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Environmental behavior studies suggest that knowledge, in addition to other psychological and social factors, can play an important role in consumers’ environmental behavior change. The purpose of this paper is to understand the relationship between knowledge and various psychological factors which encourage consumers’ participation in pro-environmental behaviors. The relationships that link an individual’s attitudes toward science, environmental values, different types of knowledge (i.e. scientific facts, environmental facts, and subjective environmental knowledge), environmental risk perception, and willingness to pay (WTP) for the environment with pro-environmental behavior were examined.

Theoretically guided hypotheses and model were formulated and tested with multiple linear regression models. The study was based on measures and data obtained from the large-sample secondary database of the 2010 General Social Survey (n=2,044).

Results indicated that while attitudes toward science had direct effects on knowledge of scientific facts and knowledge of environmental facts, environmental values showed effects on knowledge of environmental facts and subjective knowledge on environmental issues. The results also indicated that from different types of knowledge, subjective knowledge on environmental issues had effects on both environmental risk perception and WTP for the environment. Knowledge on environmental facts, on the other hand, was able to predict only environmental risk perception. The scientific factual knowledge did not show an effect on mediator of pro-environmental behavior. Also, subjective knowledge indicated indirect effects on pro-environmental behavior through environmental risk perception and WTP for the environment.

Although research on understanding factors influencing pro-environmental behaviors and potential relations to individual knowledge has grown in recent years, there has been very little attempt at distinguishing between different types of knowledge and investigating their potential roles in the context of environmentally relevant behaviors. This study will help understand the functioning of different types of consumer environmental knowledge and their impacts on pro-environmental behaviors more in depth.

This paper aims to report on a study promoting energy conservation on Virginia Tech's campus. It explores whether the behavior of students living in university residence halls would change when various electricity conservation strategies are introduced.

Intervention strategies, including educational media, information, and voluntary resource‐conservation activities, were applied at varying levels of intensity across five study groups over two semesters in 2009. Additional questions explore whether one particular strategy would produce higher consumption reductions, and whether combining strategies would produce more consumption reductions than individual techniques.

The findings revealed that on a campus where environmentally sustainability is foremost in the minds of students and administration, asking students to take action to reduce their consumption resulted in positive consumption reductions, even in the control group. Additive strategies did not produce higher reductions.

Reducing natural resource consumption in the USA is essential to promote worldwide sustainability. This study shows that, even when people see no financial incentive to reduce consumption, consumption reductions can be achieved.

Numerous studies have been completed since the 1970s in households across the world to promote environmentally relevant behavior (ERB). Sustainability action plans are being implemented on university campuses, but literature on promoting ERB in students residing on university campuses is sparse. This study provides information and a format for colleges/universities worldwide to promote ERB on their campuses.

Debates regarding climate change risk perception (CCRP), particularly its scale and impact on social and environmental sustainability, have continued for decades. CCRP is experiencing a renaissance with an increased focus on environmentally relevant behaviors to mitigate the effects of climate change. However, CCRP lacks investigation from the employee perspective. Supported by the social exchange and value–belief–norm theories, this study aims to address the impact of employees’ CCRP on their proenvironmental behavior (PEB) via the moderating roles of environmental values and psychological contract breach.

The nonprobability convenience sampling technique was used to collect survey data from a sample of 299 employees across 138 manufacturing firms in Pakistan.

The results show that employees’ CCRP positively impacts their PEB and that this relationship is moderated by their environmental values and psychological contract breach. Specifically, environmental values strengthen the CCRP–PEB relationship, while psychological contract breach weakens it.

The findings of the study emphasize useful guidance for managers and practitioners as a future avenue to restructure the climate change framework by emphasizing the conditions (i.e. environmental values and psychological contract breach). In doing so, the study is beneficial for managers and practitioners in helping to increase employees’ PEB through the development of climate change action plans.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first investigations into CCRP–employees’ PEB nexus in the developing country context. The study incorporates social exchange and value–belief–norm theory, which serve as the CCRP’s theoretical underpinnings. The findings advance the new knowledge about a firm’s social responsibility to achieve the sustainable development goals outlined in the UN’s 2030 Agenda.

Many education for sustainable development (ESD) programs are designed to change attitudes and values toward the natural environment. However, psychological research indicates that several factors in addition to attitude influence behavior, including contextual support, social norms, action difficulty, and habitual behavior. Thus, if attitude change is to translate into altered behavior, education must extend beyond attitudes to assist people to act in ways consistent with their values. The purpose of this paper is to review the psychological research showing weak correlation between attitudes and behavior, the factors that mediate this relationship, and to describe the implications of these findings for university institutions and ESD programs.

The paper is organized as a review and editorial article, describing relevant research, and outlining implications and suggested actions.

The results of the reviewed research indicate that attitude‐behavior correlations are mediated by several factors, including contextual conditions such as inconvenience and personal factors such as habits.

The implications of these findings are that ESD programs should specifically address factors that mediate the attitude‐behavior relationship, including contextual changes and the development of personal management plans. Examples for each type of change are suggested.

The implications of these findings for ESD programs have not previously been highlighted. Specifically, to achieve sustainable development requires attention to these mediating factors as well as to knowledge generation and attitude change. Thus, the value of this paper is to encourage ESD developers to expand their programs to encourage contextual change and personal behavior management plans.

Green consumer behavior has recently attracted the attention of academic researchers. To address a lack of relevant research, the effects that consumer characteristics (i.e. external locus of control and collectivism) and social influence factors (i.e. environmental visibility and subjective norms) exert on green purchasing intentions are investigated in this study. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Data were collected through a quantitative online survey of 1,866 participants in Taiwan, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data.

The results show that although an external locus of control exerted a negative effect on consumers’ green consumption intentions, collectivism values exerted a positive influence. In addition, both environmental visibility and subjective norms exerted a significant effect on green purchasing intentions.

Consumer characteristics and social influence factors were integrated into green consumer research in this study. The findings can improve green market managers’ understanding of the role that consumer characteristics and social influence factors play in consumer decisions.

Public participation is essential for mitigating local resistance faced by the environmentally stigmatized facilities. The purpose of this study is to investigate public participation intention in the decision-making of waste incineration power (WIP) projects by examining the role of perceived corporate social responsibility (PCSR) and public knowledge (PK) based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB).

A theoretical model correlating PCSR with public participation intention was developed by using the constructs of TPB as the mediators and PK as the moderator. Drawing on structural equation modeling (SEM), the data collected from 485 local residents of the WIP projects in Jiangsu, China were analyzed to test the model.

Companies' CSR practice went through public attitude, subjective norm and personal norm as mediating steps towards promoting participation intention. PK positively moderated the indirect relationships between PCSR and participation intention. Moreover, attitude, subjective norm and personal norm were found to have a positive effect on participation intention.

This study advances the understanding of public participation intention and enriches the literature relating to CSR and TPB involved in infrastructure development. In order to improve public participation intention, companies should take strategic social responsibility actions and present the benefits and moral values of the activities to the public, and as well make effort to diffuse WIP-related knowledge through interactive activities with the public. Authorities should establish social and personal value systems that praise public participation and improve their expectations of participation outcomes.

This paper aims to examine how gender differs in environmental attitude, environmental concern, perceived seriousness of environmental problems, perceived environmental responsibility, peer influence, self identity in environmental protection and green purchasing behavior in Hong Kong adolescent consumers.

A total of 6,010 (2,975 males and 3,035 females) adolescents in Hong Kong were recruited through multi‐staged random sampling. Surveys were distributed through 48 high schools in Hong Kong.

Female adolescents scored significantly higher in environmental attitude, environmental concern, perceived seriousness of environmental problems, perceived environmental responsibility, peer influence and green purchasing behavior than male adolescents in Hong Kong. In contrast, male adolescents' average score on self‐identity in environmental protection was significantly higher than that of the female adolescents.

A major limitation lies in the self‐reported nature of survey used in the study. Future study should include some objective assessments (such as observations or other‐reported survey) of the subjects' green purchasing and environmental behaviors.

This study should provide a useful source of information for international green marketers in Hong Kong. Hong Kong female adolescents constitute a potentially good market for green products. Marketing messages targeting this group should use emotional appeals, emphasize individual responsibility to protect the environment, and facilitate peer networking to spread good word‐of‐mouth.

This paper offers practical guidelines to international green marketers who are planning to target the Asian markets.

The purpose of this research is to provide a systematic review of the literature relating to message framing and its effectiveness in persuading consumers to adopt environmentally sustainable behaviour, which is a form of pro-social behaviour. Specifically, this paper focuses on three types of message framing: positive–negative, self–other and abstract–concrete.

This paper reports on a systematic review guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses framework identifying 108 articles published relating to message framing and environmental sustainability between 2005 and 2020. Descriptive analysis of the data was undertaken in combination with a thematic approach.

The results demonstrate that single frames do not reliably increase sustainable consumer behaviour. Instead, the use of two message frames is more consistently effective. However, there is some disparity in relation to the combined effects of two message frames. The research also identifies that the use of three combined message frames is underexplored in the existing literature.

Social marketing and consumer psychology researchers have explored many types of message framing. This study focuses on three common types. Also, the review is limited to valence framing. The authors recognise that visual aspects of message frames also determine the effectiveness of messaging. Another limitation is that only empirical studies published between 2005 and 2020 were reviewed.

Past review papers related to the impact of messaging on sustainable consumer behaviour either focus on one type of message framing, such as the positive–negative frame, or did not categorise message framing into different types. The current review focuses on three types of message framing that have been examined separately and in combination in the literature. Based on the findings, this study proposes a synthesised theoretical framework for future research.

This study aims to develop a robust theoretical framework to explain the impact of hotels’ green brand authenticity on guests’ perceptions of well-being, customer engagement and approach behaviors toward green brands.

In this study, the authors examined the effect of green brand authenticity on perceptions of well-being, customer engagement and approach behaviors toward green brands. For the quantitative empirical analysis, 352 samples were used. Green brand authenticity integrates quality commitment, heritage, uniqueness and symbolism as high-dimensional factors.

The study conceptualizes green brand authenticity as a multi-dimensional phenomenon with four dimensions: quality commitment, heritage, uniqueness and symbolism. The results showed that green brand authenticity has a positive effect on hotel guests’ perceived well-being and behavioral intentions. Interestingly, environmental values did not have a statistically significant regulatory role, while green behavior in everyday life had a partial regulatory role.

This study aims to develop and empirically test a conceptual model that depicts the function of green authenticity in explaining customer responses to green brands. The results and the theoretical framework proposed in this study provide significant insights for researchers and practitioners in the hotel industry.

Further than evaluating brand authenticity generally, this study evaluates the authenticity of a brand's environmental protection efforts. As a result of the empirical analysis conducted in this study, the green brand authenticity of a hotel had a positive effect on customers’ emotional and behavioral aspects. This finding provided valuable and meaningful insights for green hotels and hotel brand-related research.