorally, compared with the control group, the experimental group had a higher purchase rate of green products and spent less time when buying green products. For the experimental group, buying green products required less time than buying traditional products. At the neural level, when buying green products, the N2 and N400 amplitudes of the experimental group were smaller than those of the control group. For the experimental group, buying green products elicited a smaller N2 amplitude than buying traditional products. These findings suggested that empathy with nature could reduce consumers’ decision conflict when buying green products, thereby promoting consumers’ green purchase behavior.