Applying a Combination of SEM and fsQCA to Predict Tourist Resource-Saving Behavioral Intentions in Rural Tourism: An Extension of the Theory of Planned Behavior

Wei Zheng; Hongliang Qiu; Alastair M Morrison

doi:10.3390/ijerph20021349

Applying a Combination of SEM and fsQCA to Predict Tourist Resource-Saving Behavioral Intentions in Rural Tourism: An Extension of the Theory of Planned Behavior

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jan 11;20(2):1349. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20021349.

Authors

Wei Zheng¹, Hongliang Qiu^{2

3

4}, Alastair M Morrison⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Tourism and Foreign Languages, Tourism College of Zhejiang, Hangzhou 311231, China.
² Postdoctoral Station of Business Administration, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.
³ School of Business Administration, Tourism College of Zhejiang, Hangzhou 311231, China.
⁴ Zhejiang Academy of Culture & Tourism Development, Hangzhou 311231, China.
⁵ School of Management and Marketing, Greenwich Business School, University of Greenwich, Old Royal Naval College, Park Row, London SE10 9LS, UK.

Abstract

How to save resources and protect the environment at destinations is one of the hot issues in tourism. One effective solution is to cultivate tourist resource-saving behavioral intentions (TRSBI). Prior studies mainly use Structural equation modeling (SEM) to explore its antecedents, whereas other potential methods (i.e., fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, fsQCA for short) have been less adopted. This study combines SEM and fsQCA to examine TRSBI in a rural tourism context. Specifically, SEM is executed to investigate how environmental concern influences TRSBI based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), while fsQCA is applied to uncover the multiple configurations in the TRSBI formation. The findings from SEM indicated that (1) environmental concern positively and directly influenced TRSBI; (2) TPB constructs (i.e., attitudes toward the behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control) positively and separately mediated the associations of environmental concern with TRSBI. The fsQCA outcomes showed that three configurations result in a high level of TRSBI: (1) high attitudes toward the behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control, (2) high attitudes toward the behavior, subjective norms, and environmental concern, and (3) high attitudes toward the behavior, perceived behavioral control, and environmental concern. The combined approaches offer a systematic and holistic solution to explore TRSBI in rural tourism.

Keywords: environmental concern; fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA); theory of planned behavior; tourist resource-saving behavioral intentions.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Humans
Intention*
Latent Class Analysis
Surveys and Questionnaires
Theory of Planned Behavior*
Tourism

Grants and funding

This research was supported by a grant from the Projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number: 72074053), the General Research Project of the Department of Education of Zhejiang Province (grant number: Y202147320), the Youth Foundation of Humanities and Social Science Project of the Ministry of Education of China (grant number: 19YJC630131), and the Youth Key Project of Premier Humanities and Social Science Program for Higher Educational Institutes of Zhejiang Province, China (grant number: 2018QN015).