Investigating the environmental behavior of business and accounting university students

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the underlying dimensions of environmental behavior (EB) and examine how environmental education (EE) and ecological sensitivity (ES) motivate the EB of Business Administration and Accounting students (BAS). Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire survey was conducted and a sample of 190 BAS was randomly selected from the departments of Business Administration and Accounting and Finance at the University of West Attica (UNIWA), Greece. Findings The analysis was structured upon four underlying components under the EB of the sample: information seeking, recycling, green consuming and active participation. A positive relationship between EB and EE was revealed, while EB and ES were moderately interrelated. An important result was the hesitation of students to convert EE and ES to active participation and green consuming behavior, thus reaffirming similar results from other studies. Research limitations/implications The findings should be further developed using larger samples among other higher education institutions. Future research could be extended to students who reside at sub-urban or rural regions or students who are educated upon diverse academic disciplines. The basket of questions can be enriched with issues of immediate concern among future business executives such as the “ethical” role of accountants or the value creation for local societies. Originality/value The significance of this study lies on associating students’ EB with formal EE with personality characteristics such as ES. Educational policy-makers can enrich the curricula of BAS with environmentally oriented courses and teaching methods that can increase the active participation of students.

An Investigation of Pro-Environmental Behaviour and Sustainable Development in Malaysia

“…This study examined the direct influence of environmental commitment, environmental consciousness, green lifestyle, and green self-efficacy on pro-environmental behaviour. It should be highlighted that after a review of the most significant and recent works students' pro-environmental behaviour, such as [22,[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36], no similar research was found. In addition, previous empirical studies on pro-environmental behaviour have been conducted in relation to environmental commitment [37][38][39], environmental consciousness [40,41], lifestyle practices [42], green lifestyle [5,43], and self-efficacy [13,[44][45][46][47].…”

“…The existing literature on pro-environmental behaviour is largely influenced by perspectives from developed countries [19,23,26,27,32], while existing works from developing countries [31] generally do not discuss the topic in the Malaysian context.…”

Development of Sustainable Thinking by Information Literacy

“…Many studies discuss the issue of awareness, as well as educating and training students, for a sustainable society by creating an adequate curriculum [1,[5][6][7][8].…”

Αξιολόγηση Προγραμμάτων Μη Τυπικής Περιβαλλοντικής Εκπαίδευσης

“…Επιπλέον, υπάρχουν έρευνες οι οποίες έχουν χρησιμοποιήσει την κλίμακα είτε σε κάποια μικρότερη έκδοσή της, δηλαδή με λιγότερες δηλώσεις ή ομάδες δηλώσεων (Bjerke et al, 2006;Grebitus et al, 2013), είτε τροποποίησαν δηλώσεις ή ομάδες δηλώσεων (Kyriakopoulos et al, 2020;Li et al, 2020 (Bernstein & Szuster, 2019). Επιπλέον, με την κατάλληλη χρήση ποσοτικών κλιμάκων μέτρησης, μπορεί να υπάρχουν ορθότερα αποτελέσματα στο φιλοπεριβαλλοντισμό (Bernstein & Szuster, 2019).…”

“…Η τροποποίηση και προσαρμογή του μοντέλου του Dunlap, ως προς τις ομάδες, τις όψεις και το περιεχόμενο των δηλώσεων του εργαλείου της παρούσας έρευνας, συμφωνεί με πολλές έρευνες όσον αφορά το μέγεθος (Bjerke et al, 2006;Grebitus et al, 2013) και το περιεχόμενο (Kyriakopoulos et al, 2020;Li et al, 2020) και διαφωνεί με άλλες (Cleveland et al, 2016;Cotton et al, 2021;Du et al, 2019;Wardropper et al, 2020 (Riya, 2018) και στις διατροφικές προτιμήσεις (Hoflund et al, 2019). Οι όψεις της ομάδας της διατροφής στην παρούσα έρευνα, συμφωνεί με έρευνες που εξετάζουν το θέμα των ψυχογραφικών χαρακτηριστικών, με τις γνώσεις, στάσεις και συμπεριφορές απέναντι στα τρόφιμα (Aitsidou et al, 2019;Hansen et al, 2018;Laureti & Benedetti, 2018b;Steiner et al, 2017;Yazdanpanah et al, 2015 (Finnell & John, 2017;Mamat & Mokhtar, 2012;Pitman et al, 2018bRodríguez-Ortega et al, 2016aSteiner et al, 2017;Stylidis et al, 2018;Tabi et al, 2014;Weaver, 2012), αλλά και με τη θεωρία του Dunlap στην οποία βασίζεται το προτεινόμενο εργαλείο.…”