Recently, the use of corporate social responsibility initiatives has grown in popularity and prominence among organizations as research increasingly suggests that these initiatives positively impact the corporation's bottom line. This study contributes to theory driven research in strategic communications by using an experimental design to test the influence of six distinct corporate social responsibility initiatives, as identified by Kotler and Lee (2005), on the beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intention of message receivers, using Fishbein and Ajzen's (1975, 2005) theory of reasoned action as a theoretical framework. According to Fishbein and Ajzen (1975), attitudes about an object are the result of the total of many varying beliefs about the object. This study extends understanding of the Dual Credibility Model by examining the influence of corporate credibility as a belief set and mediator between organizations and their target publics. This study is uniquely focused on developing a better understanding of how corporate social responsibility initiatives influence corporate credibility and corporate social responsibility beliefs. Findings do not indicate significant differences among corporate social responsibility initiatives. Only significant differences between using and not using an initiative were found. However, among the initiatives cause related marketing demonstrated the highest mean score, although not a significant difference. CSR initiatives do influence belief sets, specifically CSR beliefs. The corporate credibility/ trust belief set showed the strongest positive influence on attitude toward the advertisement and attitude toward the organization. Attitude towards the organization demonstrated a significant influence on behavioral intention toward the organization. These results support the theory of reasoned action. Exploratory research found that corporate credibility/trust and corporate credibility/expertise directly and significantly influenced behavioral intention toward the organization, suggesting an extension of the theory within the context of corporate credibility.

Educational Intervention to Impact Parental Decisions to Consent to Human Papillomavirus Vaccine by Tawa B. Ibikunle-Salami MSN, Indiana Wesleyan University, 2010 BSN, Indiana Wesleyan University, 2005 Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice Walden University September 2015 Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is a global health issue that is transmitted sexually and affects both genders. Evidence shows that approximately 79 million people are affected in the United States with 14 million newly affected yearly. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that teens and young adults under age 25 are at particular risk, so it is important to begin the vaccination series between 9 and 17 years of age. Parental voluntary acceptance of HPV vaccine for their minor children was noted as a problem in a clinic in Northwest Indiana, and 8% clinic HPV series completion rate is significantly lower than the targeted federal goal of 80% by 2020. A literature review indicated that an educational intervention provided by healthcare professionals could serve as one of the strongest predictors of HPV vaccine acceptance. The purpose of this project was to develop an evidence-based parental educational process to support providers' influence on parents of children ages 9 to 17 to provide consent for the HPV vaccine. The project goals focused on parental knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes. The clinic providers will utilize assessment tools validated by experts and evidence-based educational materials to promote HPV and HPV vaccine awareness. The theoretical foundations of the project were the theory of reasoned action and Pathman's pipeline that target the parents directly through individual educational sessions to achieve knowledge gain and behavioral change. Implementation of educational materials by clinic providers may improve parental knowledge of HPV and the HPV vaccine acceptance. Social change may result from the integration of the project into clinical practice to increase the HPV vaccine acceptance rates, which will ultimately reduce the effects of HPV and its sequelae leading to long-term wellness promotion.

The time from onset of a cardiac arrest to defibrillation is crucial hence access to and use of a defibrillator by all nurses essential. The purpose of this study was to use an established theoretical framework to examine and describe the defibrillation practices and beliefs of rural registered nurses in the Australian state of Queensland. The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) guided the research processes for this two phase study. In the first phase, focus group (n = 13) discussions identified the salient beliefs of the population. By eliciting nurses' beliefs, the subsequent quantitative study (n = 434) was conducted to determine the influences of these beliefs on nurses' use or non-use of defibrillators. The results showed that: (1) less than half of the cohort of participants were permitted to defibrillate; (2) the defibrillation beliefs of those nurses permitted to defibrillate were significantly more positive than those not permitted to do so; (3) the direct measures of TPB and selected variables external to the model predicted a significant portion of the variance in the measure of nurse-initiated defibrillation intention; and, (4) subjective norm emerged as the strongest predictor of intention. In conclusion, Queensland rural hospital nurses and employers still have some distance to travel down the path of nurse-initiated defibrillation. The TPB is a viable framework on which to base interventions designed to promote defibrillation by rural nurses. Understanding the role of social norms is of central importance to ensure all nurses can initiate the chain of survival expeditiously whenever the need arises.

This study commences with the assumption that action can be taken to lessen the disruption to the mathematical progress of Year 11 students in the Australian Capital Territory senior secondary colleges. If students are to perform their best in mathematics they need their transition from high school to college to be as smooth as possible. Nevertheless, many students change their mathematics enrolment soon after commencing college. The study relies particularly upon The Theory of Reasoned Action to determine whether students have the intention both before and during the transition of performing well in mathematics at college. Although this measure provides a predictor of the intention, it does not necessarily follow that the conditions allow the student to comply with the prediction. Statistical instruments were also used - to determine whether students initially enrol in appropriate courses and whether they perform as well in their first semester at college as in Year 10. A small sample of students was interviewed to elicit whether there was supporting evidence for some conclusions drawn from the results and the literature survey. Analyses of the predictor of intention indicate that during the transition period a very high proportion of students intends to perform well in mathematics at college. Analysis of the components of the measure pinpoints some small differences between high schools. The statistical analyses show that a significant proportion of students completes Semester 1 in mathematics courses other than those of initial enrolment and that performance by the Year 11 students correlates well with Year 10 performance. Discussion centres around actions of intervention and their focus. Parents and guardians are possible recipients of further information since the evidence suggests they are the most influential advisers in the lives of this age group. College teachers are possibly the best current providers of that information, although, high school teachers and careers advisers could take a more prominent role following appropriate training. Recommendations are made concerning the enrolment procedure and the beginning of Year 11 routine. Other conclusions and recommendations concern action by classroom teachers that could ensure more students succeed in the course of initial enrolment, whether they are in the course most suited to their previous performance or are attempting a more difficult course.

Predicting customers’ intention to purchase products online is an important issue. This thesis aims to understand how online shopping decision is determined by individual’s intention to buy via Internet and his/her attitude toward e-purchase. This study by integrating the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) with the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), attempts to understand how website usefulness and ease of use, as well as customers’ attitude toward online shopping, influence purchase intention influence the online purchase. Those two models adopted in an online environment were used to analyze the outcome of the survey among Polish e-shoppers. By adopting the idea of regular and heavy Internet users, this study tries to differentiate the online shopping behavior in those two groups. The findings of the thesis have been found to be partially consistent with both models. However the difference between heavy and regular Internet users in frequency of buying online has not been confirmed.

The number of adolescents in the U.S. who engage in risk behaviors such as alcohol and drug use and unsafe sexual practices has reached alarming levels, with Hispanic adolescents in particular reporting high rates of substance use and sexual activity. This study explored risk and protective factors that influence high-risk behaviors in Hispanic adolescents. A theoretical model was developed based on an integration of Ecodevelopmental Theory and the Theory of Reasoned Action to investigate individual and social factors that affect the risk behaviors of Hispanic adolescents. This study was a cross-sectional, descriptive, secondary investigation of the baseline data of a combined sample of 493 Hispanic adolescent 7th and 8th graders and their immigrant parents who had been recruited for participation in the Familias Efficacy I and II studies. The hypothesized model of relationships included 3 direct effects variables: parent-adolescent communication about sex; adolescent condom use self-efficacy; and family functioning, which integrated 4 constructs: parental involvement; positive parenting; family communication; and parent-adolescent communication. The study model also included 3 indirect variables: parents' acculturation; differential acculturation; and parent's HIV knowledge. Three adolescent risk behaviors served as outcome variables: condom use; drinking alcohol while having sex ; and substance use. It was hypothesized that (1) family functioning, parent-adolescent communication about sex, and adolescent self efficacy would all be directly related to adolescent risk behaviors; (2) parent's acculturation would be related to adolescent risk behaviors indirectly through its association with parent's HIV knowledge and parent-adolescent communication about sex; and (3) differential acculturation would be related to adolescent risk behaviors indirectly through its association with family functioning, adolescent condom use self-efficacy, and parent-adolescent communication about sex. Cronbach's alpha computed for all measures yielded good to excellent reliability coefficients. Pearson linear correlation coefficients were calculated between all of the study variables, followed by confirmatory factor analysis to ascertain the feasibility of collapsing multiple indicators of family functioning and HIV/STIs risk behaviors into single latent variables. Finally, the hypothesized structural equation model was estimated. Beta coefficients were calculated to examine direct effects and Mackinnon's asymmetric distribution of product test was used to evaluate mediated effects. Data analysis failed to confirm any of the study hypotheses; however, post-hoc analyses yielded findings that merit further study. Family functioning emerged as the heart of the model, embedded within a web of direct and mediated relationships. Additional findings suggest that family functioning mediates the effect of parents' acculturation and of parents' HIV knowledge on adolescent risk behaviors. Study limitations include its cross-sectional design, self-report measures, convenience sample and integration of clinical and non-clinical samples. Suggestions are provided for researchers to further explore relationships among the variables, and recommendations made for community nursing practitioners to develop, implement and evaluate HIV/STIs prevention programs for Hispanic adolescents.

Television is the most important media in modern life. Recently, the rapid development of information and telecommunication technology has created opportunities for new media usage. In order to expedite the adoption of digital technology,the government has initiated the ¡§challege2008- national important development¡¨project. Mobile television is one item included in the project. So far, not much research has investigated issues related to the adoption and use of this new media. The purpose of this research is to investigate motivations and factors that influence people¡¦s willingness to use mobile digital TV. Potential motivations, including fashion, information, mobility, social and entertainment, and their effects on the perceived usefulness and attitude are investigated. The research used quantity analysis, Snowball Sampling and convinence sampling to collect 316 samples. The data were analyzed using LISREL, the structural equation modeling tool. The result shows that information and fashion are two major motivations that had positive influence to the perceived usefulness. Social motivation and entertainment motivation had positive influence on attitudes. Attitudes and the perceived usefulness had positive influence on the intention to adopt mobile TV. Social norm did not have significant effect on the intention. The implications of the findings and research limitations are discussed.

The Internet’s popularity as a health resource (also referred to as e-health) for patients is impacting the doctor-patient relationship and health care overall. Many patients now tend to look on the Internet for the information they seek in order to avoid the hassle of going to the doctor. It is important to investigate how the doctors themselves feel about this impact and see what factors influence their behaviors toward patients with regards to e-health. This study used mediation behavior theory and the theory of reasoned action to assess the relationship between doctors’ beliefs/attitudes and their subjective norms about e-health and their mediation behavior toward patients. Results revealed that many factors, including perceived benefits of the effects of e-health, perceived concerns about possible negative effects, evaluations, positive experiences with patients and social norms indeed affect the type of mediation behavior doctors perform with patients when discussing e-health.

Today’s youth have been exposed to more gambling-related media than previous generations, and they have grown up in an era in which states not only sanction but also run and promote gambling enterprises. Social Learning Theory proposes that one can develop new attitudes or expectancies about a specific behavior by watching others engage in that behavior, and that the media is one avenue through which one can develop new expectancies (Bandura, 2001). In addition, the Theory of Reasoned Action proposes that one’s behaviors are influenced directly by both subjective norms and attitudes (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). A mixed methods explanatory design was used to test a modified version of the Theory of Reasoned Action in which subjective norms and gambling-related media were hypothesized to have an effect on gambling behaviors directly and indirectly through both positive and negative expectancies. Structural Equation Modeling was used to test the hypotheses, and semi-standardized interviews were used to help explain the results of the quantitative analyses and provide a richer and more accurate interpretation of the data. The hypothesized model was partially supported: the model was a good fit with the female college student data, accounting for 27.8% of variance in female student gambling behaviors, and it fit the male college student data reasonably well, accounting for 35.2% of variance in male student gambling behaviors. Results indicated that perceived subjective norms were more important for female college students. Results also indicated that exposure to gambling-related media has a direct positive association with both male and female college student gambling behaviors, and that exposure to gambling-related media has an indirect, positive association with male college student behaviors through positive expectancies. However, exposure to gambling-related media is not associated with positive expectancies about gambling for female college students. Data from the qualitative interviews supported the findings from the qualitative analyses and provided some clues about the progression from non-problematic to problematic behaviors, which may inform future research in this area.

In public relations, minority public relations practitioners are feeling left behind by the profession (Ford & Appelbaum, 2005). Where do top executives stand on employment diversity within their organizations? An online survey of 20 top executives of small-sized public relations agencies explored how top executives’ perceptions of and normative beliefs about diversity practices were related to their future engagement in diversity practices at work. Based on the theory of reasoned action, this explanatory study found that executives’ perceptions of peer endorsement of diversity were associated with greater intention of organizational engagement in diversity practices. Neither perceived benefits of nor perceived concerns about diversity were related to future engagement. Recommendations for contacting this hard-to-reach audience, as well as suggestions for promoting diversity practices among top executives, were discussed.