Proceedings of European Business Research Conference
Sheraton Roma, Rome, Italy, 5 - 6 September 2013, ISBN: 978-1-922069-29-0
Intention to Adopt Environmental Friendly Practices
in Thailand
Piyarat Pipitvanichtham
This paper applies the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to examine
the factors affecting the intention to adopt Environmental Friendly
Practice (EFP). A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to
the general public during April-June 2013.Using convenience
sampling, 434 respondents were collected. Multiple regression
analysis was used to test the relationships among the variables. The
results indicate that intention to adopt EFP was significantly affected
by Attitude, Subjective norm and Perceived Behavioral Control but
not significantly by past experience of natural disaster.
1. Introduction
The concern for the environment has been increasing rapidly during the past decade
as consumers and business started to realize the limitation of resources and the
adverse impact of accumulated waste and garbage. A number of them changed
their behavior to become “green consumers” and “green companies”. On the part of
the firms in turning to green practices, a number of studies have shown that the
changed behaviors come from the fact that green practices can be profitable and
partly from the incentives provided by governments. Thus government can play an
important role in creating the conditions for “green production and consumption” to
help navigate the economy to a more sustainable development. Recognizing this,
the Thai government, in its national economic and social development plans (both
10th and 11th), has included a strategy to reduce, reuse and recycle (3R) waste
(DPC: 2011) specifying a goal of 30 percent material recovery for the targeted
communities. To ensure the success of such a strategy and program, the
participation of people in the community is very crucial. Members of the community
can be enlisted to increase the effectiveness of any campaign by the government to
achieve the stated waste reuse, reduction, and recycle goal. Their behavior toward
environmental-friendly practice (EFP) would be an important factor in choosing an
appropriate action program to elicit their involvement in any future “greening of the
community” program.
This study aims to analyze the factors influencing intention to adopt Environmental
Friendly Practice by the general public In Thailand. The Theory of Planned Behavior
(TPB) is applied with the added variable of past experience with environmental
disaster. The determinant factors are composed of attitude toward the behavior,
subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and past experience.
2. Literature Review
The theory of planned behavior (TPB) was offered by Ajzen (1988, 1991) as an
extension of the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). According to
the TPB, behavior can be predicted by intentions to perform the behavior. Intentions,
in turn, can be predicted by attitudes toward the behavior, subjective norms
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Proceedings of European Business Research Conference
Sheraton Roma, Rome, Italy, 5 - 6 September 2013, ISBN: 978-1-922069-29-0
regarding the behavior, and perceived control over the ability to performing the
behavior. Attitudes refer to the degree to which a person has a favorable or
unfavorable evaluation of the behavior. Subjective norms refer to the perceived
social pressure to perform or not perform the behavior. Perceived behavioral control
refers to the relative ease or difficulty of performing the behavior and is assumed to
be influenced by anticipated obstacles to performing the behavior. Favorable
attitudes and norms and greater perceived control are expected to lead to stronger
intentions to perform the behavior. Intentions, in turn, are expected to be the most
proximal determinant of behavior. According to the TPB, perceived control may also
have an effect on behavior, over and above its effect on intentions. The closer
perceived control corresponds to actual control, the better it will be at predicting
intentions and behavior (Ajzen, 1991; Sheeran, Trafimow, & Armitage, 2003).
The TPB has been, and continues to be, a widely used model for predicting behavior
and behavioral intentions. Armitage and Conner (2001) did a meta-analysis of the
TPB literature and found that by the end of 1997, there were more than 161 journal
articles and book chapters testing the theory. Reviews and meta-analyses in a
variety of domains (e.g., exercise, health) have overwhelmingly provided support for
the theory (Ajzen, 1991; Armitage & Conner, 2001; Godin & Kok, 1996; Hausenblas,
Carron, & Mack, 1997). The theory has also been applied recently to predict green
consumer behavior, and its robustness has been confirmed (Bamberg, 2003; Chan
and Lau, 2001; Kalafatis et at., 1999). More recently it is used to explain the
antecedents of intention to buy organic skin/hair care products (Kim and Chung,
2011) by focusing on consumer values and adding consumers’ past experience as
another predictor of purchase intention.
2.1 Attitude toward Act of Behavior
Attitude here refers to the degree to which a person has favorable or unfavorable
evaluation or appraisal of behavior in question (Alam and Sayuti, 2011). The more
favorable the attitude, the intention to adopt the behavior should be more likely. The
relative importance of attitude compared to the other two variables in the prediction
of intention is expected to vary across behavior and situations (Ajzen, 1991). Attitude
was found to have significant and positive effect on intentions to purchase halal food
in Malaysia (Alam and Sayuti, 2011), to purchase organic personal care products
(Kim and Chung, 2011), to buy environmental-friendly products in Greece (Kalafatis
et al., 1999), to attend a sport event (Cunningham and Kwon, 2003), and to engage
in contingent employment (Huang, 2011).
2.2 Subjective Norm
Subjective norm refers to the perceived social pressure to comply with expectations
to perform or engage in the behavior (Kim and Chung, 2011). If a person believes
that significant others think that engaging in environmental-friendly practices is good,
he/she will have greater intention to do the same. Subjective norm is found to have
significant effect on intention to purchase halal food in Malaysia (Alam and Sayuti,
2011), to buy environmental-friendly products in U.K (Kalafatis et al., 1999), to
purchase organic personal care products s (Kim and Chung, 2011), to attend a sport
event (Cunningham and Kwon, 2003), and to engage in contingent employment (Huang,
2011).
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Proceedings of European Business Research Conference
Sheraton Roma, Rome, Italy, 5 - 6 September 2013, ISBN: 978-1-922069-29-0
2.3 Perceived Behavior Control
According to Ajzen (1991) perceived behavioral control (PBC) refers to people’s
perception of the ease or difficulty of performing the behavior of interest. It is,
therefore, the extent to which a person feels that he/she is able to engage in the
behavior. It is determined by the individual’s beliefs about the power of both
situational and internal factors to facilitate the performing the behavior. In addition to
its effect on intention, perceived behavior control is considered to have some direct
effect on the behavior as well. PBC is found to have significant effect on intention to
purchase halal food in Malaysia (Alam and Sayuti, 2011), to buy environmentalfriendly products in Greece (Kalafatis et al., 1999), to purchase organic personal
care products s (Kim and Chung, 2011), and to attend a sport event (Cunningham
and Kwon, 2003); and not to have significant effect on intention to engage in
contingent employment (Huang, 2011). A person believing that adoption of
environmental-friendly practice can be made without difficult, he/she will have
greater intention of doing it compared to those without such perception.
2.4 Past Experience
Studies employing TPB to predict intention to perform certain behavior have been
able to explain the dependent variables at various levels from an adjusted R-square
of 0.283 (Alam and Sayuti, 2011) to 0.64 (Kim and Chung, 2011). A number of other
studies have included another independent variable, either directly or as a mediating
variable, namely: previous behavior of attending a sport event (Cunningham and
Kwon, 2003), quality of online courses (Grandon et al., 2005), and personal norm of
college and university dining services administrators’ intention to adopt sustainable
practices (Chen et al., 2010). It is expected that people with experience pertinent to
the behavior of interest would be likely to have greater intention to engage in that
behavior. A person with direct or indirect (through close family ties) with natural
disaster would be more likely to adopt environmental-friendly practice.
2.5 Environmental Friendly Practice (EFP)
Environmental-friendly practice (EFP) or behavior could refer to a number of actions
to improve the environment, some of these considered in past studies include energy
conservation, recycling, environmental activism, eco-conscious product purchasing,
and willingness to pay higher price for environmental-friendly product (Leonidou et
al., 2010). Recycling is often a part of the overall 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle)
comprehensive action program for waste disposal and management which is an
important policy of the Thai government to achieve a more sustainable development
of communities with the participation of people. This study chooses to focus on the
intention to adopt 3Rs by the general public s as the dependent variable.
2.6 Theoretical Model and Hypotheses
The research model used in this study is based on the TPB. The intention to adopt
Environmental Friendly Practice (EFP) is effected by attitude, subjective norm,
perceived behavioral control, and past experience as shown in Figure. 1 below.
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Proceedings of European Business Research Conference
Sheraton Roma, Rome, Italy, 5 - 6 September 2013, ISBN: 978-1-922069-29-0
Figure 1. Research Model
Attitude
Subjective Norm
Intention to Adopt
Environmental Friendly Practice
Perceived Behavioral Control
(3R= reduce, reuse, recycle)
Past Experience
To examine the relationship between independent variables (attitude, subjective
norm, perceived behavior control, and past experience) and the dependent variable
(intention to adopt environmental friendly practice).
Four hypotheses were
developed.
H1: There is a significant and positive relationship between attitude and intention to
adopt environmental friendly practice.
H2: There is a significant and positive relationship between subjective norm and
intention to adopt environmental friendly practice.
H3: There is a significant and positive relationship between perceived behavior
control and intention to adopt environmental friendly practice.
H4: There is a significant and positive relationship between past experience and
intention to adopt environmental friendly practice.
3. Method
Survey with a convenience sampling procedure was used to collect data from the
population. Data were edited and analyzed with computer program SPSS to test the
model and hypotheses.
3.1 Measures
Questionnaire: A self-administered questionnaire was developed, consisting of two
parts personal data and main research variables part. A brief explanation about
environmental-friendly practice is introduced at the beginning of questionnaire. This
is to provide some understanding of 3Rs (reduce, reuse and recycle) behavior to the
respondents.
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Proceedings of European Business Research Conference
Sheraton Roma, Rome, Italy, 5 - 6 September 2013, ISBN: 978-1-922069-29-0
Part I: Demographic variables consisting of 3 questions. These are gender, age, and
occupation. The question on past experience variable is included in this part. The
respondent is asked whether he/she has direct or indirect (through close relatives)
experience of natural disaster such as tsunami, flood or landslide.
Part II: In this part the respondents are asked to provide data on the four main
variables of the model concerning themselves: attitude, subjective norm, perceived
behavior control, and intention to adopt environmental-friendly practice. The
measurement constructs for these variables are adapted from Alam and Sayuti
(2011) using a 5-point Likert scale. Each construct consists of 6 items for which the
respondent provide their level of disagreement/agreement from strongly disagree to
strongly agree. The questionnaire is provided in the appendix.
A pilot test was conducted with convenience sampling of 30 respondents.
A few
minor improvements were suggested and incorporated to the questionnaire. The
population for this study was the general public in Bangkok, Thailand. With
convenience sampling, a total of 434 valid cases were obtained. Multiple regression
analysis was performed to identify the factors affecting intention to adopt
environmental friendly practice and test the hypotheses.
Descriptive statistics are computed. The samples are mostly female (57.4 percent),
age ranges of 31-40 and 21-30 (28.8 and 28.6 percent) and private organization
employee (44.9 percent), with slightly higher proportion having past experience of
natural disaster (54.4 percent). See details in Table 1.
Table 1: Demographic Profile of Respondents (n=434)
Items
Gender
Male
Female
Age
15 – 20 yr.
21 – 30 yr.
31 – 40 yr.
41 – 50 yr.
51 – 60 yr.
Above 60 yr.
Occupation
Students
Private Organization Employees
Owner of Business
Government Employees
Housekeepers
Others
Past Experience with natural disaster
Yes
No
Number
Percentage
185
249
42.6
57.4
89
124
125
58
34
4
20.5
28.6
28.8
13.4
7.8
0.9
124
195
27
53
16
19
28.6
44.9
6.2
12.2
3.7
4.4
236
198
54.4
45.6
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Proceedings of European Business Research Conference
Sheraton Roma, Rome, Italy, 5 - 6 September 2013, ISBN: 978-1-922069-29-0
4. Results
Reliability of the constructs for the four main variables are tested using Cronbach’s
alpha statistics. For Attitude, the Cronbach’s alpha is 0.8494, which indicates a high
level of internal consistency. The Cronbach’s alpha for subjective norm, perceived
behavioral control and intention to adopt environmental-friendly practice are 0.7610,
0.7519, and 0.8564 respectively, indicating high level of internal consistency for
these scales.
Regression results using enter method are given in Table 2 and 3 to evaluate the
strength of the proposed relationship in two different cases of without the past
experience variable and with the past experience variable. The individual hypotheses
were tested using multiple regression prediction model with intention to adopt
environmental-friendly practice as dependent variable. All three hypotheses except
one (H1, H2 and H3) are found to be significant in the prediction model, with H4 not
significant. Test of multicollinearity results indicate no collinearity problem as shown
in the tolerance and VIF statistics in Table 4.
Table 2: Regression Results for the TPB Model without Past Experience
Variable
Variables
t-value
Constant
.640
Attitude
.157
Subjective norm
.183
Perceived behavior control
.517
2
2
Note: R = .475; adjusted R = .472; Durbin-Watson = 1.855
3.093
3.788
5.178
12.780
p-value
.002
.000***
.000***
.000***
Table 3: Regression Results for the TPB Model with Past Experience
Variable
Variables
t-value
Constant
.671
Attitude
.157
Subjective norm
.184
Perceived behavior control
.517
Past Experience
-.023
2
2
Note: R = .476; adjusted R = .471; Durbin-Watson = 1.859
3.117
3.773
5.192
12.773
-.527
p-value
.002
.000***
.000***
.000***
.599
Table 4: Test of Collinearity
Collinearity Statistics
Model
1 (Constant)
Attitude
Subjective norm
Perceived Behavior Control
Past Experience
Tolerance
VIF
.866
.723
.781
.997
1.155
1.384
1.281
1.003
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Proceedings of European Business Research Conference
Sheraton Roma, Rome, Italy, 5 - 6 September 2013, ISBN: 978-1-922069-29-0
5. Discussion
The main objective of this study is to apply the TPB to predict the intention to adopt
environmental-friendly practice of the general public in Thailand. The results show
that the model could explain 47.2 percent of the variance in the intention to adopt
EFP. The inclusion of the past experience variable bring this down slightly to 47.1
percent. The model was statistically significant and the results confirm that the TPB
could be applied for behavior which does not provide direct benefits in such case as
the adoption of practices involving reduce, reuse and recycle (3Rs).
In this study all three factors of Attitude, Subjective norm and Perceived Behavioral
Control (PBC) are significant predictors of intention to adopt environmental-friendly
practice (3Rs) with PBC having considerable higher coefficient than the other two.
The implication of this is that any government policy aiming to increase 3Rs
participation should focus on measures that would increase people’s perception that
the practices related to 3Rs are within their control. And because the performance of
3Rs would provide greater public benefit than private one, we could expect the
impact of social pressure to be highly effective through the subjective norm of the
society in this regard.
6. Limitations
The sample is gathered by using convenient sampling. The results may not reflect
the entire population of Thai people. Repetitive study with more sample groups
could increase the representativeness of the general public.
7. Directions of Future Research
This study uses very simple model of the TPB. Further research could employ the
expanded model by including the antecedents of attitude, subjective norm, and
perceive behavioral control which are outcome beliefs, referent beliefs, and control
beliefs (Kalafatis et al., 1999). Comparison between different groups of the
population could be studied.
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Proceedings of European Business Research Conference
Sheraton Roma, Rome, Italy, 5 - 6 September 2013, ISBN: 978-1-922069-29-0
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