<p>Behavior change is not a product of knowledge alone but by the other constructs within the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). This includes attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. In order to ensure positive change in food safety behavior, researchers should explore the current situation before providing the necessary resources for consumers. This can be done through consumer needs assessments which explore practices, perceptions, demographics, and more. Along with that, major health events like the COVID-19 pandemic can increase risk perceptions of consumers which may lead them to follow safe (washing hands with soap and water) and unsafe food handling behaviors (washing fruits and vegetables with soap). Information spreads quicker during this digital age and this can cause consumers to follow certain behaviors. To assess information being spread, chapter 2 includes a study assessing COVID-19-related food safety information on YouTube early on in the pandemic. Chapter 3 and 4 contain longitudinal studies that used surveys and focus groups to assess consumer food handling practices and risk perceptions throughout the pandemic. Another factor is the type of food being handled. Consumers are not aware that certain foods like pet food (Ch. 5) and raw wheat flour (Ch. 6) can cause foodborne illness. Thus, they may not be handling these types of products as carefully. It is important to communicate that these foods can also cause foodborne illness. In the case of raw wheat flour, while commercial brands provide food safety messages on the packaging, consumers have a hard time finding and understanding the messages. All the studies within this dissertation explored multiple elements that can fall under the different constructs of the TPB in the context of the different factors that affect food safety behaviors. For example, previous studies have found that risk perception may fall under the construct of attitude because human perceptions can influence how a person feels about the situation. The objective of this dissertation is to explore different consumer food safety needs and explore how the elements within the needs assessments feeds into the TPB. With this information, researchers can advance the use of the TPB and researchers and food safety educators can ensure positive behavior change through the TPB.</p>

Especially in the context of complex organizational changes, employees’ support is crucial for success because change-supportive behaviors of employees are required to compensate for higher uncertainties related to the implementation and the consequences of the changes. Yet, change support of employees is no automatic reaction. Seen from a psychological perspective change support represents a planned behavior of employees that is preceded by change-supportive intentions formed in reaction to the specific changes at hand. Hence, it is important to understand how employees react to organizational changes and how they form change-supportive intentions. However, research on employees’ change reactions is a rather fragmented field that poses great challenges for researchers and practitioners striving to establish evidence-based approaches of change management. Therefore, the present research answers the call for more theoretical integration and refinement in the field of organizational research. Specifically, the present research makes use of the theory of planned behavior (TPB, Ajzen, 1991) which as is an established psychological theory for explaining human behaviors in social contexts. Based on this theoretical foundation, the present work systematically examines influences on the formation of change-supportive intentions from change-specific management factors (Study 1) and from personal factors (Study 2), as well as interrelational influences among the psychological determinants of change-supportive intentions (Study 3). Across all studies, the value of the TPB for understanding the formation of change-supportive intentions is supported. In addition, each study reveals unique insights. Revealing systematic linkages of change-specific management factors and psychological factors, Study 1 highlights the value of theoretical integration to promote evidence-based management. Study 2 finds affective organizational commitment to be an important predictor of change-supportive intentions with direct and indirect effects via the psychological determinants. Study 3 shows the relevance of a configurational perspective for more fully understanding the psychological processes involved in the formation of change-supportive intentions. Taken together, the appended studies contribute to the theoretical integration and refinement in change research and enable more systematic, well-founded diagnoses in change processes by providing scientific guidance for evidence-based change management.

Inelastic price responses, demand hardening, and poor public awareness reduce the effectiveness of demand side strategies on water savings. This project quantified phycological household’s factors of attitudes, peer support, opportunities on water conservation with two social-environmental management strategies of encouragement and peer pressure. An agent-based model was populated with data for Logan, Utah using surveys, municipal billing, aerial imagery, weather monitoring stations, and flow, frequency, and durations of appliance use data. Results indicated those households with higher attitudes, peer support and opportunities saved the most water while peer pressure saved more than encouragement when using small and diverse social networks that could better regulate the behavior of outlier households within the network. Combined peer pressure and encouragement saved the most water as each strategy complimented one other. Managers can use results to identify and target large use households. Managers should recommend opportunities to conserve water through monthly bills and provide platforms for households to share their water use stories and information with each other.

Recent years have witnessed growing consumer interest in sustainable fashion and circular economy trends that focus on the make, use, and recycling. In several developed countries, consumers are more willing towards second-hand consumption. In India, the consumer attitude towards second-hand shopping has been slightly negative for several reasons. Moreover, India has been subjected to little or no research on consumer behavior. The aim of the study is to examine Indian consumers’ purchasing behavior associated with second-hand fashion in India and Sweden. Therefore, to address this issue and to gain a deeper understanding of consumer behavior while purchasing second-hand fashion, the study employed a qualitative approach combined with a case study research design. The in-depth semi-structured interviews involved fourteen Indian participants living in India and Sweden. The empirical data collected through the interviews were analyzed through thematic analysis, which yielded various themes and sub-themes. Two established frameworks in consumer behavior have been employed in analyzing the themes and sub-themes. The framework developed by Guiot and Roux has been used to confirm the motivational factors towards second-hand shopping. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) framework has been used to understand influential factors on consumer behavior towards second-hand shopping. The Guiot and Roux model analyses three key motivators that persuade consumers to purchase second-hand, which are economic, critical, and hedonic motivators. The theory of planned behavior framework analyses three perspectives of consumers, namely attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control and its influence on consumer intentions and behavior towards second-hand fashion consumption. The analysis and discussion provide influential factors and barriers towards the purchase intentions of Indian consumers. The study’s findings showed differences in the opinions of Indian consumers living in India and Sweden regarding second-hand consumption in general. While the Indian participants (Non-Buyers) in India refrained from giving second-hand fashion a chance, the Indian participants (Buyers) in Sweden were more open towards second-hand fashion. Different factors affect consumer behavior in different ways; factors like price, purchasing options, quality, and awareness regarding second-hand consumption have a positive influence, whereas factors such as hygiene, fashionability, personal values, and beliefs against second-hand consumption have a negative influence. Based on the findings from the analysis, possibilities to reinforce second-hand fashion consumption in India have also been discussed. Since the study has been conducted in a qualitative way, this paves way for future quantitative verification.

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The rise of social media has emerged the social phenomena called cancel culture, where individuals hold influencers and endorsed brands accountable for perceived immoral actions. Cancel culture originates from a desire for social justice, where the consequences of those cancelled could be temporary and long-lasting reputational damage. The behavior to cancel is individually complex and has many different drivers influencing the performance of behavior.  Despite its significant impact, cancel culture within research is just in its early stage and has received limited research from a qualitative perspective. Previous studies have researched cancel culture through the perspective of consumer power, celebrity transgressions, psychological drivers, and social identity. Moreover, previous research has studied the intended behavior to cancel, not the actual performance to cancel. There still remains a research gap in understanding the personal and social drivers that influence the process to cancel an influencer and endorsed brand. By this, it led us to our research question: “What are the personal and social drivers that could influence the behavior to engage in cancel culture?”. With an aim to provide a deeper understanding of the complex phenomena of cancel culture between consumers, influencers and the endorsed brands. By examining drivers such as norms, beliefs, values and traits our study seeks to shed light on the drivers and how they influence the behavior of cancel culture.  The findings revealed an interesting insight from the consumer perspective. An actual cancellation has a higher chance of occurring if the influencer's action is perceived to cross an moral barrier of a follower. However, our study found that subjectivity increases complexity of the behavior as every individual has their own moral barrier. For example, if the action is perceived to clash with the followers’ personal beliefs and values, cancellation might occur, however another individual might not perceive the action to cross their moral barrier. Moreover, our study found that the desire of social belongingness and social acceptance has a significant role when making a decision to cancel. From our study we have revealed that cancel culture is both an individual and social phenomenon, where the influence of one's own personal drivers is just as influential as the social influence. More specifically, followers' idea of their self- concept is just as influential as the pressure from their social environment. In conclusion, personal and social drivers influence the decision to cancel an influencer and endorsed brands. However, as subjectivity matters, these personal and social drivers influence the process differently for each individual. From a managerial perspective, our findings could contribute to influencer marketing strategies trying to improve their selection process or response strategy if an cancellation would occur.

Data from underlying research has become increasingly important to scientists and the public in recent decades. As a result, funders and journal publishers have become increasingly demanding that scientists share their data. Universities have also been encouraged to advance their data sharing support units as a result of this development. Earlier studies on data sharing among scientists have primarily explored the barriers to data sharing, while motivations and perceptions among scientists that have shared their data have been examined less. To this end, this thesis investigates perceptions and responsibilities on data sharing among ecologists that have shared data in an open data repository within the last 12 months. As a public-funded and university-supported repository, the Swedish National Data Service (SND) is selected for this purpose. Semi-structured interviews with six ecologists are conducted to evaluate their motivations and perceived responsibilities on data sharing, The theory of planned behavior (TBP) serves as theoretical framework. Earlier TPB models are adapted to include new factors that potentially influence data sharing behavior among ecologists. The interviews highlight several individual and institutional factors that influence ecologists' data sharing in the SND repository. On the individual level, the informants perceive a strong personal responsibility to share their data publicly. On the institutional level, they perceive that journals have a large responsibility, and the findings indicate that journal pressure, in isolation, has a positive impact on data sharing. Perceptions about the SND support are ambiguous among the informants. While generally perceived as helpful and quality enhancing, most informants found it stressful and time consuming to share their data via the SND support. Thus, the combination of journal pressure and perceived stress associated with preparing data for SND has a negative influence on the motivation to share the data in the repository. Unless data sharing in SND is facilitated, or the pressure from journals is mitigated, scientists might increasingly opt for using repositories that require less strict metadata descriptions. / Data från underliggande forskning har blivit allt viktigare för forskare och allmänheten under de senaste decennierna. Såväl forskningsfinansiärer som utgivare av vetenskapliga tidskrifter har ställt allt högre krav på att forskare ska dela sina data. Universiteten har också uppmuntrats att utveckla sina stödenheter för datadelning. Tidigare studier om datadelning bland forskare har i första hand undersökt hinder för forskare från att dela sina data, medan uppfattningar bland forskare som har delat sina data inte har undersökts i lika stor utsträckning. Denna avhandling undersöker uppfattningar och ansvar för datadelning bland ekologer som har delat data i ett öppet dataarkiv under de senaste 12 månaderna. Dataarkivet vid Svensk Nationell Datatjänst (SND) väljs för detta ändamål eftersom det stöds av flera universitet och är offentligt finansierad. Semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförs med sex ekologer för att utvärdera drivkrafter och upplevda ansvar kring datadelning. Teorin om planerat beteende (TBP) används som teoretiskt ramverk. Tidigare TPB-modeller anpassas för att inkludera nya faktorer som kan påverka datadelningsbeteendet hos ekologer. Intervjuerna belyser flera individuella och institutionella faktorer som påverkar ekologernas datadelning i SND. På individnivå upplever informanterna ett personligt ansvar att dela sin data offentligt. På institutionell nivå anser de att tidskrifter har stort ansvar och resultaten tyder på att påtryckningar från tidskrifter har en positiv inverkan på datadelning. Uppfattningar om SND-supporten är tvetydiga. Många upplevde stödet hjälpsamt och kvalitetshöjande, men också att det var stressigt och tidskrävande att dela sina data via SND-supporten. Således har kombinationen av påtryckningar från tidskrifter och upplevd stress i samband med förberedelse av data för SND en negativ inverkan på datadelning i arkivet. Såvida inte datadelningen i SND underlättas, eller påtryckningarna från tidskrifter mildras, kan forskare i allt högre grad välja att använda arkiv som kräver mindre strikta metadatabeskrivningar.

Purpose: This research aims to test the identified factors that influence the online purchase intentions of millennial (Gen Y) and Gen Z Africans who reside in Sweden and to find out whether there are differences in the online purchase intention between the two generational cohorts. Research design: In order to fulfil the purpose of this study, an online questionnaire was distributed to Gen Y and Gen Z Africans living in Sweden. A total of 203 valid responses were collected through the convenience sampling and snowball sampling method. With the valid responses, the multiple linear regression and analysis of variance were conducted. Findings: The study has found enough evidence to prove that attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and green concern all have an influence on the online purchase intention of Gen Y and Gen Z Africans living in Sweden. However, the perceived risks is the only factor that does not have an influence on the online purchase intention of Gen Y and Gen Z Africans living in Sweden. Also, the study proves that there are no statistically significant differences in the attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, green concern and perceived risks of the two generations in question.

The rapid growth and development of cities have brought new mobility challenges, which the emergence of micro-mobility solutions, such as Personal Mobility Vehicles, has addressed. However, the increase in the use of these vehicles has also led to a rise in the number of accidents and injuries due to the inadequate use of protective equipment. Consequently, the sales of safety apparel have increased (Smith, 2022), creating a more competitive market where marketing strategies have become essential to successfully sell the product. This study aims to investigate the purchase behavior of safety apparel products, using the Theory of Planned Behavior as a framework to analyze the factors that affect the intentions of consumers to buy safety apparel. The research considered both product and societal factors that motivate or discourage the purchase of safety apparel. The results of the study revealed that the characteristics of the safety apparel product were the most significant factor that motivated the purchase. Consumers preferred discreet aesthetics and dark colors; low prices were also important factors. In addition, fashion, the influence of specialists in stores and on social networks, and the role of authorities were also found to be significant factors. However, the ability of buyers to carry out this behavior was subject to product compatibility, affordability, and availability. The findings of this research will help manufacturers and retailers to develop better marketing strategies that will increase the effectiveness of campaigns and enhance the motivation, importance, and priority to buy safety apparel. The study's contributions also have implications for other organizations that market safety-related products or want to promote their use. Overall, this study sheds light on the understanding of safety apparel customers and aims to contribute to improving marketing strategies in the safety apparel industry and promoting the safety culture among city commuters.

This research study aims to explore consumer ́s perception of bio-based plastic and to gain a comprehensive understanding of the various aspects including knowledge, expectations, perceived behavioral control and subjective norms that influence these perceptions. With increasing environmental concerns related to conventional plastics, there is a growing interest in sustainable alternatives. However, there is limited knowledge regarding consumer perceptions, specifically regarding bio-based plastics. Through semi-structured interviews, this study investigates the overall consumer perception of bio-based plastics compared to conventional plastics while also examining the influence of knowledge, expectations, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control on consumer perceptions. By incorporating these aspects, the study addresses a research gap and contributes to the understanding of consumer behavior towards bio-based plastics. The findings highlight the significance of knowledge, social influences, price perception, and product quality in shaping consumer perceptions. Policymakers, marketers, and industries seeking to promote the adoption of bio-based plastics as an alternative to conventional plastics can benefit from the research outcomes.