Voluntary or Forced: Different Effects of Personal and Social Norms on Urban Residents' Environmental Protection Behavior

Corporate social responsibility and employee engagement: the mediating role of personal environmental norms and employee green behavior

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on employee engagement (EE) through mediating effect of personal environmental norms (PEN) and employee green behavior (EGB).

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed model was validated using 360 employees data from manufacturing and service industries.

Findings

The findings confirmed that CSR is the positive and significant driver of EE. The results also demonstrated PEN and green employee behavior partly mediate this relationship.

Practical implications

The finding of this study enriches the existing literature and social outcomes of CSR. Theoretical and practical contributions have been discussed in detail.

Originality/value

The study demonstrates CSR is significantly related to EE, mediated via PEN and EGB, highlighting the necessity for micro-level CSR research. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first and foremost empirical research that establishes the mediating effects of PEN and EGB between CSR and EE in the Indian context.

Viral mitigation and the COVID-19 pandemic: factors associated with adherence to social distancing protocols and hygienic behaviour

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the factors associated with adherence to viral mitigation protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic.

DESIGN

This epidemiological cross-sectional study examines adherence to behaviour in 4158 adults and its relationship with sources of information.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Adherence to social distancing protocols (SDPs) and adherence to hygienic behaviour (HB) recommendations.

RESULTS

Individuals aged 18-30 reported lowest adherence to SDPs and HB. Alcohol consumption was associated with lower adherence. Increased risk perception, fear of infection and altruistic attitude were associated with greater adherence. Males, single and childless individuals reported lower adherence. Extroverts and urban residents reported lower adherence to SDPs, but not HB. In contrast to earlier stages of the pandemic, voluntary social distancing was associated with greater adherence to SDPs as opposed to rule-enforced social distancing. Regarding information obtainment, increased time spent acquiring information from recognised newspapers had the strongest favourable association with adherence. Relying on information from friends and family was associated with decreased adherence to SDPs. Sensitivity analyses replicated the findings, supporting the stability and robustness of the proposed models.

CONCLUSION

This study identifies factors associated with favourable and detrimental adherence behaviour along with substantial dissemination routes, presenting strategies that may be of utility towards fostering adherence to contemporaneously implemented mitigation protocols.

Follow or not? Descriptive norms and public health compliance: Mediating role of risk perception and moderating effect of behavioral visibility

In a pandemic context, public health events are receiving unprecedented attention, and identifying ways to enhance individual public health compliance behaviors has become an urgent practical problem. Considering that individual decisions are susceptible to group members' behaviors and that descriptive norms provide social information about the typical behaviors of others, we focused on the effects of the properties and reference groups of descriptive norms on public health compliance behaviors. We also investigated the mechanism with risk perception as a mediator and the applicable condition with behavioral visibility as a moderator. Through a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subject survey experiment with 529 subjects, we demonstrated that (1) compared with the negative norm, the positive norm was more effective in promoting public health compliance behaviors; (2) compared with the distal group norm, the proximal group norm more significantly promoted public health compliance behaviors; (3) the effect of the property of descriptive norms on public health compliance behaviors was weakened in the treatment of the proximal group norm; (4) risk perception partially mediated the association between the property of descriptive norms and public health compliance behaviors and fully mediated the effect of the interaction of the property and the reference group of descriptive norms on public health compliance behaviors; in the treatment of the negative-proximal group norm, individuals perceived more risk, thus effectively nudging their public health compliance behaviors; (5) compared with low-visibility behaviors, public health compliance behaviors were significantly stronger for high-visibility behaviors; (6) the property of descriptive norms had a weaker effect on public health compliance behaviors for low-visibility behaviors. In terms of theoretical significance, we refined the study of descriptive norms to promote the application of behavioral public policy. Moreover, the new model of public health compliance behaviors constructed in this study explains the mechanism and applicable conditions of public health compliance behaviors. In practical terms, this study has implications for designing intervention programs to nudge public health compliance behaviors.

The COVID-19 Health Protocol among University Students: Case Studies in Three Cities in Indonesia

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused lifestyle changes for everyone and led to the practice of regulated health protocols for preventing the spreading or severity of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examines the differences in health protocols and health practices among university students. The designed online survey was conducted among 292 university students in three cities in Indonesia, i.e., Yogyakarta, Semarang, and Surakarta. A forced-entry multivariate regression was conducted using all RANAS (risk, attitude, norms, ability-self-regulation) sub-factors as independent variables and health protocol obtained from PCA as the dependent variable. The results showed that the students' health protocol and health practices were practiced with varying frequency. A face mask covering the chin and nose was the most practiced health protocol, while reducing mobilization by maintaining distance was the most violated health protocol among students. We also found that four health protocol practices are highly correlated, i.e., handwashing in public spaces, physical distancing, frequency of using the mask, and avoiding crowded places. In addition, three significant psychological factors were identified, which were positively associated with the student's health protocol practice, i.e., belief about time (attitude) (OR: 0.119; CI: -0.054-0.136; p ≤ 0.05), personal norm (norm) (OR: 0.232; CI: 0.149-0.539; p ≤ 0.01), and action control (self-regulation) (OR: 0.173; CI: 0.046-0.427; p ≤ 0.05), where the personal norm is the most significant one. Finally, to minimize the COVID-19 transmission among students, especially when they back to onsite learning, it was important to create students' sense of ethical self-obligation to follow and practice standard health hygiene correctly and regularly.

Sustainable Communication in the B2C Market—The Impact of Packaging

The purpose of this study was to widen the knowledge about the recycling behaviour of consumers in order to understand their motivations related to the separate collection of household waste. This work encompasses a segmentation analysis revealing discrepancies between the respondents, who were profiled into three clusters: Engaged in green, characterised by high values of pro-environmental attitudes; Indolent adopters, described by respondents revealing moderate attitudes towards sorting waste; and Ecological objectors, who do not appreciate the benefits of recycling. The results showed that regardless of the cluster type, the level of actual knowledge about segregation rules was similar and insufficient, which hinders the correct sorting of household waste. It was also found that special attention should be paid to the quality of the information provided by FMCG packaging. Our study highlighted the need for a mandatory, precise, and coherent system of packaging labelling in order to promote pro-environmental attitudes and enhance the effectiveness of recycling.

Can Hotel Companies' Water Conservation Management and Waste Reduction Measures Influence Hotel Customers' Willingness to Pay More and Intention to Revisit?

This study investigated the effect of hotel water conservation management and waste reduction measures on customers’ social and personal norms, willingness to pay more, and revisit intention, with cost consciousness as a moderating variable. A total of 311 valid samples were obtained by conducting a survey on customers who have used hotels for the past year. To perform the empirical analysis, SPSS 22.0 (IBM, New York, NY, USA) and AMOS 22.0 (IBM, New York, NY, USA) were used. As a result of the analysis, seven of the eight hypotheses were accepted, and the ninth hypothesis that tested the moderating effect was partially accepted. The results of the study revealed that a hotel’s eco-friendly activities had a positive effect on its overall performance. The results also provide insight that can lay the foundation for the sustainable management of hotels.