This study investigates the determinants that influence adult Kentuckians’ preference to buy organic and/or locally grown food based on their age, gender, income, education level and metropolitan versus nonmetropolitan living status. Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior (TPB) provides the conceptual framework of the research and the appropriateness of the theory. Data for this analysis are from a 2009 Kentucky statewide survey. The analysis shows that: There is a significant difference in food purchasing habits of Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan adult Kentuckians; the factors associated with the purchase of organic and locally grown foods are different; and, those who purchased locally grown and organic foods shared similar beliefs.

This dissertation focuses on (river) forecasting, but also includes a study on stormwater treatment. Using forecasts for decision-making is complicated by their inherent uncertainty. An interview-based study qualitatively and a survey empirically investigate forecast use in emergency management. Emergency managers perceive uncertainty as a given rather than as a problem. To cope with the uncertainty, decision-makers gather as much information as possible; forecasts are only one piece of information among many. For decision-making, emergency managers say that they rely more on radar than on river forecasting. However, forecasts play an important role in communication with the public, because they are the official interpretation of the situation. Emergency managers can add a lot of value to those forecasts by combining them with local knowledge, but might not do so because of accountability concerns. Forecasts must have value to emergency managers, because those with more work experience rely more on them than those without. Another study further develops the application of quantile regression to generate probabilistic river forecasts. Compared to existing research, this study includes a larger number of river gages; includes more independent variables; and studies longer lead times. Additionally, it is the first to apply this method to the U.S. American context. It was found that the model has to be customized for each river gage for extremely high event thresholds. For other thresholds and across lead times, a one-size-fits-all model suffices. The model performance is robust to the size of the training dataset, but depends on the year, the river gage, lead time and event threshold that are being forecast. An additional study considers the robustness of stormwater management to the amount of runoff. Impervious surfaces, such as roads and parking lots, can increase the amount of runoff and lead to more pollution reaching streams, rivers, and lakes. Best Management Practices (BMPs) reduce the peak discharge into the storm sewer system and remove pollutants such as sediments, phosphorus and nitrogen from the stormwater runoff. Empirically, it is found that BMP effectiveness decreases sooner, steeper and deeper with increasing sizes of storm events than assumed in current computer models.

Environmental protection has become a global issue and attracted the attention of both the general public and governments around the world. Understanding people’s environmental attitude and their behavioral intention, measured as their willingness to pay cost for the environment, is therefore imperative. Research in this field is abundant, but it suffers from at least two limitations. First, previous literature focused mainly on predictors of human behaviors at the individual level and seldom examined the effect of cultural values. In addition, few studies have expanded their research scope beyond Western countries. This study addresses these gaps by investigating the factors, both at the national and individual level, shaping people’s intention to take actions in 26 countries. Employing Ajzen and Fishbein’s theory of planned behavior, the analysis at the individual level examines the impact of environmental attitude, self-efficacy, and subjective norms. At the same time, this study also looks into the effect of three cultural orientations developed by Hofstede, including Individualism, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance. The data used in this study were Hofstede’s cultural indices and World Value Survey (WVS) with a total number of 38,511 participants in 26 countries. Hierarchical linear modeling is applied. The result showed that Ajzen and Fishbein’s theory of planned behavior fit well in the study. Three behavioral determinants (attitude, subjective norm, self efficacy) in the theory were positively related to environmental behavioral intentions. Aggregate cultural orientations also accounted for part of variations in relation to environmental behavioral intentions. In more individualistic countries, people were less likely to perform financial sacrifice behaviors for the environment than those in the less individualistic countries. Finally, this study suggested cultural orientations served as moderating variables on people’s environmental attitudes and subjective norms. Environmental attitudes exerted greater impacts on behavioral intentions in more individualistic countries, where the effects of subjective norms were weaker.

Abstract Title: “The effect of campaigns on behavioral change” – A Quantitative Investigation of Soft Measures Effect on The Choice of Transportation - Angelika Källström Reduction of the greenhouse gas emission caused from the transport section is one of the world’s biggest challenges. To reduce the greenhouse gas emission researchers has agreed that behavioral change that reduce car use is necessary. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects campaign has on attitude and behavior change after one year. In 2021 Luleå municipality held the campaign #engångföralla with purpose to raise awareness of the unnecessarily car travels and reduce private car use. To fulfil the aim empirical was collected by a quantitative survey targeting the participants. Because of the statistical loss the respondents only represent themselves. The study shows that the respondents after the campaign walks more and drive less. The respondents experience environmental and health factors to be the greatest motivators to walk instead of taking the car. There are overall few gender differences between the respondents, women have significant stronger beliefs that their own behaviour have a considerable impact on the climate change and drive less. The respondents believes that other participants are more likely to change their behaviour towards a sustainable mobility. In conclusion the study identifies that the campaign effects the respondent’s attitude and behaviour one year after its completion. However, the effect is limited and mostly affects those respondents who considered receptive to attitude and behaviour change. Campaigns such as #engångföralla may function as one of many tools on the path to a more sustainable transportation.

The parallel between e-government and e-Inclusion research are critically important. It helps to understand how policies, society, organizations, and information technologies come together and it also helps to understand how the e-Inclusion factors impact e-government use and vice versa. This study attempts to explore the theoretical and practical intersections of e-Inclusion and e-adoption (Particularly e-government) and to show how they complement and possibly enrich the potential of e-Inclusion research. The rationale for this approach is that combining research on e-Inclusion and e-government has the potential to better understand the factors influencing e-Inclusion since they both share a common theme of Inclusive e-government. The aim of this research is to examine the factors that influence e-Inclusion in the context of e-government in the UK, through combining the decomposed theory of planned behaviour with Use and Gratification Theory (U&G). These two theories are used to develop a conceptual model for studying the multi-facetted dimensions of e-Inclusion. The two theories are chosen because of their appropriateness for e-Inclusion research; the critical factors that influence e-inclusion can be covered by (DTPB) constructs while the individual’s gratifications that determine using specific Internet activities is covered by (U&G) To fulfil the research aim and objectives, a quantitative research method was employed. The research subjects were citizens who are Internet users. Their views were sought through a survey that included 510 self-administered and group-administrated questionnaires. The conceptualisations of e-Inclusion and e-government have important implications for both researchers and policymakers. For researchers, this study delineates the complex and recursive relationships between e-Inclusion and e-government contributing towards the exiting limited body of knowledge in the field. For practice, it offers directions to help create a more comprehensive strategy that takes into consideration the alignment of e-government initiatives and e-inclusion policies.

abstract: Research on psychological help seeking has continued to grow as the field of psychology has expanded. Much of the research is often variable driven and assumes this construct is a global construct. The current study used the Theory of Planned Behavior to provide a theory based approach to understanding psychological help seeking intention. Also, the theory was tested for three common presenting concerns: Anxiety or Depression, Career Choice Concerns, and Alcohol or Substance Use. Two samples of over 400 university students completed surveys for all three concerns. Results produced invariance across path loadings for the concerns being compared. When thinking about seeking psychological help, university students do not appear to consider the type of concern but do rely on attitude, stigma, and how much control and efficacy they have to address their problems on their own. Mean differences emerged for some variables in the model, but no meaningful mean differences were noted for gender. Overall, the variables used in the decision making process do not appear to consider concern when seeking help, but the beliefs about seeking help differ some. These results extend the Theory of Planned Behavior to consider the importance of an individual's ability to address their problem on their own. When considering psychological help seeking, college students have similar attitudes and beliefs about their ability to access mental health resources, their beliefs about stigma, ability to address their problems on their own, and their intention to seek help vary more by concern. The specific concerns being addressed does not appear to impact the weight each variable is given in the decision making process; attitude, stigma, and ability to solve the problem on their own appear to be the variables given greatest consideration. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Counseling Psychology 2011

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Hospitality Management / Kevin R. Roberts / In 2015, 902 foodborne illness outbreaks were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, resulting in 15,202 illnesses, 950 hospitalizations, and 15 deaths. Previous literature from both survey and observational studies have reported low conformity with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Food Code guidelines. To effectively reduce foodborne illnesses, foodservice managers and food handlers must perform proper food safety behaviors. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to identify and explain the unobserved cognitive processes within food safety behavioral intention. An explanatory sequential mixed methods design was utilized. First, a systematic review and meta-analyses of the existing literature were conducted to quantify statistical power better and summarize the effect sizes with conflicting studies. Then, an in-depth qualitative study was conducted to help explain the statistical results. Using existing observed cognitive variables grounded by the Theory of Planned Behavior, the key idea is that the qualitative inquiry was built on the quantitative results. Thus, the syntheses of both studies help explained the unobserved heterogeneity information. Study 1 included a total of 1,550 studies for screening with 46 records meeting the inclusion criteria for analyses. The overall random effect size (r) was 0.282 (p < 0.001) providing collective evidence that the TPB constructs predict food safety behavioral intention. Subjective norms were noted as the most influencial variable to food safety behavioral intention. Studies with employee motivational constructs tend to show the most positive effect on food safety intention relationships. However, the Theory of Planned Behavior model only explained a combined 22% of total true effect variance. Thus, a considerable amount of the variance (78%) within food safety behavioral intention is still unexplained. Study 2 used an online questionnaire to measure individual-level norms. Open-ended questions (14) helped create qualitative narrative texts for analyses and establishing a demographic profile of the participants. A total of 104 responses from foodservice and restaurant employees were documented for coding. Most participants were female, with a mean age of 36 with an average of about 11 years of foodservice industry experiences. The results indicated that employees are usually not influenced of other managers or coworker’s approval or disapproval of their behavior. Rather, their behavior is guided by an innate motivation for moral consideration and ethical reasoning. The data further indicated that participants experience injunctive (subjective) norms, but more from a retrospective formation, rather than a forward-looking expectance regarding food safety practices. Intrinsic motivation should be an important antecedent to form normative beliefs of food safety-related behaviors. The findings of the study results challenge the previous understanding of path directions regarding normative pressure. Limitations and future studies related to maximize food safety behavioral intentions were discussed.

The purpose of this research is to identify the forces that impact the intention of employees to misuse the Internet at the workplace, called cyberloafing. Although cyberloafing literature has suggested several antecedents that predict cyberloafing such as job attitudes, organizational characteristics, work stressors, locus of control (Blanchard & Henle, 2008; Henle & Blanchard, 2008; Liberman, Seidman, McKenna, & Buffardi, 2011), this research adopted attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and organizational citizenship behavior to predict the intention to cyberloaf. Additionally, this research adopted organizational justice and the mechanisms of general deterrence theory as moderating variables to better understand the relationship between attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, organizational citizenship behavior, and the intention to cyberloaf. We believe it is essential to investigate the antecedents of cyberloafing to help predict its existence and occurrence. The existing research, which examined employees' abuse of the Internet, remains greatly atheoretical; thus, it supplies limited insights to researchers as to why cyberloafing continues to take place (Lim, 2002). It is important to recognize what motivates employees to engage in cyberloafing for organizations to implement specific polices and intervention programs to limit or deter its occurrence. This is necessary, as employees' abuse of the Internet can negatively affect an organization through decreased profitability, reduced productivity levels, and exposure to a diverse range of legal liabilities (Liberman et al., 2011). The results of the study showed that an employee's attitude and subjective norm can significantly predict his or her intention to engage in cyberloafing. Both of the dimensions of general deterrence theory (punishment severity and certainty) significantly moderated the relationship between attitude, subjective norm, and the intention to cyberloaf. Additionally, punishment severity significantly moderated the relationship between perceived behavioral control and the intention to cyberloaf. From this study, we concluded that cyberloafing is a social phenomenon that needs to be studied further to fully comprehend the organizational contexts, motivational factors, and consequences. Our study should be analyzed as a positive step toward learning the key components that can influence employees' intentions to abuse the Internet in the workplace.

Low consumption of fruits and vegetables due to various barriers among food insecure populations presents a significant health risk across all ages. Nutrition education is available to low-income populations, but due to the complexity and variety of influences that determine dietary behavior, increasing nutrition knowledge as a singular approach does not successfully result in behavior change. This may be supported by low Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) redemption rates at farmers markets. There is a lack of data using the Theory of Planned Behavior to assess intentions to purchase fruits and vegetables by SNAP-Ed participants at farmers markets in Southern Illinois. There is also a lack of research on the interest in using social media for nutrition education on fruit and vegetable consumption in low-income populations throughout Southern Illinois. A cross-sectional survey was used to understand SNAP-Ed participants’ intentions to purchase fruits and vegetables at farmers markets, as well as their interest in receiving and using online nutrition education through various social media applications. A survey instrument was distributed to low-income participants of various SNAP-Ed nutrition classes hosted by the University of Illinois-Extension throughout the 16 southernmost counties of Illinois. The survey analyzed constructs of the Theory of Planned Behavior and relationships with intentions using regression analysis. Additionally, questions regarding social media usage were used to determine what technologies and social media applications are most commonly used among the sample, and any interest in receiving nutrition education through such applications. A total sample of n=189 SNAP-Ed participants completed the survey. The study found that attitude regarding fresh fruits and vegetables at farmers markets was the strongest predictor of intent to purchase fruits and vegetables for SNAP-Ed participants who receive SNAP benefits. Second, online nutrition education focused on fruit and vegetable purchases at farmers markets may be more generalizable regarding certain socio-demographic factors for SNAP-Ed participants who receive SNAP benefits. Third, results from the study demonstrate that 76.9% of respondents had Internet access, which is higher than current national rates for Internet accessibility in rural areas. Therefore, it is important to consider an increased Internet accessibility beyond at-home broadband coverage, which may include public libraries, work, school, or on a Smartphone. The most important socio-demographic characteristic to consider regarding social media use was age in the context of generations (Millennials, Working Adults, Seniors). Overall, SNAP-Ed participants were most likely to exhibit interest in nutrition education from text messages, email, or on Facebook. SNAP-Ed participants would like to receive online nutrition education via email (30.1%), Facebook (24.7%), and text messaging (21.0%). Online nutrition education in the form of email, Facebook, and text messaging would be the most successful in terms of recruitment and interaction for SNAP-Ed participants. Therefore, using social media to deliver nutrition education may be an effective supplement to reinforce the current classroom curriculum used in SNAP-Ed programming. Findings from this study support the use of online nutrition education through social media applications as an avenue to increase fruit and vegetable purchases at farmers markets in the Southern Illinois Mississippi Delta Region.

Entrepreneurs face constraints that more mature organizations may not. These constraints cause unique pressures within entrepreneurship. Although ethics and entrepreneurship have individually received much attention in the academic literature, not enough research has investigated ethics within entrepreneurship. This study addresses the need of ethics research within entrepreneurship. Utilizing the theory of planned behavior, this research investigates the ethical decision making process of entrepreneurs. Not all ethical situations are created equally, and not all entrepreneurs are created equally. The ethical environment of any situation can be financially concerned or socially concerned. Likewise, entrepreneurs can be motivated by a private financial gain or a social impact. A multi-scenario approach known as policy-capturing is used to examine the relative importance entrepreneurs place on attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control (PBC), and self-identity when faced with a financial and a social ethical decision. The findings suggest that the environment does affect the ethical decision making process as defined by the relative importance of the variables. Within each environment, personal demographic variables of entrepreneurs were also found to affect their ethical decision making process. Such variables included entrepreneurial orientation, gender, love of money, financial security, spirituality/religiosity, idealism, and relativism. By considering the effects of the ethical environment along with the demographics of the entrepreneur, potential investors may be able to more accurately gauge investment opportunities. Implications of the findings, limitations of the study, and future research areas are discussed.