Are you a water saver? Discovering people's water-saving intention by extending the theory of planned behavior

Hongyun Si; Xu Duan; Wenjia Zhang; Yangyue Su; Guangdong Wu

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.114848

Are you a water saver? Discovering people's water-saving intention by extending the theory of planned behavior

J Environ Manage. 2022 Mar 15:311:114848. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.114848. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Hongyun Si¹, Xu Duan², Wenjia Zhang³, Yangyue Su⁴, Guangdong Wu⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Public Administration and Policy, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan, China.
² School of Management Engineering, Shandong Jianzhu University, Jinan, China. Electronic address: duanxuu@126.com.
³ School of Business Administration, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan, China.
⁴ School of Management Engineering, Shandong Jianzhu University, Jinan, China.
⁵ School of Public Policy and Administration, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China.

PMID: 35303595
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.114848

Abstract

Saving water is a common responsibility of all humanity, which is essential for achieving sustainable use of global water resources. The aim of this study is to discover the determinants of an individual's intention to save water. Based on the theory of planned behavior, a novel comprehensive framework has been developed by extending environmental concern, perceived risk, and information publicity. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to perform an empirical analysis with data from questionnaire of 265 residents in Jinan, the famous Chinese "Spring City". The findings indicate that residents have a strong environmental concern and water-saving intention with mean values of 6.78 and 6.67, respectively. Attitude and information publicity are the most important antecedents of water-saving intention, followed by subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. Environmental concern and perceived risk indirectly affect the intention to save water through attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. The role of environmental concern is more important than the role of perceived risk. Interestingly, a high level of information publicity may strengthen the impact of attitude on water-saving intention but weaken the impact of perceived behavioral control. This study strongly supplements current knowledge on water-saving behavior. Moreover, these findings provide insights for policymakers to motivate people to save water.

Keywords: Environmental concern; Information publicity; Intention; Saving behavior; Theory of planned behavior; Water.