The physical and psychological health enhancing benefits of physical activity have been well established (US Department of Health & Human Services, 1996; Warburton, Nicol & Bredin, 2006) and reviews support the anxiolytic, antidepressant and stress reducing effects of physical activity, but it is unclear if group or solo physical activity is more effective in the reduction of these forms of psychological distress. A recent survey found that approximately a third of adults in Scotland do not engage in sufficient levels of physical activity recommended to achieve these benefits. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the effectiveness of group versus solo physical activity in the reduction of psychological distress (including stress, depression and anxiety) and factors involved in participation to promote greater engagement in physical activity. The first study issued questionnaires to members of the general population and university students. Inverse correlations were found between group physical activity and psychological distress in both samples. However a single positive correlation was found between anxiety and solo physical activity in the student sample, which suggests that group physical activity may be more effective in the reduction of psychological distress than solo physical activity. Low active individuals appeared to prefer solo physical activity to group, which may be due to lower perceived barriers. More active participants either preferred group activity or had no preferences between group or solo activity, despite also perceiving greater barriers to group than solo activity. The second study allocated university students to a group versus solo jogging condition intervention and found that psychological distress increased for those allocated to solo jogging, but did not increase amongst those allocated to group jogging, suggesting that group physical activity may protect against university related distress. Those allocated to group jogging engaged in (non-significantly) more jogging and engaged in significantly more moderately intensive physical activity throughout the intervention than those allocated to solo jogging. The final study compared group and solo physical activity using the Theory of Planned Behaviour and structural equation modelling. The model explained more variance in group physical activity than variance in solo physical activity. When the model was expanded, self-efficacy made a significantly greater contribution to intention in the solo physical activity model than it did in the group activity model, therefore promotion of group physical activity may not be as dependent on self-efficacy as solo physical activity. Perceived autonomy support (PAS) was included in the model, as guided by modification indexes, but only the group physical activity model was significantly improved by the addition of PAS; this may be useful for the development of group physical activity promotion. This thesis finds some support that group physical activity may be associated with reduced psychological distress and be more beneficial in protecting against psychological distress than solo physical activity. Promotion of group physical activity may benefit from reducing perceived barriers, developing PAS, and having less reliance on self-efficacy than required for the promotion of solo physical activity.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how organisations can identify the untapped potential of intrapreneurial intention amongst employees to increase its competitive advantage. Competitive advantage was therefore seen as an outcome of entrepreneurial actions, which, i.e. can be used for more effective and novel marketing strategies. To reach enhanced competitiveness, many firms make use of the concept of corporate entrepreneurship to boost innovation and firm performance. To measure an employee’s intrapreneurial intention, this thesis deploys an exploratory approach by developing a research model that immerses organisational factors – an employee’s perception of the company’s Entrepreneurial Orientation, with behavioural attributes, as designed by Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). The model includes five dimensions of a firm’s Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO), including autonomy, innovativeness, risk-taking, proactiveness, and competitive aggressiveness. Behavioural attributes proposed by Ajzen consist of the personal attitude towards intrapreneurship, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control. The quantitative study generated a sample of 394 employees working in different organisations, industries, and on distinct hierarchical levels. Based on the findings, the authors propose a new framework, in which intrapreneurial intentions are directly influenced by someone’s attitude towards intrapreneurship, and indirectly influenced by an employee’s positive perception of the organisation’s EO. As a result, a company should focus on individual attitudes first to discover a potential for intrapreneurial interests. As a support, a firm’s positive perception of its EO can influence the employee’s attitude towards intrapreneurship, but cannot solely boost intrapreneurial intentions amongst workers.

Organizations struggle to comply with legal requirements as well as customers' calls for better data protection. On the implementation level, incorporation of privacy protections in products and services depends on the commitment of the engineers who design them. We interviewed six senior engineers, who work for globally leading IT corporations and research institutions, to inves- tigate their motivation and ability to comply with privacy regulations. Our findings point to a lack of perceived responsibility, control, autonomy, and frustrations with interactions with the legal world. While we increasingly call on engineers to go beyond functional requirements and be responsive to human values in our increasingly technological society, we may be facing the dilemma of asking engineers to live up to a challenge they are currently not ready to embrace.

The Canadian C-Spine (CS) and CT-Head (CT) Rules are tools aimed at improving the accuracy and efficiency of radiography use in emergency departments. This study evaluated whether the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) could explain the inconsistent results from implementation studies of these two rules at 12 Canadian hospitals, where the same intervention resulted in a significant reduction in CS radiography but not CT radiography. It was demonstrated that the TPB model’s proposed relationships between constructs and behaviour could explain the ordering of CS but not CT radiography. However, after examining longitudinal changes of the TPB constructs, it was clear that these changes could not explain the changes in CS radiography ordering. Overall, TPB is unlikely to suggest important ways by which to improve radiography use, for CT because its constructs are not related to radiography ordering, and for CS because of high baseline levels of intention to clinically clear.

The Canadian C-Spine (CS) and CT-Head (CT) Rules are tools aimed at improving the accuracy and efficiency of radiography use in emergency departments. This study evaluated whether the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) could explain the inconsistent results from implementation studies of these two rules at 12 Canadian hospitals, where the same intervention resulted in a significant reduction in CS radiography but not CT radiography. It was demonstrated that the TPB model’s proposed relationships between constructs and behaviour could explain the ordering of CS but not CT radiography. However, after examining longitudinal changes of the TPB constructs, it was clear that these changes could not explain the changes in CS radiography ordering. Overall, TPB is unlikely to suggest important ways by which to improve radiography use, for CT because its constructs are not related to radiography ordering, and for CS because of high baseline levels of intention to clinically clear.

Consumers today are becoming more aware of how their behavior and use of resources affect the environment. It is becoming increasingly important for companies to understand consumer’s attitudes in order to predict their behavior. Extensive research has been conducted on the attitude-behavioral relationship in various fields of study. However, no research has been made on the attitude towards environmentally friendly automobiles and how it affects purchase intentions. Our research has been made in collaboration with Volvo Car Corporation, which in 2010 was acquired by Geely Automobile. The acquisition meant that an opportunity presented itself on the Chinese market, which today is the largest automobile market in the world. The thesis will focus on young Chinese consumer’s attitude toward the environment and how this may affect their purchase intentions towards environmentally friendly automobiles. The basis for our reasoning is that the factors environmental values, environmental knowledge and responsibility feelings make up an individual’s environmental attitude. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how environmental values, environmental knowledge and responsibility feelings affect purchase intentions towards environmentally friendly automobiles among young Chinese consumers. We have used a quantitative approach in our collection of empirical data. With the help of a web-based self-completions survey we managed to send out the questionnaire to all Chinese students studying at Jönköping University and received a high response rate of 65%. We based the design of the survey on a model from Kaiser, Ranney, Hartig and Bowler (1999). The major findings from our research conclude that the used model does not substantially explain purchase intentions of environmentally friendly automobiles. Our research suggests that the factors environmental knowledge and responsibility feelings are not significant when predicting intentions to purchase environmentally friendly automobiles. However, the factor environmental values proved to be strongly correlated when predicting intentions to purchase environmentally friendly automobiles.

An understanding of individual cognitions that influence both behavioural intentions and the enactment of actual behaviours is provided by the conceptual model of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). This study used the Theory of Planned Behaviour, with the added variable of perceived risk, to predict Kenyan students’ intention to use HIV voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) centres within the country. We conducted a survey questionnaire with 200 students, aged 13-15 years, within high schools in the Nairobi and Nakuru districts in May 2009. Chi-squared analysis showed no relationships between age, school, school level, knowledge of a VCT centre, or past sexual experience with intention to uptake HIV counselling and testing. Pearson product-moment analysis revealed a small positive correlation between attitude and subjective norm and a medium negative correlation between perceived behavioural control and perceived risk. One-way analysis of variance showed a relationship between perceived behavioural control and intention. Results of block entry logistic regression analysis indicate that perceived behavioural control and perceived risk were significant predictors of intention to use VCT services in the TPB model. The present study suggests that Kenyan teens’ perceived ease/difficulty in performing a specific behaviour is the most influential aspect in predicting their subsequent intention to carry through the behaviour. A theory-based intervention program should focus on reducing practical barriers related to the use of VCT services. / Thesis (Master, Kinesiology & Health Studies) -- Queen's University, 2009-12-04 10:06:25.104

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The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) has received considerable attention in the behavioural literature, but not in the tax compliance domain. The key purpose of this study is to determine the influence of selected tax compliance variables on tax compliance behaviour. The secondary objectives are to explore the applicability of the TPB in predicting and explaining tax compliance behaviour, and to provide justification for the application of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) employing the Partial Least Squares (PLS) statistical software or PLS-Graph (which has not been widely used in tax compliance research). The results provide evidence supporting the use of PLS-Graph in undertaking SEM analysis in tax compliance research, especially when smaller samples are involved and the data collected may not be normally distributed. This study also demonstrated the wide applicability of the TPB, including its application in tax compliance research. This study modified and extended the standard TPB behavioural model with the inclusion of a number of economic and noneconomic constructs. Most of the constructs used for this study are grounded in a number of theories: Deterrence Theory; Procedural Justice Theory; and Motivational Posturing Theory; in addition to the TPB. Data to test the research hypotheses was collected using a mail and a web-based survey. The results of this study suggest that noneconomic variables, such as beliefs and attitudes, are good predictors of tax compliance behaviour. Consistent with the majority of studies, the most influential factor in predicting and explaining tax compliance behaviour (through the mediating effects of behavioural intention) is attitude towards the behaviour. Other factors such as personal, social and societal norms were also significant predictors of tax compliance behaviour. Perceived behavioural control was only significant for the taxpayers but not for the tax agents. In contrast, perception of the tax authority was significant for New Zealand tax agents, but not for taxpayers. The results also suggest that tax compliance behaviour is complex, and different determinants of compliance behaviour affects different sub-groups of taxpayers differently. The results lend further support to the literature that indicates that taxpayers are not a homogeneous group. This study also found that taxpayers and tax agents generally perceive tax noncompliance as less serious relative to a number of other similar civil offences. This perception may explain why respondents (from both sample groups) who were penalised for noncompliance felt that the penalties imposed were harsh, unfair and excessive. Overall, the current study illustrates the importance of incorporating noneconomic variables comprising beliefs, attitudes, and norms, with widely used economic variables such as penalties and other enforcement tools, for achieving an optimal compliance strategy.

Insufficient physical activity and a sedentary lifestyle are major contributors to health risks for Canadian youth. Adolescents, particularly girls, tend to experience major drop-offs in physical activity levels during high school. However, there is minimal research examining the extent to which Physical and Health Education (PHE) courses promote physical activity and mitigate against this decline. Grounded in the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), the purpose of this quantitative short-term longitudinal study is two-pronged: (a) examine the effectiveness of Grade 9 PHE for 197 students’ reports of TPB constructs, physical activity intentions, and physical activity behaviour; and (b) explore the utility of TPB in predicting physical activity intentions and behaviour. For the first set of research questions, results were analyzed using 2 (time: Time Point 1 [T1], Time Point 2 [T2]) x 2 (condition: in PHE/not in PHE) x 2 (TPB status: higher or lower than the mean) MANCOVAs with boys and girls examined separately. There was no effect of PHE over time. There was no interaction among time, condition, and TPB status. There was a significant effect of condition for girls in PHE, with Attitude and Physical Activity Behaviour higher at both time points. For the second set of research questions, results were analyzed using multiple linear regressions to examine TPB in a Grade 9 setting. Findings provided support for the theoretical structure of the TPB in a Grade 9 context, with the three TPB constructs accounting for a minimum of 59% of Intentions, and a minimum of 25% of Behaviour for boys and girls. Attitude was the strongest independent predictor of Intentions with Intentions and Attitude the strongest predictors of Behaviour. PHE teachers should potentially focus attention on changing attitudes for this age group, given the importance of this construct. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2014-06-26 15:29:51.422