Public services in Taiwan have experienced redundancies, cost cutting, closure of operations, and challenges to the quality of their services to diverse populations. Among the tasks of electronic government, electronic commerce, a mechanism of buying and selling goods and services, and transferring funds through digital communications, is the most visible trend of the information technology related changes over the last few years. Accordingly, the electronic government procurement system, an internet-based service for electronic government purchasing and information sharing, has been developed and provided to the public since 2000. Ideally, with the help of Electronic Tendering System, a subsystem of the electronic government procurement systems, tremendous paper work will no longer be necessary for companies doing business with government, and the administrative efficiency will be improved significantly. In addition, under the design of online biding procedure, the chance of procurement fraud may be limited as well. The purposes of this paper are as follows: 1. Discuss the ongoing promoting programs of electronic government procurement internationally. 2. Analyze the key factors of the establishment and implementation of the Electronic Tendering System locally. 3. Propose strategies for the implementation of the electronic government procurement system. In this paper, we discuss the essence of electronic commerce and introduce the international opportune movement for government departments to reinvent their organizations by implementing electronic procurement systems. In particular, we examine the antecedents of the technology usage in the context of an integrated model. Answering what the key factors of the successful information systems are is crucial to the development an effective electronic government procurement system program.

During the process of community empowerment, resident participation has always played a significant role. Issues such as how to enhance residents¡¦ intention to get involved in community activities are consistently taken into discussion. Previous studies have revealed that community participation can be carried out by the integration of community awareness. However, most of these studies were generally focused on the exploration of inducement and strategy, rarely examining from the perspective of psychological decision-making factors such as behavior model, changing factors and efficacy. Therefore, the purpose of the study is: first, to understand the relationship between Sense of Community and Social Capital; second, to testify the influence of Sense of Community on Collective Efficacy and Self-efficacy; third, to explore the impact of Social Capital on the perspective of Theory of Planned Behavior; finally, to combine the related perspectives from Sense of Community, Social Capital, Social Cognition and Theory of Planned Behavior to develop residents community participation behavior model. The research variables of the study include Sense of Community, Norm Value, Neighborhood Interaction, Trust, Collective Efficacy, Self-Efficacy, Subject Norm, Attitude, Behavioral Intention and Community Participation. The research objects of 572 valid samples are community residents from 10 community development associations in Kaohsiung City. Questionnaires were collected and analyzed with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to examine and explain each variable that influence residents¡¦ intention to participate in community. The results indicated that all the 11 assumptions present positive correlations. It is found that the Sense of Community presents great impact on Collective Efficacy, Norm Value and Neighborhood Interaction. Collective Efficacy also has strong influence on Self-Efficacy and Attitude. The result of the study based on the theories of Sense of Community, Social Capital, Social Cognitive Theory, and Theory of Planned Behavioral is considered as acceptable model as the development of resident community participation model reaches ideal standard on the index of Mean Root Square Error of Approximation (MRSEA). The research not only fulfills the purpose of study, but also provides concrete strategies for further studies. It also presents positive effect for Self-Efficacy and Collective Efficacy application on Social Cognitive Theory.

The research subject in the study is conducted on the members of Consumers¡¦ Foundation, and the study intends to realize their behavior intention of ethical consumerism. The study derives from the theory of planned behavior of Ajzen, by utilizing questionnaires and surveys to verify those pre-factor variables for the inclusion of personal aspect toward the behavior (AT), subject norm (SN), and perceived behavior control (PBC), and those post-factor variables are identified by personal behavior intention of ethical consumerism. Ultimately statistical analysis is performed based on information obtained from the survey. 75 copies of valid questionnaires are acquired from those 100 published, among them 23 copies from males (30.7%) and 52 from female (69.3%) in the study. The statistical analysis finds that the factors which affect the members to take action in behavior intention of ethical consumerism include ¡§subject norm (SN, £]=0.471)¡¨, ¡§attitude toward the behavior (AT, £]=0.454)¡¨, and ¡§perceived behavior control (PBC, £]=0.387)¡¨ and that subject norm being the most influential. Furthermore, the result also finds the participants agree on the following conclusions: 1. Ethical consumerism manifests to be most effective in minimizing the damage to the natural environment. 2. Organizations of consumer protection concur on ethical consumerism and it is executed based on their opinions and inputs. 3. Relevant information related to ethical consumerism can be difficult to acquire; therefore, the key factor is rather informational rather than financial. 4. Information on ethical consumerism is obtainable from organization of consumer protection, magazines, periodicals and experts. Nevertheless, 11.7% of the surveyed participants are unfamiliar with the terminology and practice. 5. The anticipation of willingness to adopt ethical consumerism will elevate.

Workplace learning is essential to the continuous improvement and competitiveness of organizations. Antecedent training conditions are crucial for training participation. Despite its recognized importance, few studies have proposed theory-based models for predicting the antecedents of training participation. The principal objective of this study was to test the theory of planned behavior (TPB) for predicting public sector training participation. The second aim was to elucidate the factors that influence, directly or indirectly, employee intentions to participate as well as training participation behavior. The third aim was to test the psychological mediators of past behavior and perceived organizational support on training participation intention of public sector. A sample of 1,108 participants was analyzed by structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression analysis to assess path suitability and significance. The empirical results confirmed the applicability of theory of planned behavior for predicting training participation in the public sector. However, the relationship between past behavior/perceived organizational support and intention to participate was only partially mediated by the direct measures of the TPB. This research adds to the extant training participation literature in several ways. First, it applies the TPB model to develop and examine the behavior and intention of participation in training, and the empirical studies conducted to date have not focused on this field. Second, it identifies several constructs and relationships that are new to this area. Third, this study demonstrates that TPB is a proper way to conceptualize the relevant training constructs. This study can help the public sector managers to encourage employees¡¦ participation in training by improving the time availability and assigning current workload, strengthening social support from family members, co-workers and supervisors. Finally, research limitations and areas for future research are discussed.

The earth ecosystem is seriously damaged due to the self-interest behavior of human, which nonetheless poses a huge threat to the survival of human. The ecological environment and public health in Taiwan also face increasingly deteriorating situation, which is compounded with the problem of a dramatic increased number of families eating out with the most popular choice as lunch boxes mostly. To improve this situation, visionaries push for organic lunch boxes. However, there are still some factors lacking and some problems persisting for marketing organic lunch boxes. It is hoped that the result of this study can be beneficial to the relevant organizations as a reference for promoting organic lunch boxes. Literature review and in-depth interviews are conducted as the basis for developing questionnaire in this study. I also propose a behavior model for purchasing organic lunch boxes based on the theory of consumption values by Sheth, Newman, and Gross (1991), Theory of planned behavior by Ajzen (1991), and the EKB model by Engel, Blackwell, and Miniard (1993) This model consists of nine variables: the functional value of organic lunch box, its social value, its emotional value, its curious value, its conditional value, the subjective norms, self-efficacy, shopping environment, and the degree of involvement etc. To test this model, regression analyses are conducted using those nine variables and two behavior intention dependent variables in this study. These two behavior intention variables respectively are: the subject¡¦s behavior intention to purchase organic lunch boxes when price is not specifically mentioned (BI1) or they are suggested to assume that the price of the organic one will be close to that of a regular one (BI2). The result shows that the functional value and the degree of involvement both have significant influence on BI1 and BI2; while the conditional value, the emotional value, and self-efficacy are only have significant influence on BI2, which can explain the 22.1% variation of BI1 and the 26.2% variation of BI2 respectively. Furthermore, in order to investigate the variation of the behavior intention BI1 to purchase organic lunch boxes due to the difference of personal attributes, t test and single factor ANOVA are adopted. The result shows that marital status, age, occupation, personal monthly income, knowledge of organic product, purchasing frequency for organic ingredients, and the amount of money for purchasing organic ingredients all have significant influence on the variation of behavior intention for purchasing organic lunch boxes (BI1); while gender, educational level, self health status, and family's health status do not have significant influence on the variation of behavior intention for purchasing organic lunch boxes. We will propose application from these results and make relevant recommendations to industries and government based on this study.

The focus of this thesis is on the behavior of Taiwanese consumers in the organic food market in Taiwan. The theory of planned behavior is used to determine what role attitudes, social influences and perceived control has on Taiwanese consumers¡¦ intention to purchase organic food. Furthermore, a fourth construct testing the role of one¡¦s attitude towards the environment on consumer behavior is tested. The importance of demographics on the organic food market is also tested to determine a target market for the marketers of organic food in Taiwan. The data for this thesis was collected through several interviews which provided detailed information on the beliefs and attitudes of Taiwanese consumers on organic food. The results from the interviews were used as the foundation of the questionnaire which was hosted online. This thesis determined that the main factors influencing consumer behavior of the organic food market in Taiwan are the attitudes of Taiwanese consumers towards organic food and social influences on Taiwanese consumers. Marketing efforts of organic food in Taiwan should therefore focus on attitudes and social influences on Taiwanese consumers. Perceived control is less influential, while the attitude of Taiwanese consumers towards the environment did not prove to have a positive significant relationship with intention to purchase organic food. This thesis proved that there is no significant difference in intention to purchase organic food between Taiwanese consumers¡¦ of different genders, areas of residence and income levels, however those aged over 50 and 30-39 years old are significantly more inclined to purchase organic food than those aged 18-29.

High Technology Industries have always bragged and boasted of their less-pollution or even non-pollution, while constantly environmental conflict as well as pollution illustrates that environmental pollution problems relatively exist in the wholeness of Science Park. Besides, there is still wide gap between individual factory owner¡¦s ecological thinking and enforceable policy. The research background retraces that industries are obviously under the global drives for sustainable development and friendly environment. Based on Industrial Ecology, the study constructs eco-behavior for the Science Park, and then verifies the relationship and effect among factories¡¦ inner cognition, external driving group and affective intention. Constructed on the Theory of Planned Behavior, the study model includes inner attitude toward the behavior, external subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and eco-behavioral intention. The relationship among the above hypotheses are modified and analyzed by applying the Structural Equations Modeling, the real information are compared with hypotheses, the results are contrasted with modeled theory, and furthermore concluded as the followings. The survey objects are factories in Southern and Central Taiwan Science Park, the questionnaires targets are mainly their first level managers and environmental department supervisors. The total effective surveys are 154, with retrieved rate of 63.9%. Various targets are tested and proved they are all way beyond the acceptable standard. The above three behavior models are all legitimately reached. Both represent that the TPB in the study offers future factories¡¦ eco-behavior a sensible interpretation for prediction and rationalization. The factories¡¦ management behavior for eco-industrial development tends to industrial symbiosis; that is, the current drive is voluntary, while their productive behavior comes from external driving pressure. Finally, the study indicates invigorating way to eco-industrial intention and proposes enhancing voluntary drive to eco-industrial thinking.

Efforts to reduce the United States’ dependence on foreign petroleum encourage the production of fuels from bioenergy crops. Recent energy mandates have therefore “opened doors” for alternative feedstock sources for ethanol production. Switchgrass is a candidate feedstock. Under the University of Tennessee’s Biofuels Initiative, the University of Tennessee, partnering with DuPont-Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC, contracted for the production of switchgrass with local farmers to guarantee biomass feedstock supply for an ethanol conversion research facility. This study used methods borrowed from the social psychology literature in combination with economic theory to analyze factors influencing switchgrass farmers’ intentions to continue growing switchgrass after contracts with the granting agent expired. Understanding what motivates producers to make long term commitments to switchgrass production as an energy crop may be important information for private investors who will rely on a fixed supply of switchgrass.A probit model was used to determine the factors affecting producers’ intentions to continue producing switchgrass after their contract expires. Results suggest that community perceptions about the production of switchgrass as a dedicated energy crop may have an important impact on farmers’ intentions to make a long-term commitment to produce switchgrass. Therefore, educating and involving community and extension personnel may have a positive impact on farmers’ decisions to make long-term commitments to grow switchgrass as a dedicated energy crop.

The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that influence women's decisions to use hormone replacement therapy (HRT) during menopause. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior and constructs of risk perception, this study was able to explore the beliefs and attitudes of women about HRT use during menopause. The study was also able to explore how risk perception of HRT and the conditions that affect women during midlife impact their decision to use HRT during that time. Focus groups were conducted to develop the questionnaire used in the larger study. A community-based sample of women from Houston area churches participated in the study. The major theme that emerged from the focus groups was the weighing of cancer risks and the protection benefits of HRT. The most interesting factor that emerged as a barrier to HRT use was "negative publicity" and myths toward taking HRT. Results from the larger study demonstrated that the construct of attitude was the predominate predictor of intention when direct measures were used in a model to predict intention. Meaning that women's attitudes towards HRT use during menopause (whether they are safe, wise to use, good or bad, beneficial, risky, pleasant, or valuable) played a significant role in their intention. In contrast when the belief-based measures were used in the model, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control were significant predictors of intention. Meaning that the intention to use HRT was based more on the influence of their husbands, physicians, and families. This also meant that the dosage form, cost, negative publicity, family history of cancer, personal fear of developing cancer, and education about HRT would affect their intention to use HRT during menopause more than the advantages and disadvantages of using HRT (advantages such as protection from osteoporosis, relief from hot flashes; or, disadvantages such as risk of breast cancer). Finally, women's perception of risk with regards to HRT was highest for breast cancer followed by heart disease, endometrial cancer, and osteoporosis. This study found that there are many factors that may affect the decision to use HRT during menopause and that overall these factors affect women’s attitudes towards HRT and their intention to use it. / text

The illicit use of prescription stimulants among college undergraduates is a prevalent and dangerous problem on college campuses across the United States. Though classified by the U. S. Drug Enforcement Agency as schedule II controlled substances (U.S. Department of Justice, 2008), undergraduates obtain these medications through peers and friends, and report misusing of these stimulants to aid their concentration and studying (DeSantis, Webb, & Noar, 2008). Because extant research concludes that the prevalence of the misuse of prescription stimulants (MPS) peaks among undergraduates, this research was guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1985, 1991) as well as a memorable messages framework (Knapp, Stohl, & Reardon, 1981), and sought to examine the messages that college students recall about MPS, how those messages are associated with student’s intention to use stimulants directly, as well as indirectly through changes in attitudes, normative beliefs, and efficacy, and finally, to examine if receiving a memorable message predicts changes in intention to use, or actual use of stimulants over time. Data for the main study were collected in October 2014, and 137 undergraduate students reported a memorable message about MPS and were retained for analysis. Four weeks later, a follow-up survey was launched, and 89 undergraduates also completed the second survey. Results suggest that undergraduates do recall memorable messages about MPS, and the content focuses on the themes of academics, health outcomes, and responsible use. Additionally, memorable messages tended to be more negative than positive, and came from a variety of sources including close friends and peers, family members, instructors, and medical professionals, to name a few. Further, participants’ attitudes and normative beliefs were positively associated with behavioral intention at Time 1. Additionally, behavioral intention at Time 1 was positively associated with behavioral use at Time 2. The findings from this research provide several practical implications for future health education and promotion campaigns.