This editorial gives a brief introduction to the articles included in the thematic section of Europe's Journal of Psychology, which is devoted to selected recent advances and applications of the ...theory of planned behavior (TPB). The five contributions address two thematic streams: (1) adjustments and extensions of the original theory and (2) applications of the TPB in public health and the political sciences.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore if e-commerce customers change their preferred last-mile delivery, when they are provided with additional information on the environmental and social ...sustainability impact of the available last-mile delivery options.Design/methodology/approachWe conduct a stated-preference survey and apply McNemar test on the collected data.FindingsThe results show that displaying the environmental and social impacts of last-mile deliveries influences E-commerce customers, and generally makes them more likely to choose a more sustainable last-mile delivery.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitations are (1) the possible inconsistency between participants' intentions stated in the survey and their actual behaviour in real life and (2) the possibility of participants denying socially undesirable behaviours. Further research can study e-commerce customers' real behaviour.Practical implicationsE-retailers and logistics companies could implement transparent information sharing on the delivery sustainability impact on all three sustainability pillars.Social implicationsThe suggested transparent information sharing has the potential to change customers' behaviours towards more sustainable deliveries.Originality/valueWe provide a new approach in investigating customers' preferences on last-mile deliveries, by giving E-customers the chance of making choices between different deliveries, not only based on the economic factors (as in common practice nowadays) but also based on the environmental and social factors.
Green purchase behaviour is receiving a growing attention in the academic community, as understanding it is crucial for the growing number of companies developing and marketing green products. In ...order to provide a broader and novel picture of the phenomenon, this study extends the widely used Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) model in several ways, through a large survey of Italian consumers. First, three dimensions of green purchase behaviour are considered, namely, the willingness to pay a premium price, the green purchase frequency and the green purchase satisfaction. Second, several antecedents are considered simultaneously. Third, new (consumer creativity) or so far marginally studied (materialism and green practices) antecedents are included. Fourth, the mediating roles of green purchase satisfaction and willingness to pay a premium price in the link between the considered antecedents and the frequency of green purchase are investigated.
Results show that the three dimensions of green purchase behaviour have different antecedents, so highlighting that green purchase behaviour is a multi‐faceted phenomenon that should not be studied as a single general concept. Personal norms and value for money emerged to be very relevant predictors. The significant effects of creativity, materialism and green practices provide evidence that extending the TPB model with these three antecedents is useful to more deeply understand green purchase behaviour. Green purchase satisfaction is the strongest predictor of purchase frequency and mediates the effects of personal norms and value for money.
Social media is an increasingly important yet understudied context for eating behaviors in general and veganism in particular. In four studies, we first explored and described the information ...environment the platform Instagram presents related to veganism. Second, we examined how engaging with this environment is associated with offline eating intentions via psychological mechanisms. We scraped datasets of Instagram posts tagged with #vegan (44,316 posts in total) and employed network analysis with their hashtags (Study 1), as well as clustering with images and sentiment analysis with texts (Study 2). Studies 3 (N = 117) and 4 (N = 251) used online surveys to investigate associations between different forms of engaging with social media content, psychological constructs, and offline eating intentions. Posts about veganism were frequently related to food, health and fitness, cosmetics, and photography. Images most often depicted food (34.7%), non-food products (30.4%), people (7.9%), and animals (2.0%). The sentiment of most posts was positive. Being exposed to Instagram content about veganism was more strongly and consistently associated with eating intentions than active forms of engagement. Attitude and self-identity emerged as the most relevant mechanisms for these effects. Food is the most prominent yet not sole topic among posts about veganism on Instagram, and hashtags used in this context partially relate to motives for following a vegan diet. Exposure to this information environment might influence offline eating decisions via psychological mechanisms. With growing usage and its potential influence, social media should receive increasing attention in (health) psychological research and practice.
•This study combines subjective experience with observable social media data.•Social media influences offline eating intentions via psychological mechanisms.•Attitude and self-identity appear to be the most relevant of these mechanisms.•Exposure to content shows a higher behavioral relevance than active engagement.•Posts show mostly positive sentiment and topics go beyond those found in surveys.
•The formation of behavioral intentions was examined in the drone food delivery services context through an extended TPB.•Perceived innovativeness positively affected attitude.•Behavioral intentions ...were affected by the attitude, the subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control.•The outbreak of COVID-19 played a moderating role in the relationship between the attitude and behavioral intentions.
This study aims to identify how behavioral intentions are formed in the context of drone food delivery services using the moderating role before and after the outbreak of COVID-19. A conceptual model including eight hypotheses was developed and tested based on the data of two consumer samples, one collected before and the other after the outbreak of COVID-19. The data analysis results showed that perceived innovativeness positively affects attitude. In addition, the attitude, the subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control have a positive influence on behavioral intentions. Lastly, the outbreak of COVID-19 played a moderating role in the relationship between the attitude and behavioral intentions.
•The TPB was used to explore numerous conservation behaviors.•Scholars tend to overlook mediating variables when predicting green behaviors.•Additional variables consistently increase the predictive ...power of the theory.•A roadmap provides useful guidance to scholars that intend to apply the TPB.
The theory of planned behavior (TPB) allows researchers to identify the determinants of environmental behavior and subsequently target these factors in interventions. Multiple studies on conservation behaviors have recently applied this theoretical framework in both organizational and domestic settings. To shed more light on how the TPB was used in these studies, we conducted a literature review with the following objectives: 1) explore which individual green behaviors were studied though the lens of the TPB, 2) understand how scholars have used the theory and what variance the theory has helped to explain, and 3) formulate recommendations, if necessary, for improving the use of the theory. The review of the results from 126 publications demonstrated that the majority of scholars tend to overlook the importance of identifying and evaluating indirect variables (beliefs) that affect behaviors. More than half of the analyzed articles did not report the amount of explained variance, which undermines the principal strength of the theory. Scholars could obtain more substantial and consistent results if the guidelines regarding the application of the theory are consistently respected. More specifically, four aspects should be considered in the application of the theory: choice of framework, decision to extend the original model, methodology, and results. To help scholars overcome these commonly encountered problems, this article suggests a roadmap with several guiding questions and possible answers.
In many countries farmers face pressure to adopt practices to promote sustainability and resilience while ensuring efficient business management to produce food and other agricultural products at ...reasonable cost. Given a policy context in which voluntary action is preferred over government regulation, understanding farmers’ motivation to embrace recommended practices has become a major subject for research. Increasingly, this endeavour is guided by the theory of planned behaviour, a reasoned action approach (Fishbein and Ajzen, 2010). We provide a brief overview of the theory of planned behaviour and an elaboration of good practices in the assessment of the theory’s constructs. We systematically review 124 applications of the theory to farmer behaviour on a number of specific review criteria. Based on observations of improper use, we consider theoretical and methodological issues and provide recommendations for research design and data analysis.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to observe consumers’ attitudes toward and intentions to purchase green products on social media and to explore the relationships among social media marketing, ...perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE), product knowledge, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, price consciousness and attitudes toward and intentions to purchase green products. In addition, this research attempts to further understand these relationships in different consumer groups.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire survey method was used to collect data from consumers in China. The Amos 22.0 software package was used to conduct the data analysis.
Findings
The empirical results suggest that attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control positively affect purchase intentions, while price consciousness negatively affects purchase intentions. Product knowledge positively affects consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions, and PCE positively affects consumers’ attitudes. As expected, social media marketing positively affects subjective norms, product knowledge and PCE and negatively affects price consciousness. However, there is no significant relationship between PCE and purchase intentions. According to the results of multigroup structural equation modeling analysis, the effects differ significantly among different consumer groups.
Originality/value
This study enriches the research about the factors that influence consumers’ purchases of green products in emerging countries in the social media marketing context.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to extend the existing literature on entrepreneurial intentions (EIs) by employing the integrated model of personality traits and the theory of planned behavior ...(TPB). It further examines the mediating role of TPB’s dimensions between personality traits and EIs of final-year university students in two diverse economies: China and Pakistan.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a survey method for data collection, administered both in electronic and paper form. The authors use structural equation modeling and the partial least square (PLS) method on a sample of 1,016 students and present PLS path modeling, mediation analysis and multigroup analysis.
Findings
Results reveal several differences regarding personality traits and TPB on EIs across the two countries. The impact of TPB was positive and significant in both countries; however, TPB demonstrated more explaining power in China’s student sample. Using three personality traits (risk-taking propensity, proactive personality and internal locus of control) as antecedents to TPB, the results reveal a stronger influence of personality traits among Chinese students. The mediation of three dimensions of TPB also revealed differences between country samples.
Originality/value
This is the first study of its kind to compare and contrast the differences between EIs in terms of personality and the determinants of planned behavior among university students in two diverse economies. The integrated model is original, supports both TPB and personality factors and provides a valuable perspective through its findings on two culturally diverse Asian countries. By applying the model in two different cultures, this study distinguishes the results for the two economies from those conducted in other economies.