Environmental citizenship behavior and sustainability apps: an empirical investigation

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to investigate the moderating effect of sustainability app on environmental citizenship behavior on the basis of norm-activation model. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire survey, which comprises five variables (i.e. awareness of consequences, ascription of responsibility, personal norms, environmental citizenship behavior in a private sphere and environmental citizenship behavior in a public sphere) measured through 16 items, was conducted in the USA by using Amazon Mechanical Turk. With 549 valid respondents’ answers in hand, the collected data were analyzed applying a multi-group structural equation modelling technique with IBM SPSS AMOS 23 software program. Findings The results revealed that there is a positive and significant relationship between awareness of consequences, ascription of responsibility, personal norms and environmental citizenship behavior in both private and public sphere. Furthermore, this study attested that sustainability apps utilization has a moderating effect on the predictors of environmental citizenship behaviors. Originality/value Past studies have seldom examined the contribution of mobile apps to environmental sustainability. This paper enriches the extant academic literature in the field of technology for behavior change, and bears significant implications on how sustainability apps can be adopted by governments, policymakers, organizations and teacher educators to engage people and stimulate environmental citizenship behaviors.

Linking Perceived Environmental CSR to Residents’ Environmental Citizenship Behavior in Rural Tourism: The Mediating Role of Resident–Environment Relationship Quality

“…The results of the mediating effect analysis imply that environmental identification and environmental commitment mediate the relationships between perceived ECSR and two types of environmental citizenship behavior, respectively. This not only supports previous research considering environmental citizenship behavior as a multi-dimensional concept [ 10 ], but also confirms that the influence of perceived ECSR on residents‘ environmental citizenship behavior can extend from the public domain to the private domain. Overall, this research expands the body of knowledge on environmental citizenship behavior in different spheres in the tourism context.…”

“…This concept is described as a single-dimensional construct in some research [ 43 ]. However, to gain a deeper understanding of environmental citizenship behavior in various domains, we divided environmental citizenship behavior into private-sphere environmental citizenship behavior (e.g., reducing energy use at home), and public-sphere environmental citizenship behavior (e.g., keeping the surrounding environment clean) [ 10 ]. Residents behaving sustainably is crucial to the ecological integrity of rural destinations [ 27 ].…”

“…Residents behaving sustainably is crucial to the ecological integrity of rural destinations [ 27 ]. Extensive studies have primarily focused on employees’ environmental citizenship behavior through various theoretical lens, such as self-efficacy theory, the SOR model, and the norm activation model [ 10 , 11 , 15 ]. However, residents’ environmental citizenship behavior remains under-researched, especially how perceived ECSR as the environmental stimulus affects residents’ environmental citizenship behavior in the rural destination setting.…”

“… Private-sphere ECB PRECB1 At home, I reduce the amount of energy I use. [ 10 ] PRECB2 I recycle cans, bottles and papers. PRECB3 I buy products that are friendly to the environment.…”

“…As another vital stakeholder group for rural destinations, residents live and perform their daily recreational activities at the destination, which are closely related to the environment [ 8 , 9 ]. Residents’ behavior, if not properly restrained, may have more destructive impacts on the environment and public health than temporary tourists, such as soil contamination, water pollution and garbage accumulation [ 10 ]. Thus, it is of great value to guide and foster residents’ environmental citizenship behavior for driving sustainable development of the destination.…”