Review Reports - Impact of Paintings Made from Waste Materials from a Particular Region on Viewers’ Behavioral Intention Regarding Social and Environmental Issues

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Thank you for the opportunity to review this paper. The premise was interesting and original, and relevant to the journal's audience - but unfortunately, the paper needs to be significantly developed before it is ready for publication.

Introduction

The introductory paragraph has a lot of detail - it would be good to have some more 'linking' detail between the facts.
Some introduction to the concept of 'backcasting' would be useful. You also need to let us know how the concept links to your introductory paragraph with all the data about climate change, and also how it relates to your paper.
The entire Introduction is a bit confusing / unclear what message you are trying to get across - I think it would help to introduce your paper's topic and argument upfront, so the relevance of the content is more apparent. You don't mention 'creativity in sustainability research' until the fifth paragraph. We also are not entirely clear until well into the paper that you are looking at Japan. All this detail needs to be stated upfront.
Ensure you standardise your terminology e.g. Little-c and Little-C
I wonder whether it might help make your argument clearer if much of the content which is currently 'Introduction' is separated out into separate sections. Your Introduction needs to clearly state what your paper will do - at the moment, it is not at all clear. You also introduce examples e.g. Sustainability Jam Session - this is not usually the kind of content for an Introduction but more for a Literature Review.
'Purpose of the study' is also a sub-section of the Introduction, when it should be its own separate entity. Within this section, you state: "There is an artist who creates paintings using waste materials of the region to draw paintings of the region 100 years from now. The artist travels around many areas of Japan in a camper to search for waste materials to use as materials for paints." Is this artist the focus of your study? (It would seem so, from your abstract). - If so, this information needs to be introduced up-front, to make clear the focus of your paper. Also, you need to provide more detail about the artist and their work - What kind of waste materials do they use? How long have they been practicing? What is their intention? How do people respond to the paintings? etc.
Is there a reason you do not name the artist? It seems that, given the paper focusses on their work, it would be a good idea to name and provide some detail about the artist.
It is also not clear from the text in the 'Purpose' section if this particular artist is the focus of your paper, or simply an example. This needs to be clarified. If you mention this artist simply as an example, you need to explain why this particular artist is worth mentioning (and not others).
Methods
Can you provide more detail about Repertory Grid Analysis and Laddering? Why did you decide they were the most appropriate methods for this research? It is unclear how they relate to your work.
"The personal interviews were conducted with usage..." - What interviews? This is the first we have heard of them. You need to provide details about the interviews e.g. When were they conducted? Who with? How did you recruit participants? How did you analyse the interview data? etc.
What do you mean by "ladder up" and "ladder down"?
This section is quite descriptive. Is it possible to shorten the section while keeping the salient details?
You use a really broad variety of methods. You should mention these methods (and the fact you use both qualitative and quantitative methods) in the Introduction.

Discussion

- There is some important content here, but can you link it to existing research to illustrate its relevant to international scholarship?

Author Response

Introduction

The introductory paragraph has a lot of detail - it would be good to have some more 'linking' detail between the facts.

Answer: Regarding the relationship between facts, for example, we introduced a new example of backcasting application and showed the relationship between the facts in two cases.

Some introduction to the concept of 'backcasting' would be useful. You also need to let us know how the concept links to your introductory paragraph with all the data about climate change, and also how it relates to your paper.

Answer: I understood. I added “Because the backcasting is a method that considers solutions found under conditions of resource depletion, it has also received increased attention in recent years as conditions have become more stringent to stop the recent climate change.” to show links.

The entire Introduction is a bit confusing / unclear what message you are trying to get across - I think it would help to introduce your paper's topic and argument upfront, so the relevance of the content is more apparent. You don't mention 'creativity in sustainability research' until the fifth paragraph. We also are not entirely clear until well into the paper that you are looking at Japan. All this detail needs to be stated upfront.

Answer: I understood. I added paper's topic and argument upfront and that this paper focused on Japan at the new Introduction section.

Ensure you standardise your terminology e.g. Little-c and Little-C

Answer: Thank you for suggesting it. I standardize Little-C to Little-c.

I wonder whether it might help make your argument clearer if much of the content which is currently 'Introduction' is separated out into separate sections. Your Introduction needs to clearly state what your paper will do - at the moment, it is not at all clear. You also introduce examples e.g. Sustainability Jam Session - this is not usually the kind of content for an Introduction but more for a Literature Review.

Answer: I made Introduction session into more separated and made “2. Literature review session”. Sustainability Jam Session paper was moved to “2. Literature review session.”

'Purpose of the study' is also a sub-section of the Introduction, when it should be its own separate entity. Within this section, you state: "There is an artist who creates paintings using waste materials of the region to draw paintings of the region 100 years from now. The artist travels around many areas of Japan in a camper to search for waste materials to use as materials for paints." Is this artist the focus of your study? (It would seem so, from your abstract). - If so, this information needs to be introduced up-front, to make clear the focus of your paper. Also, you need to provide more detail about the artist and their work - What kind of waste materials do they use? How long have they been practicing? What is their intention? How do people respond to the paintings? etc.

Answer: I made new “Purpose of the study” session. This artist is not the focus but the art works is the focus. So I added the artist selection criteria and moved explanation, what kind of waste materials she use, how long she has been practicing, what is her intention, how do people respond to the paintings, and so on, to the methodology session.

Is there a reason you do not name the artist? It seems that, given the paper focusses on their work, it would be a good idea to name and provide some detail about the artist.

Answer: I agreed that the name of the artist will clear this research more, so I added name of the artist.

It is also not clear from the text in the 'Purpose' section if this particular artist is the focus of your paper, or simply an example. This needs to be clarified. If you mention this artist simply as an example, you need to explain why this particular artist is worth mentioning (and not others).

Answer: I made new “Purpose of the study” session. This artist is not the focus but the art works is the focus. So I added the artist selection criteria and moved explanation in details to the methodology section.

Methods
Can you provide more detail about Repertory Grid Analysis and Laddering? Why did you decide they were the most appropriate methods for this research? It is unclear how they relate to your work.

Answer: I added the merit of this method and application area to support.

"The personal interviews were conducted with usage..." - What interviews? This is the first we have heard of them. You need to provide details about the interviews e.g. When were they conducted? Who with? How did you recruit participants? How did you analyse the interview data? etc.

Answer: I added “The personal interviews for Repertory Grid Analysis” in the sentence and in the section “Interviews for Repertory Grid Analysis”, when we conducted, who with, how recruited participants, how analyse the interview data.

What do you mean by "ladder up" and "ladder down"?

Answer: Ladder up and ladder down is explained in the line 253-263.

This section is quite descriptive. Is it possible to shorten the section while keeping the salient details?

Answer: Thank you very much for suggestion. Although the methods session of this paper provided the same level of depth in the description of the methods, it is better not to change the level of detail in the description of the methods because there is a concern that if all the methods are consolidated to the same level of more essence, it will be shorter but unclear at once how exactly the data was collected. We think it would be better not to change the level of detail of the method description.

You use a really broad variety of methods. You should mention these methods (and the fact you use both qualitative and quantitative methods) in the Introduction.

Answer: I understood. I added the fact that we used both qualitative and quantitative methods in the new Introduction session to see the whole picture.

Discussion

- There is some important content here, but can you link it to existing research to illustrate its relevant to international scholarship?

Answer: Yes, I added and showed the 4 discussion about relationship between this study’s results and international scholarship.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Very interesting and engaging piece. I truly appreciate the concept of using art and the display of art with binders of information at a specific venue as a means to survey audience members about their consideration of environmental issues and their intentions to change future behaviors after having viewed the art. The design of the study is very strong. My only criticism is that the phrase "environmental issues" in the article should be unpacked and more clearly explained. Can you include more information about what environmental issues are clearly related to the paints used in the works of art, or the information in the binders, and how that information contributed to the audience members' understanding and intentions? There must be a specific bit of information on the relevant environmental issues that can be included in the article. Thank you.

Author Response

Reviewer２

Answer: I added one detail story of paintings on environmental issues in the method session.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript titled "Impact of the Paintings Made From Waste Materials of the Region on Viewers’ Behavioral Intention About Social and Environmental Issues" was reviewed. The paper explores the influence of regionally produced waste-material paintings on viewers' behavioral intentions about social and environmental issues. The author employed the repertory grid analysis and laddering method to extract 30 beauty evaluation items. The artistic elements' impact on viewer awareness and actions was assessed by combining interviews, a questionnaire-based exhibition analysis, and statistical methods. However, a significant limitation of this manuscript is the lack of a clearly described theoretical mechanism explaining why viewing these specific paintings can improve participants' behavioral intentions about social and environmental issues. Moreover, the overall textual readability of the manuscript is poor, and the quality of the figures and tables is unclear, significantly hindering comprehension.

Specific comments:

Lines32-33, it is recommended to broaden the context of the global goals of achieving carbon neutrality.
Lines48-49, incorporating real-world examples of backcasting adoption in both company products and government policies would enhance the discussion of the backcasting method.
Lines 112-113, the author should add explanationsof the relationshipbetween creativity and sustainability, which would strengthen the theoretical basis of this section.
Lines 154-157, the author should provide explanations about howempathy couldimprove sustainability.
In the "1.4 The Role of Painting in Arts-Based Methods"section,the author should emphasize the importance of painting in promoting sustainability.
In the "1.5 Purpose of This Study"section, the author shouldprovide a concise summary of the study's primary objectives rather than solely offering background information.
Lines 291-292, the sample size of 20 interviewees was relatively small, limiting the generalizability of the conclusions.
Fig. 2 and 3, the resolution of these images is insufficient. All figures should be presented at a higher resolution to ensure clarity.
Lines312-327,the author could provide a flowchart illustrating the sequence of questions posed to respondents to enhance the clarity and readability.
10. Lines 451-470,the authors should explain the potential impact mechanism of the main influencing factors of the model.
11. Line 503, in regression analysis, the author did not consider the potential issue of multicollinearity. It is crucial to assess it using the relevant statistical parameters to verify the robustness and reliability of the model.
Line 641, the 30 extracted beauty evaluation items would be more insightful if they were classified into broader conceptual categories, which would enhance the interpretation and discussion of these qualitative findings.
Line 719- 723, the author should summarize the potential mechanisms for the relationship between painting and improved sustainability.

Author Response

Reviewer3

Specific comments:

Lines32-33, it is recommended to broaden the context of the global goals of achieving carbon neutrality.

Answer: Before the lines 32-33, I added “In the midst of such climate change, many countries around the world, including Japan, have been set a goal of achieving a carbon-neutral society by 2050.”, to broaden the context.

Lines48-49, incorporating real-world examples of backcasting adoption in both company products and government policies would enhance the discussion of the backcasting method.

Answer: After the lines 48-49, I added “For example, four local government (Kitakami city, Toyooka city, Shima city and Okinoerabu island) in Japan have used the backcasting to design future lifestyles as a national project. They hold new lifestyle experience events aimed at consuming local production, involving many residents and changing the use of locally produced food for school lunches [8].” as an example of real-world example.

Lines 112-113, the author should add explanations of the relationship between creativity and sustainability, which would strengthen the theoretical basis of this section.

Answer: I added the explanation that would strengthen the theoretical basis of this section.

Lines 154-157, the author should provide explanations about how empathy could improve sustainability.

Answer: I added “Thus, empathy strengthens commitment to the organization and contributes to the organization's need for increased creativity, while a lack of empathy has been shown to limit the motivation to increase sustainability.” to explain the relationship between empathy and sustainability.

In the "1.4 The Role of Painting in Arts-Based Methods" section, the author should emphasize the importance of painting in promoting sustainability.

Answer: Yes, I agreed. I emphasized the relationship between paintings and sustainability.

In the "1.5 Purpose of This Study" section, the author should provide a concise summary of the study's primary objectives rather than solely offering background information.

Answer: Yes, I agreed. I changed the section of purpose of this study into summary of the study’s primary objectives.

Lines 291-292, the sample size of 20 interviewees was relatively small, limiting the generalizability of the conclusions.

Answer: Yes, I understood. I added the limitation after the sentence.

Fig. 2 and 3, the resolution of these images is insufficient. All figures should be presented at a higher resolution to ensure clarity.

Answer: I selected 1 photo for Fig.1. And Fig. 2 is not good photos so that I deleted Fig. 2. I made Fig 3 bigger and resolution is enough.

Lines312-327,the author could provide a flowchart illustrating the sequence of questions posed to respondents to enhance the clarity and readability.

Answer: I changed the questions to a flowchart.

Lines 451-470,the authors should explain the potential impact mechanism of the main influencing factors of the model.

Answer: Yes, I added the potential impact of the factors for reconsideration of social and environmental issues.

Line 503, in regression analysis, the author did not consider the potential issue of multicollinearity. It is crucial to assess it using the relevant statistical parameters to verify the robustness and reliability of the model.

Answer: Yes, we conducted multicollinearity test. So I added “In terms of the assumptions for multiple linear regression analysis, multicollinearity tests were conducted to ensure the results and no problem was found.” after the regression results.

Line 641, the 30 extracted beauty evaluation items would be more insightful if they were classified into broader conceptual categories, which would enhance the interpretation and discussion of these qualitative findings.

Answer: I added insightfulness of 9 conceptual categories at the discussion.

Line 719- 723, the author should summarize the potential mechanisms for the relationship between painting and improved sustainability.

Answer: I added the potential mechanisms “The elements of beauty of the paintings were found to have the potential to increase sustainability by providing an emotional and spontaneous first step toward lifestyle change, even for those who are not oriented toward social and environmental issues.” to summarize this research.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

All concerns have been thoroughly addressed, and I think the manuscript is now ready for publication.