Search Results (5)

This research examined the persuasive impact of social norms and financial incentive messaging for encouraging reusable bag use. In an online experiment with a nationally representative sample from the U.S. (n = 753), participants were randomly exposed to static or dynamic descriptive/injunctive norms, discounts/surcharges, combinations, or a control message. Intentions to bring reusable bags when grocery shopping, along with other key demographic and psychological variables, were assessed. ANCOVA results demonstrate the main effects of the messages. Planned contrasts revealed that injunctive norms elicited higher intentions than descriptive norms. Dynamic descriptive norms led to stronger intentions compared to static descriptive norms, with no difference shown between the two injunctive norm conditions. Notably, combining injunctive norms with either incentive boosted intentions beyond standalone messaging, supporting motivational complementarity. Norms overall outperformed incentives, but integrating social and economic appeals shows promise. The predicted superiority of experimental messages in promoting intentions, when compared to a generic pro-environmental appeal (control), was not supported. The findings advance an integrated behavior change approach highlighting normative information and incentives, shedding light on optimal messaging strategies amid pro-environmental interventions. Full article

The purpose of this study is to determine whether there are gender differences in people’s pro-environmental psychology and behaviors in China. An online survey was conducted with the snowball sampling technique, and a sample of 532 Chinese respondents was obtained for the research. This study finds that gender does affect green psychology and behaviors, with females reporting a higher level of environmentalism in China. Specifically, females are more concerned with environmental problems, more supportive of plastic ban policies, more positive towards reducing plastics (reduce), and have stronger intention to bring a reusable bag for shopping (reuse and recycle). Moreover, females use fewer disposable toiletries when checking in a hotel and require less disposable tableware when ordering takeout. This study contributes to the current literature by identifying the relationship between gender and environmentalism in China. Implications for anti-plastic policy design and environmental management are also presented. Full article

Bringing a reusable bag for shopping is a typical pro-environmental behavior and has been shown to be effective in reducing plastics, but research regarding this green behavior is limited. In this regard, using the snowball sampling technique, this study conducts a survey on a sample of 361 Chinese consumers to investigate their intention to bring a reusable bag for shopping based on the theory of planned behavior. To increase the explaining power for behavioral intention, this study extended the TPB by adding two additional variables: locus of control and environmental concern. Data was analyzed using the structural equation modeling technique. Results show that attitude, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norm exert significant and positive influence on consumers’ intention to bring reusable bags for shopping, and the perceived behavioral control exerts the greatest influence, followed by attitude and subjective norm. Both locus of control and environmental concern fail to directly impact consumers’ bringing intention, but they could impact consumers’ intention indirectly. Specifically, the external locus of control exerts a negative influence on attitude and perceived behavioral control. Environmental concern positively impacts consumers’ attitudes towards bringing reusable bags for shopping. Results of this study could provide valuable insights into plastics management and policy design to promote consumers’ green shopping behaviors. For instance, the finding that perceived behavioral control is the greatest contributor to consumers’ intention to bring reusable bags highlights the importance of clearing reusable bag preparation and use barriers. Full article

The Taiwanese government has decided to reduce the use of disposable plastics in response to the European Union’s announcement of the Circular Economy Action Plan. With the circular economy becoming a sustainable development trend, consumers have become the latter and the environment’s lifeblood. There has been a wave of unpacked stores around the world in recent years, encouraging consumers to reduce the use of plastics and bring their own bags or containers when shopping, thereby reducing the waste of resources. This research adopted qualitative and quantitative research methods to verify the model of involvement degree and perceived value on consumers’ purchase intentions in unpacked stores through expert interviews and structural equations and extract the key factors for promoting unpacked stores. The research results show that the three dimensions of involvement degree will indirectly affect consumers’ purchase intentions through the four dimensions of perceived value. Perceived value plays a mediating role between the involvement degree and purchase intention. Unpacked stores can be used to promote industry characteristics and image, and unpacked consumption thinking can be advanced through the Internet, education, or lectures based on community development. In this way, unpacked stores can be instilled in people’s psychological value. Full article

Following Chan and coworkers’ (2008) research, the current study integrated Hunt and Vitell’s (1986) ethics perspective and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to present a model that explains consumers’ intention to “Bring Your Own Shopping Bags” (BYOB) with grocery shopping. The proposed model is empirically validated in Taiwan. Based on a survey of 601 respondents, the findings suggest that consumers’ deontological evaluation is positively related to their attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control, while teleological evaluation is positively related to perceived behavioral control only. In addition, the results also indicate that consumers’ attitude and perceived behavioral control has a positive relationship with BYOB intention, while subjective norm does not have a signification relationship with BYOB intention. In sum, this study contributes to the literature by providing insights for applying general ethics and theory of planned behavior to explain consumers’ BYOB behavior. The results also provide policy makers guidelines regarding BYOB. Managerial implications and research limitations are discussed at the end of this paper. Full article