Factors influencing baby boomers' intention to choose a dish featuring plant-based meat alternatives (PBMA) at a restaurant: Findings from an online panel study

The purpose of this study is to examine the psychosocial determinants of baby boomers'-born between 1946 and 1964- intention to choose a menu item featuring plant-based meat alternatives (PBMA) when dining out. The specific objectives are as follows: 1) to identify the baby boomer generation's health-related perceptions about PBMA, and 2) to examine the factors that influence baby boomers' intention to choose a dish featuring PBMA at a restaurant. A total of 174 responses obtained using the Qualtrics panel were analyzed with content analysis and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings identified various underlying perceptions of baby boomers toward PBMA, such as perceived health outcomes, perceived availability, and willingness to purchase. Furthermore, subjective norm, cues to action, and self-identity were found to be significant predictors of the intention to choose a menu item featuring PBMA when dining out. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Public acceptance of residential photovoltaic installation: A case study in China

Residential photovoltaics (PV) presents an effective means of achieving low-carbon development, owing to its installation flexibility and resource-saving properties. To explore the residents' behavioral intentions to purchase and install residential PV systems, this study collected 1424 samples and analyze the impact of different policies on residents' adoption of residential PV using the theory of TPB and the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM). The main conclusions are summarized as follows: (1) Bungalow residents exhibit a stronger inclination to install residential PV than building residents. (2) Perceived reward (PR) affects installation intention (II) more than perceived guide (PG) among bungalow residents. (3) Both PR and PG indirectly affect II through Perceived behavioral control (PBC) among bungalow residents. Economic policies, represented by PR, are likely to have more substantial indirect effects than propaganda and guidance policies. The findings suggest that China's recent residential PV installation policies should increase users' trust and guide the future decline of subsidy policy.

Model for enhancing the research conducted by the university medical staff: Participatory action research

This study employed mixed methods with a participatory action research approach to explore factors currently undermining the conduction of research and to develop strategies to boost research productivity. A questionnaire was distributed to 64 staff members of the Department of Anesthesiology at a university-based hospital. Thirty-nine staff members (60.9%) gave informed consent and responses. Staff views were also collected through focus group discussions. The staff reported that limited research methodology skills, time management, and complex managerial processes were the limitations. Age, attitudes, and performance expectancy were significantly correlated with research productivity. A regression analysis demonstrated that age and performance expectancy significantly influenced research productivity. A Business Model Canvas (BMC) was implemented to gain insight into the goal of enhancing the conduct of research. Business Model Innovation (BMI) established a strategy to improve research productivity. The concept, comprising personal reinforcement (P), aiding systems (A), and a lifting-up of the value of research (L), the PAL concept, was considered key to enhancing the conduct of research, with the BMC providing details and integrating with the BMI. To upgrade the research performance, the involvement of management is imperative, and future action will involve the implementation of a BMI model to increase research productivity.

Understanding the perceived behavior of public utility bus passengers during the era of COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines: Application of social exchange theory and theory of planned behavior

Over the years, passengers in the Philippines have relied on public utility bus (PUB) to reach a destination. However, PUB has been greatly affected by the adverse effects of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak. Therefore, the study analyzed passengers' behavior using PUB during the COVID-19 pandemic by integrating social exchange theory (SET) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB). A total of 505 PUB users completed the online questionnaire containing sixty-seven (67) measures. Through confirmatory factor analysis - structural equation modeling (CFA-SEM), all the twelve (12) hypotheses were found significant. Accessibility, safety, economic benefit, and crisis management had a significant and positive influence on passengers' trust. Moreover, passengers' trust produced a significant positive influence on attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control. Additionally, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control generated a significant positive influence on the intention to use PUB. Furthermore, perceived behavioral control had a significant positive influence on perceived passenger behavior. Lastly, the intention to use PUB developed a substantial and positive influence on perceived passenger behavior. PUB companies and policymakers can utilize these findings to develop additional PUB reforms for the benefit of passengers, drivers, operators, companies, and the government during the COVID-19 pandemic.

What makes residents more willing to participate in source separation of waste masks under the COVID-19 pandemic?

With the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the generation of a large amount of medical waste brought a rude shock to the existing solid waste management system. Since masks constitute the most common household medical waste under the COVID-19 pandemic, their effective collection and treatment can significantly reduce the potential risks for secondary transmission, and this concern has attracted worldwide attention. Taking Macau City as a case study, this research tried to identify factors that can influence residents' behavioral intentions toward the source separation of COVID-19 waste masks. The extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) model is used to examine the influence factors of the source separation behaviors of 510 respondents. The results show that the main factors that positively affected respondents' behavioral intentions toward waste-mask source separation are: cognitive attitude, convenience, and perceived behavioral control, and among these, cognitive attitude has the highest influence. Subjective norm is also proved to be the weak factor to improving behavioral intention. Policy advocacy, and demographic variables have no significant effect on behavioral intention. The results of this study can help decision makers and managers formulate effective strategies to increase residents' participation in the source separation of waste masks.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10163-022-01513-7.

Physical activity behavior during Covid 19 pandemic among Iranian dwellers in Southern Iran based on planned behavior theory: a SEM analysis

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic restrictions curtailed physical activity. The current study applied an integrated Theory of Planned Behavior to identify the determinants of physical activity behavior and the processes involved in the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted in Shiraz city, Southern Iran, among 2500 people who met the inclusion criteria were included in the study. Data were collected using the demographic information questions and questionnaire based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) constructs. The Questionnaire via WhatsApp, emails, and SMS was shared. Data analysis was performed using SPSS26 and Amos version 24. Mean and standard deviation was used to describe the data. Also, one-way ANOVA and structural equation analysis were used to analyze the data. The significance level in all the tests was considered to be 0.05.

RESULTS

One thousand one hundred sixty-nine samples (46.8%) said they had been exercising less than 3 days a week, and 47.6% of them did not have any exercise or physical activities (n = 1191). The mean score of attitudes, SN, PBC, and intention were 9.38 ± 2.07, 9.27 ± 2.03, 9.32 ± 2.05, and 12.29 ± 2.35, respectively. The effect size values demonstrate the independent variables' high coefficient of influence on explaining the theoretical model. According to the results, the factors play an important role in samples' intention (η² ≥ 0.2, p ≤ 0.05). The effect size of intention on doing physical activities and exercise during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is Eta square = 0.777, which means the measure was high. The obtained model was good based on the main goodness of fit indices (Chi2 = 108.6, df = 25, n = 2500, Chi2/df = 4.344, RMSEA = 0.036, AGFI = 0.92, CFI = 0.95, GFI = 0.90, Fornell-Larcker criterion = 0.87, HTMT = 0.89).

CONCLUSION

The TPB provides a useful framework to explore psychosocial determinants of physical activity behavior during the pandemic and identify key strategies for program planning aimed at improving exercise among people who were already influenced by quarantine and lockdown restrictions.

Agent-based modeling of participants' behaviors in an inter-sectoral groundwater market

While being affected by economic and hydrological conditions, the behaviors of water market participants can also be caused by their psychological characteristics and social stimuli of the environment. This paper employs agent-based modeling (ABM) approach to simulate a local groundwater market in central Iran. The proposed ABM framework couples social, economic, and hydrological sub-models. The social sub-model benefits from the theory of planned behavior under field studies to design psychology-based behaviors of trading agents. Moreover, in continuous interaction with the FlowLogo hydrological sub-model, the economic sub-model simulates the inter-sectoral water trading under a double-auction mechanism. The inter-sectoral trading includes selling the farms' irrigation water to the industry sector. The calibration and validation results for an eight-year simulation period (2010-2018) confirm the acceptable performance of the proposed ABM framework. Water trading patterns experience relatively extreme variations in the first years. However, with the adaption of the agents' bids to the market conditions, they gradually emerge in a more stable form in the last years. Furthermore, updating the psychological factors increases the agents' intention of participating in the market, and thus, the competition level over time. Finally, the hydro-economic analysis reveals that implementing the dynamic cap-and-trade policy increases the total net benefits of market participants by an average of 27% per year while reducing the region's groundwater drawdown by 56 cm. Such inter-sectoral water markets can help with the sustainable exploitation of groundwater resources.

Using structural equation modeling to predict Indian people's attitudes and intentions towards COVID-19 vaccination

BACKGROUND AND AIM

Understanding people's attitudes towards Covid-19 vaccination is crucial to the successful implementation of a vaccination program. Hence this research study seeks to identify critical factors influencing Indian people's attitudes and intentions to take up Covid-19 vaccinations.

METHODS

An online questionnaire was administered to a sample (n = 254) drawn from Indian population, to assess the impact of perceived benefits, risk perceptions, social media exposure, social norms, and trust associated with Covid-19 vaccines on people's attitudes towards Covid-19 vaccines and their intentions to take up the Covid-19 vaccinations.

RESULTS

The findings showed that the perceived benefits, social norms, and trust correlated significantly with people's attitudes towards Covid-19 vaccinations. In contrast, risk perceptions and social media exposure showed an insignificant influence on people's attitudes towards Covid-19 vaccinations. Social norms, trust, and people's attitudes towards the Covid-19 vaccinations are significantly correlated with their intentions to take up Covid-19 vaccinations. On the contrary, social media exposure was found to have an insignificant influence on people's intentions to take up Covid-19 vaccinations.

CONCLUSION

Participants' intentions to take up Covid-19 vaccinations was influenced mainly by their attitudes and perceptions of Covid-19 vaccines in general, which strongly confirms the importance of various dimensions (perceived benefits, trust, social norms) of Covid-19 vaccines in cultivating Covid-19 vaccination acceptance among participants'.

Effect of the theory of planned behavior on primipara breastfeeding

BACKGROUND

Breastfeeding is the most effective way to provide food for the healthy growth and development of babies. It has been reported in the literature that interventions on parturients, with the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as the guiding framework, can achieve good results. The purpose of the present study was to explore the effect of the TPB on primipara breastfeeding.

METHODS

A total of 70 primiparas, who were given regular intervention mode at Haian People's Hospital from May 2017 to May 2018, were selected as the control group, and a total of 70 primiparas, who were given the TPB model from June 2018 to June 2019, were selected as the observation group. Exclusive breastfeeding rates, continuous breastfeeding rates, and breastfeeding confidence and breastfeeding impact factors were compared between the two groups.

RESULTS

After the intervention, the pure breastfeeding rates of the observation group at discharge, 1 month after delivery, and 4 months after delivery were higher than those of the control group (P<0.05). After intervention, the continuous breastfeeding rates of the observation group was higher than that of the control group at 4 months after delivery (P<0.05). After intervention, the skill dimension, inner activity dimension, and total score of the observation group were higher than those of the control group (P<0.05). After intervention, scores of attitude, perceptual behavior control, and knowledge in the observation group were higher than those of the control group (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

The application of the TPB to primipara breastfeeding can significantly increase the rate of exclusive breastfeeding and continuous breastfeeding, and effectively improve the impact factors of breastfeeding.

The extended theory of planned behavior considering heterogeneity under a connected vehicle environment: A case of uncontrolled non-signalized intersections

With the emergence of connected vehicle (CV) technology, there is a doubt whether CVs can improve driver intentions and behaviors, and thus protect them from accidents with the provision of real-time information. In order to understand the possible impacts of the real-time information provided by CV technology on drivers, this paper aims to develop a model which considers the heterogeneity between drivers with the aid of the extended theory of planned behavior. At the uncontrolled non-signalized intersections, a stated preference (SP) questionnaire survey was conducted to build the dataset consisting of 1001 drivers. Based on the collected dataset, the proposed model examines the relationships between subjective norms, attitudes, risk perceptions, perceived behavioral control and driving intentions, and studies how such driving intentions are simultaneously related to driver characteristics and experiences in the CV environment. Furthermore, driver groups which are homogenous with respect to personality traits are formed, and then are employed to analyze the heterogeneity in responses to driving intentions. Four key findings are obtained when analyzing driver responses to the real-time information provided by CV technology: 1) the proposed H-ETPB model is verified with a good fitness measure; 2) irrespective to driver personality traits, attitudes and perceived behavioral control have a direct and indirect association with driving intentions to accelerate; 3) driving intentions of high-neurotic drivers to accelerate are significantly related to subjective norms, while that of low-neurotic drivers are not; 4) elder high-neurotic drivers, and low-neurotic drivers who have unstable salaries or ever joined in online car hailing service have a strong intention in accelerating. The findings of this study could provide the theoretical framework to optimize traffic performance and information design, as well as provide in-vehicle personalized information service in the CV and CAV environments and assist traffic authorities to design the most acceptable traffic rules for different drivers at an uncontrolled non-signalized intersection.

Patients' compliance behavior in a personalized mobile patient education system (PMPES) setting: Rational, social, or personal choices?

OBJECTIVE

With the advancement of mobile technologies, patients can access medical and patient educational information anytime and anywhere. Computer-aided patient education has been advocated as a key means of interventions for improving patient knowledge and compliance (i.e., adherence). However, evidence of the efficacy of computer-aided patient education remains relatively limited. For example, little is known about how the latest mobile technologies influence patients' compliance intention and their actual compliance behavior. The objective of this study is to investigate patients' compliance intention and behavior using a personalized mobile patient education system (PMPES) as a novel technological intervention for patients based on rational choice theory (RCT) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We conducted a field survey with 125 actual patients in U.S. who obtained their patient education through PMPES while seeking medical treatment advice from their doctors. We used partial least squares (PLS) regression path modeling to test our model.

RESULTS

We found that, based on RCT, the benefits of compliance and cost/threat of noncompliance positively influenced intention toward treatment compliance; in contrast, costs of compliance negatively influenced intention toward treatment compliance. However, the benefits of noncompliance had no effect on intention toward treatment compliance. The results also indicated that intention toward treatment compliance, response efficacy, and self-efficacy related to TPB jointly influenced the degree of actual compliance behaviors. Social influence factors including subjective norms and descriptive norms had no influence on patients' actual treatment compliance behavior.

CONCLUSION

Overall, the research model explains 69.2 % of the variance in patients' actual compliance behavior. We find our model robust in using RCT as a key theoretical lens for the assessment of patients' compliance intention to follow medical recommendations enabled by the PMPES and delivered to mobile devices. The factors associated with RCT and TPB jointly influence patients' actual compliance behavior. Future mobile patient education programs should consider patients' age groups, mixed-gender groups, different medical settings, and cross-cultural contexts.

Theory of Planned Behavior in School-Based Adolescent Problem Gambling Prevention: A Conceptual Framework

Given its serious implications for psychological and socio-emotional health, the prevention of problem gambling among adolescents is increasingly acknowledged as an area requiring attention. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) is a well-established model of behavior change that has been studied in the development and evaluation of primary preventive interventions aimed at modifying cognitions and behavior. However, the utility of the TPB has yet to be explored as a framework for the development of adolescent problem gambling prevention initiatives. This paper first examines the existing empirical literature addressing the effectiveness of school-based primary prevention programs for adolescent gambling. Given the limitations of existing programs, we then present a conceptual framework for the integration of the TPB in the development of effective problem gambling preventive interventions. The paper describes the TPB, demonstrates how the framework has been applied to gambling behavior, and reviews the strengths and limitations of the model for the design of primary prevention initiatives targeting adolescent risk and addictive behaviors, including adolescent gambling.