Comprehensive Action Determination Model Research Articles

What shapes food waste behaviors? New insights from a comprehensive action determination model

The sharp increase in food waste poses a serious threat to food security and environmental sustainability. However, most existing studies have investigated the determinants of food waste behaviors in a separate behavioral process without considering the potential impacts of different factors in an integrated process. To narrow this gap, a comprehensive action determination model (CADM), which integrates network embeddedness and incentive measures, was constructed to explore the impact of various determinants in different processes on food waste behaviors, using data collected from 913 residents in eastern China via an online survey. The empirical results showed that environmental concern was the largest positive factor in predicting personal norms (β = 0.80, p < 0.001), followed by network embeddedness. With the habitual process considered, residents with ingrained waste habits were more likely to waste food (β = 0.38, p < 0.001). Moreover, the normative process alleviates behavioral decisions via intentions to reduce food waste. This study confirmed the differences in the situational process and suggested that menu tips increase food waste behaviors, while incentive measures reinforce the influence of intentions on behavior. We therefore address the insufficient ingredients on the effects of different processes on behavior and provide a new perspective for formulating behavioral intervention policies.

Managing the Energy-Saving of College Students

Gaining a comprehensive understanding of the energy-saving behaviors (ESB) of college students, who represent the backbone of the future society, is imperative for advancing energy conservation initiatives. This paper employs a PLS-SEM model with 2786 valid responses to investigate the determinants of college students' ESB within the comprehensive action determination model (CADM). The results show that (1) the applicability of CADM, including the theory of planned behavior, norm activation model, and ipsative theory of behavior, was confirmed in the context of college students' ESB. (2) The cultivation of energy-saving habits significantly contributes to the promotion of ESB. (3) The availability of energy-saving access has a positive impact on ESB. (4) Media's energy-saving promotional activities positively influence the energy-saving intention. (5) Energy-saving policy incentives exert a positive moderating influence on the transition from energy-saving intentions to ESB. Based on these empirical findings, this paper provides specific and target policy recommendations.

Pro-environmental behavior of learners using CADMIACA model

This research provides clear perspective with broad spectrum on the pro-environmental behavior (PEB) of learners. It sought to determine the level of awareness, attitudes, intention, motivation, environmental social interaction, environmental education and green behavior of learners, and the significant relationship and significant difference among the variables. The researcher utilized the descriptive-qualitative survey method; through the use of a questionnaire backed up with Key Informant Interview (KII) and triangulated by Focus Group Discussion (FGD). CADMIACA, the model of this research, are from the theories of Comprehensive Action Determination Model (CADM) Motivational, Interpersonal ones (MI) and the Action Competence Approach (ACA). For the empirically causal relationship among variables, structural equation methodology (SEM) was initiated. The study included 384 learners from junior and senior high school of NDDU-IBED Lagao, General Santos City, school year 2017-2018. Overall, there is no significant difference on the PEB of junior and senior high school learners; they had a moderate energy-saving behavior and high level of environmental education. On the other hand, there is a significant difference in the attitude and global warming of students. Another study is recommended, using other respondents from a subdivision or barangay to determine whether social status might affect the totality of PEB of an individual.

Understanding who avoids single-use plastics and why: A cross-country mixed-method study

The production and consumption of single-use plastics (SUP) has disastrous consequences for the natural environment. Understanding which consumers are more likely to avoid SUP and why is crucial. Building on a comprehensive action determination model of ecological behavior, this study aims to specify the most relevant drivers and barriers to consumers' intentions to avoid SUP. The results of a qualitative study (N = 32) and a quantitative study (N = 3,000), conducted across multiple countries (United States, Russia, and Belgium), reveal that positive attitudes and subjective norms regarding SUP alternatives enhance consumers’ intentions to avoid SUP. Our analysis also shows the existence of four consumer segments—SUP addicts, SUP avoiders, the apathetic, and situation-driven SUP users—who differ in their intentions to avoid SUP and their motivations. While habits in using SUP, and situational constraints and hygienic concerns regarding SUP alternatives do not play a significant role in the whole cross-national sample, they represent crucial barriers for specific segments such as SUP addicts and situation-driven SUP users. The study concludes with several marketing and design recommendations for promoting and developing reusable alternatives for single-use plastics.

Mechanisms to change farmers' drought adaptation behaviors in Sistan and Baluchistan Province, Iran

IntroductionFrequent droughts in Iran have imposed economic and social losses on farmers. To mitigate drought implications, farmers' behaviors should be shifted towards drought adaptation. This research mainly aimed to study mechanisms for changing farmers' drought adaptation behaviors in Sistan and Baluchistan Province.MethodsThe research was conducted among farmers in this province (N = 950). The sample whose size was estimated at 275 farmers by Krejcie and Morgan's table was taken by the stratified random sampling technique. The research instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire. Data were analyzed by SPSS23 and AMOS23 software. The comprehensive action determination model was validated by confirmatory factor analysis. Furthermore, structural equation modeling was used to explore the components influencing farmers' drought adaptation behaviors.Results and discussionAccording to the results, personal norms, attitudes, objective barriers, and subjective barriers had positive and significant effects on the farmers' intention to apply drought adaptation strategies. As well, the farmers' adaptation behaviors were influenced by their behavioral intentions, objective barriers, and subjective barriers. It can be concluded that changing the mechanism of farmers' behaviors toward drought adaptation is shaped by the processes included in the comprehensive action determination model in which norms, habits, situational influences, and intentional processes are involved.

Understanding employees’ voluntary pro-environmental behavior in public organizations – an integrative theory approach

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the impact of situational factors and internal psychological states on employees’ decisions to perform voluntary pro-environmental behavior. This study used a model combining the theory of planned behavior, norm activation model and comprehensive action determination model. This stud also explored the moderating role of habit (HAB) on the relationship between intention and actual voluntary pro-environmental behavior.Design/methodology/approachData were collected through three waves of time-lagged survey questionnaires from 519 employees of public organizations in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.FindingsEmployees’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) had a significant impact on intention to perform voluntary pro-environmental behavior, as did all other variables except perceived behavioral control. HABs related to pro-environmental behavior enhanced the relationship between intention and actual behavior.Practical implicationsThe main factors influencing employees’ voluntary pro-environmental behavioral intentions were perceived CSR, personal moral norms, organizational citizenship behaviors toward the environment and attitude. Public organization planners, managers and practitioners can use these findings to improve their organization’s environmental performance, leveraging nonmandated actions.Social implicationsEmployees can achieve a better work–life balance in organizations with flexible CSR policies and which sponsor social activities to improve public well-being and individuals’ life quality. Positive sense-making of corporate social activity helps employees develop social interactions with stakeholders, increasing their involvement in society and decreasing work stress.Originality/valueThis study sheds light on the factors influencing employees’ voluntary pro-environmental behavior. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of its kind to combine these three models to explain the variables affecting intent to perform voluntary pro-environmental behavior in the workplace.

A Comprehensive Action Determination Model: A Broad Understanding of Behavioral Intention of Traditional Ranchers to Use Biogas

A Comprehensive Action Determination Model: A Broad Understanding of Behavioral Intention of Traditional Ranchers to Use Biogas

Socio-cognitive analysis of farmers' water conservation behaviour: The case of the Kavar plain, Iran.

Agricultural activities have a lot of effects on the environment so that water conservation measures help produce crops and consume water resources sustainably. The present research mainly aimed to explore farmers' water conservation behaviour using the comprehensive action determination model (CADM). The research was conducted on the farmers in the Kavar plain in Fars province, Iran (N = 4000). The sample including 351 farmers was taken by the stratified random sampling technique. The measurement instrument was a questionnaire whose face and content validity was confirmed by a panel of experts. To check its reliability, a pilot study was conducted to calculate Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability (CR). The results showed that the indicators used to measure the research variables properly fitted the factor structure and the theoretical framework of the study. Based on the results, social norms (β = 0.26), personal norms (β = 0.22), attitude (β = 0.33), objective constraints (β = 0.38), and subjective constraints (β = 0.29) affect farmers' water conservation intention positively and significantly. Also, farmers' behaviour is influenced by their intention (β = 0.6), as well as their subjective (β = 0.73) and objective constraints (β = 0.58). It can be concluded that farmers' water conservation behavior is shaped by a process that involves their normative process, habitual process, situation, and attitudes.

A contextualized comprehensive action determination model for predicting consumer electronics recommerce platform usage: A sequential mixed-methods approach

A consumer electronics recommerce platform (CERP) is a customer-to-business online marketplace for trading in and recycling used electronic products. Its success depends on the usage of many customers. Employing a sequential mixed-methods approach, this paper aims to identify and examine the factors influencing CERP usage. Proposing and validating a contextualized comprehensive action determination model, we find that monetary value and convenience indirectly affect intention to use CERP, through attitude toward CERP, while attitude toward sustainability and online trading habit directly affect intention to use CERP. The results offer instruction for practitioners to develop appropriate solutions for boosting CERP use.

Reducing Bottled Water Use among Adolescents: A Factorial Experimental Approach to Testing the Components of the “Aquatic” Program

The aim of the current study was to assess the components of the intervention program “Aquatic”, targeted at the reduction of bottled water use in adolescence. The Comprehensive Action Determination Model was chosen as a theory of change for the development and evaluation of pro-environmental behavior intervention. We examined the impact of five experimental intervention factors (water bottles, promo video, prompts, goal setting, and feedback) on eight intervention program outcomes: Perceived behavioral control, Social norm, Habit, Awareness of need, Awareness of consequence, Personal norm, Intention, and Behavior. The study sample consisted of 419 adolescents (52.8% girls, Mage = 15.21, SDage = 0.64) from Lithuania. A factorial experimental study design was used, and a Latent change modeling approach was applied for the evaluation of individual and combined effects of intervention components. Promo video, Prompts, and Goal setting had a positive effect on Awareness of consequence, Social norm, and Awareness of need, respectively. Receiving a Water bottle in combination with Promo video had a positive effect on Perceived behavioral control and in combination with Prompts as well as Goals—on Awareness of need. Water bottles, Promo-video, Prompts, and Goals, but not Feedback, had value in the promotion of targeted pro-environmental outcomes.

The Effect of Potentially Groundwater-Contaminating Ecological Disaster on Adolescents’ Bottled Water Consumption and Perceived Risk to Use Tap Water

We compared the extent to which a potentially groundwater-contaminating ecological disaster affected adolescents’ bottled water consumption and perceived risk to use tap water. The affected group consists of 221 adolescents (56.6% were girls, Mage = 15.44, SDage = 0.60), while the control group consisted of 156 adolescents (56.4% were girls, Mage = 15.50, SDage = 0.55). The Comprehensive Action Determination Model that explains pro-environmental actions was used as a basis for the comparison of adolescents’ bottled water use, both on mean and model-path levels. Perceived risk of tap water use was compared among affected and control groups (i.e., quasi-experimental manipulation check). The affected group perceived tap water use as riskier than the control group, although the difference was marginal. The affected group also demonstrated significantly lower intention not to consume bottled water than the control. Interestingly, however, path-level comparisons indicated that affected adolescents were more effective in translating their perceived control over sources of clean drinking water into intention to consume tap water.

Applying a Comprehensive Action Determination Model to Examine the Recycling Behavior of Taipei City Residents

With the occurrence of rapid global economic growth concerns about waste and its related effects on the environment are on the rise. There has been an increasing focus towards sustainable development and waste recycling as part of environmental sustainability strategies, and the encouraging of recycling behavior has received considerable attention from various environmental stakeholders. While numerous studies have used grounded theories such as the theory of planned behaviors and the norm activation model to examine environmental behaviors, a lack of consideration of other important variables in these studies has been revealed. This study aimed to address this gap by adopting the comprehensive action determination model, which comprises a wider group of influencing variables related to norms, intentions, situations, and habits. This model was tested using structural equation modelling with a sample of 386 valid questionnaires collected from Taipei City residents in the domain of recycling behaviors. Results indicated that awareness had a positive influence on personal norms towards recycling behaviors; social norms had a positive influence on personal norms towards recycling behaviors; attitudes had a positive influence on recycling intentions; social norms had a positive influence on recycling intentions; personal norms had a positive influence on recycling intentions; perceived behavior control had a positive influence on recycling intentions; recycling intentions had a positive influence on recycling behavior; and recycling habits had a positive influence on recycling behavior. However, findings did not support the positive impact of perceived behavioral control on recycling behavior.

Exploring adolescents’ waste prevention via Value-Identity-Personal norm and Comprehensive Action Determination Models

We explored to what extent two theoretical approaches – general (i.e., the Value-Identity-Personal norm model), and behavior-specific (i.e., the Comprehensive Action Determination Model) can explain different waste prevention behaviors. In Study 1 we investigated bottled water consumption, while in Study 2 we investigated bag reuse when shopping, giving away or selling unused items, and purchasing unpackaged goods. The results of Study 1 (349 adolescents from 13 to 18 years of age (54.7% were female), convenience sample) and Study 2 (508 adolescents from 13 to 17 years of age (49% were female), nationally representative random sample) indicated that both approaches predict behaviors substantially well. Among other factors, biospheric values, environmental self-identity, social norm, personal norm, and habit were found to be the most prominent contributors for their models. Both general and behavior-specific approaches have value in informing policies for lowering adolescents’ waste generation and potentially could be used in tandem.

Developing the ‘0U Cup’: Promoting Ecological Behavior through a Cup-sharing Service System Based on the Comprehensive Action Determination Model and Choice Architecture

Developing the ‘0U Cup’: Promoting Ecological Behavior through a Cup-sharing Service System Based on the Comprehensive Action Determination Model and Choice Architecture

Considering Habit in Research on Travel Mode Choice: A Literature Review with a Two-Level Methodology

This study used sources from selected databases to provide an overview of the role of habit in choosing a mode of travel. The articles were selected from two levels. The first included selected studies that considered the psychological aspects of travel mode choice and travel mode change. These created the context for the issues of mode choice and the change of travel mode. The second level was narrower and included studies that were directly focused on the role of habit in travel mode choice or that took the role of habit into account. These studies were used as the core of the review. Subsequently, the topic of habit and travel mode choice was divided into four fields: the theoretical definition of the concept of habit, both in general and in the context of travel mode choice; the theoretical bases of the selected studies; follow-up strategies for transport-mode change; and the measurements and methods used in the field. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) is the most often used theory for explaining the travel mode choice. Other approaches include the Norm Activation Model and the Value Belief Norm Theory. The aim for other approaches is usually to trigger conscious choice processes, but most reaearchers believe that travel mode choices are automatic and habitual when made in a stable context. The Comprehensive Action Determination Model is a promising theoretical integration that may be used in future research. It integrates assumptions of the TPB, Norm Activation Model, theoretical habit conception, and ipsative behaviour theory in order to build on habitual processes, intention processes, situation effects, and personal and social norms. As habit seems to have the most important role in the choice of travel modes and the possible changes, it should also be considered for mode-choice models in the automation era.

Reducing personal clothing consumption: A cross-cultural validation of the comprehensive action determination model

Clothing production has high impacts on the environment, with a reduction in the consumption of clothes providing a contribution towards urgently needed sustainable production and consumption. The present study employs the comprehensive action determination model (CADM) to identify psychological determinants associated with reduced clothing consumption across five different countries. In two studies (n = 5,185) we sought to identify the constructs most strongly related to intentions to reduce clothing consumption and to reduction behavior. Results showed that normative constructs were most strongly related to intentions to reduce consumption. Intentions were only weakly negatively related to the number of items bought in a two-week period. As hypothesized, structural paths were equal across countries. Implications for intervention development are discussed.

Drivers of energy saving behaviour: The relative influence of intentional, normative, situational and habitual processes

Campaigns aiming to induce energy saving behaviour among householders use a wide range of approaches that address many different drivers thought to underpin this behaviour. However, little research has compared the influence of the different processes that influence energy behaviour, meaning campaigns are not informed about where best to focus resources. Therefore, this study applies the Comprehensive Action Determination Model (CADM) to investigate the relative influence of intentional, normative, situational and habitual processes on energy saving behaviour. An online survey on a sample of Western European households (N = 247) measured the CADM variables and data were analysed using structural equation modelling. Results showed that 1) the model was able to account for a large amount of variance in energy saving behaviour and 2) situational and habitual processes were best able to account for energy saving behaviour while normative and intentional processes had little predictive power. These findings suggest that policy makers should move away from motivating householders to save energy and should instead focus their efforts on changing energy habits and creating environments that facilitate energy saving behaviour. These findings add to the wider development in social and environmental psychology that emphasizes the importance of extra-personal variables in shaping behaviour.

Workplace pro-environmental behaviors in small and medium-sized enterprises: an employee level analysis

Employees spend much time in the workplace; however, most research have not examined employee’s workplace pro-environmental behavior in small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries. This paper examines the direct and indirect effect of predictor variables on employee’s workplace pro-environmental behavior using the comprehensive action determination model. Employees working in small and medium-sized enterprises (n = 296) in three cities in Jiangsu Province, China, were chosen through snowball, convenience sampling, and survey data were obtained via the administration of self-report questionnaires. Principal component analysis with orthogonal rotation (varimax) was used to subject all measures to uni-dimensionality test using an eigenvalue > 1 criterion. Regression analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and structural equation model were used for data reduction and analysis using SPSS version 22. The findings indicate that perceived behavior control, intention to act, sustainable actions, environmental attitude, and social norms had a direct effect while information need, habit strength, and situational conditions had an indirect effect on workplace pro-environmental behavior.

Exploring the perceptions of drivers of energy behaviour

Many models have been applied to predict energy use and savings, yet few studies have investigated people's own perceptions of what drives their energy use. Understanding these perceptions can help design energy policy that is likely to be trusted and perceived as credible. This study assessed the perception of the drivers of energy use among young adults, who had recently become independent energy consumers, but were not yet paying for their energy bills. Focus groups were conducted in which the drivers of energy use were discussed, and discussions were analysed using a framework of a successful existing behavioural model – the Comprehensive Action Determination Model – that includes both conscious and unconscious drivers of energy consumption. The findings show (1) participants did not tend to believe they saved energy to conserve the environment, (2) adherence to egoistic values, apparent in the lack of motivation to save energy in the absence of financial incentives, and (3) strong awareness of energy habits. Policy makers targeting young adults' energy use are advised how to align energy policy with these perceptions.

Predictors of Pro-Environmental Behavior: A Comparison of University Students in the United States and China

Understanding and managing University student’s environmental and sustainable behavior is critical to reducing global environmental problems and influencing pro-environmental behaviors. Survey data obtained from University students in different cities in the United States (n = 75) and Chinese Students in Jiangsu Province, China (n = 109) were investigated and analyzed to identify major predictors of pro-environmental behaviors using the Comprehensive Action Determination Model. The results confirmed multiple factors such as Social norms, Intention to Act, Information Need and Situational factors significantly influence and shape the nature of pro-environmental behavior in the US and sets of Social norms, Intention to act, Environmental awareness, Information need and Situational factor in China. These findings are in consonance with the tenets of theory of planned behavior, norm activation theory; though the loading and effects differ in their local environment. University students in US showed higher level of pro-environmental behavior despite their individualistic society compared to Chinese students in China. The findings confirms the complexity of human behavior through the robustness of the comprehensive action determination model by showing that using unitary construct to predict environmental behavior is context specific and using different combinations of predictor variables exert significant influences in different local environments.