Examining Employee Motivation, Environmental Systems, and Corporate Social Responsibility in Proenvironmental Behavior

The World Health Organization has pointed to climate change as the most significant issue in the 21st century as a result of greenhouse gas emissions and environmental pollution. Organizations are leaning toward corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental management systems (EMS) to reverse the current trend; however, these efforts are often ineffective or pooly implemented. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the extent to which employees\u27 proenvironmental behavior relates to their protection motivation and organizational identification, as well as their perception and knowledge of the organization\u27s CSR and EMS, respectively. Using social identity as the theoretical framework, this research addressed how organizational and intrapersonal factors influence employees\u27 proenvironmental behavior. One hundred-twenty employees from American-based organizations completed an online survey measuring self-assessed proenvironmental behaviors, among other variables. The results from a Pearson correlation analysis indicated that all of the independent variables had a significant positive relationship with employee proenvironmental behaviors. Multiple regression analysis showed that while each variable was a significant predictor of proenvironmental behaviors, only the economic dimension of CSR (β = .300, p = .014) and the self-efficacy dimension of protection motivation (β = .269, p = .037) significantly contributed to the model. Leaders\u27 use of the findings may lead to positive social change through improved environmental performance in the form of decreased pollution, a more efficient use of natural resources, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions, all toward a more sustainable future

Digital media exposure, political attitudes and perceptions as antecedents of voting intentions: a Zimbabwean perspective

Thesis (Ph.D. (Business Science))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic & Business Sciences, 2017With the contemporary diffusion of media technology, the majority of researchers have come to position the Internet as a political instrument that has the potential to stimulate consumer behaviour. The Internet has expanded persistently as a news source and digital technologies have become more accessible and abound with user generated content. These digital media backdrops afford a valuable opportunity to empirically examine the effects of digital media effects on consumer decision-making. It is therefore important to examine how consumer perceptions and attitudes towards voting impact their decision-making in order for political marketers or politicians to develop coherent strategies that offer a conducive environment sufficient to influence voting decision-making. Whereas previous studies on voting behaviour have merely explored voting behaviour in a global context, the current study investigates the effect of digital media exposure on perceptual and cognitive constructs within a Zimbabwean context. Moreover, few studies have explored this topic in a consumer behaviour context amongst the Zimbabwean constituency. This study aims to determine whether digital media exposure influences voter-consumers’ intention to vote in subsequent Zimbabwe presidential elections. In order to empirically test the effect of digital media exposure on perceived image of a political party (PI); perceived image of a presidential candidate (PPC); attitude towards voting (ATV) and voting intention (VI), a conceptual model premised on the reviewed political marketing literature was developed. The model proposed four distinct domains that drive voting intentions. In this conceptualised model, digital media exposure is the predictor variable, while perceived image of the presidential candidate, attitude towards voting, perceived image of the political party, are mediators and voting intention is the single outcome variable. By exploring the significance of digital media use on voter behaviour, this study contributes towards specific contextual knowledge on consumer behaviour and political marketing in developing countries particularly Zimbabwe. The present study is positioned in the positivist research methodology, and assumes a deductive approach within the quantitative paradigm to test the proposed hypotheses. This study uses stratified probability sampling to arrive at the required number of provinces for the study. Using quantitative methodologies based on the nature of the research questions, data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire from 305 eligible voters from selected Provinces and Districts in Zimbabwe selected through stratified probability sampling to arrive at the required number of provinces for the study.The measuring instrument was designed from existing scales, which were adapted to suit the present study. The data analysis ii | P a g e was done in SPSS 24 for demographic data analysis and AMOS 24 was used for the structural equation modelling and path modelling. The findings support all the hypotheses in a significant way except H1 and H5. Likewise, voter-consumers’ perception of the presidential candidate has an influence on the attitude towards voting and all latter perceptual and attitudinal variables have significant influence on voting intention. Important to note about the study findings is the fact that digital media exposure has a stronger effect on perceived image of the political party (H3) than attitude towards voting (H2). However, perceived image of the political party strongly influence attitude towards voting. Remarkably, the relationship between perceived image of the presidential candidate and attitude towards voting is robust. The findings indicate that digital media exposure can have a strong influence on voting intention through attitude towards voting. The contribution of this study is threefold: Firstly, by exploring the significance of digital media exposure on voting behaviour, this study adds to contextual knowledge on relationship marketing, political brand management and experiential marketing (the final stage of the mental brand responses), consumer marketing and specifically, political marketing. Secondly, as a growing body of literature explores the use of digital technology in political campaigning/marketing to create a competitive advantage, this study provides researchers with a broad understanding of this phenomenon among voting citizens in developing countries particularly Zimbabwe. Theoretically, it is positioned in political marketing and contributes to theoretical literature that focuses on consumer behaviour, branding and brand relationship. Lastly, by investigating digital media exposure and its influence on consumers’ voting intention, the findings provided political marketing practitioners with a better understanding of strategies that can be employed to influence citizens’ voting behaviour, through the use of digital media. The study thus submits that politicians ought to pay attention to both media agenda and brand image in order to build a positive attitude towards voting which significantly influences the intention to vote. In order to maximise voter ‘purchase’, marketers can implement strategies to encourage positive behaviour from voter-consumers and exploit multi-sensory experiences in order to influence voting intentions. The study makes a significant contribution to brand management literature and consumer behaviour literature by systematically exploring the impact of media exposure on brand image and attitude towards voting in Zimbabwe. The study demonstrates that political data can be used in consumer behaviour studies and provides a theoretical method for predicting voting intentions using voter behaviour in the form of voter perception of political parties and perceived image of a presidential candidate as well as attitude towards voting. The study further highlights the significance of using digital technologies and ingenuity to create a comparative advantage as well as a differential advantage.MT 201

Three Essays on the Role of IT in Environmental Sustainability: Motivating Individuals to Use Green IT, Enhancing Their User Experience, and Promoting Electricity Conservation

This dissertation focuses on the role of IT in environmental sustainability and electricity conservation through three research essays. The first essay makes a case for behavior research, with the focus on individuals\u27 use of Green IT. Moreover, environmental studies lack a coherent theory that could identify the motivators of Green-IT beliefs. We develop the hedonic motivation theory, which synthesizes theoretical and philosophical thoughts on hedonism with concepts from environmental research. Using this theory, we develop a conceptual model that identifies the motivators of context-specific beliefs, attitudes, and uses of Green IT. We theorize that there are significant generational differences in the process by which hedonic motivators influence Green IT use behaviors. Young adults are more motivated by personal hedonic motivation, and an affective and automatic process, whereas older adults are motivated by a cognitive and attitudinal process. This study was carried out using a structural equation modeling method of analysis based on 702 observations of the survey data. The results support the theorized model, with significant implications. The second essay examines the design taxonomy of electricity consumption feedback applications, which are considered one of the critical technologies in alleviating the increasing trends of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. We relied on an integrative theoretical framework and literature review to propose a comprehensive taxonomy for salient design elements of electricity consumption feedback applications. Using a survey method, we collected data from general public to evaluate the preference and relative importance of the design elements. We found that there is a preferred set of design elements for the feedback applications. Our results could serve as a basis to evaluate the design of existing electricity consumption feedback applications, and to help in studying the influence of design elements on beliefs and behaviors related to individuals\u27 electricity conservation. The third essay investigates the role of the salient design elements identified in the second essay, and the processes by which these elements motivate electricity consumers\u27 behaviors towards energy conservation. We developed a conceptual framework by extending the theory of planned behavior to study how salient design elements of feedback applications impact the beliefs and behaviors of individual electricity consumers. To our knowledge, this is the first study aimed at examining the relationship between electricity consumers\u27 beliefs and behaviors and the specific perceived design elements of electricity consumption feedback applications. We empirically evaluated the conceptual model by developing a mobile app and a corresponding website and conducting a controlled longitudinal lab experiment. The results indicate strong support for the premises of the model and support the significant role of personalized design elements in use behaviors and electricity conservation. Our findings show the importance of integrating descriptive social norm, personalized goal setting, and personalized privacy preferences design elements in feedback applications. This dissertation makes a number of significant contributions to theory and application. First, it develops a new theory that identifies motivators of Green IT use. It shows that the conceptualized motivators impact use behaviors though multiple paths--the cognitive and emotional automatic paths-- and are moderated by users\u27 age. Second, this work develops a taxonomy of design elements for electricity consumption feedback applications based on an integrative theoretical framework and extensive review of the existing literature. This taxonomy and the relative importance of elements in the taxonomy could serve as the standard for developing and assessing feedback application tools. Third, this work develops a conceptual model that identifies the processes by which design elements of electricity consumption feedback applications help in the conservation of electricity by individuals. Together, the three essays contribute to the sustainability and Green IT literature by uncovering the significant role of individuals in dealing with environmental threats and energy consumption challenges and by conceptualizing the different antecedents and processes that shape the perceptions and behaviors related to Green IT and electricity consumption. Moreover, the three studies extend user-centric design research by integrating insights from multiple disciplines to explain, design, create, and test innovative tools that could have a pivotal role in dealing with global sustainability challenges. This work also provides a standard for the evaluation of such tools from multiple stakeholder perspectives. Finally, the three essays contribute to practice by proposing guidelines to industry designers and policy makers for promoting sustainability and energy conservation through personalized tools and effective campaigns

Cybersecurity Strategies for Universities With Bring Your Own Device Programs

The bring your own device (BYOD) phenomenon has proliferated, making its way into different business and educational sectors and enabling multiple vectors of attack and vulnerability to protected data. The purpose of this multiple-case study was to explore the strategies information technology (IT) security professionals working in a university setting use to secure an environment to support BYOD in a university system. The study population was comprised of IT security professionals from the University of California campuses currently managing a network environment for at least 2 years where BYOD has been implemented. Protection motivation theory was the study\u27s conceptual framework. The data collection process included interviews with 10 IT security professionals and the gathering of publicly-accessible documents retrieved from the Internet (n = 59). Data collected from the interviews and member checking were triangulated with the publicly-accessible documents to identify major themes. Thematic analysis with the aid of NVivo 12 Plus was used to identify 4 themes: the ubiquity of BYOD in higher education, accessibility strategies for mobile devices, the effectiveness of BYOD strategies that minimize risk, and IT security professionals\u27 tasks include identifying and implementing network security strategies. The study\u27s implications for positive social change include increasing the number of users informed about cybersecurity and comfortable with defending their networks against foreign and domestic threats to information security and privacy. These changes may mitigate and reduce the spread of malware and viruses and improve overall cybersecurity in BYOD-enabled organizations

The Influence of Cognitive Factors and Personality Traits on Mobile Device User\u27s Information Security Behavior

As individuals have become more dependent on mobile devices to communicate, to seek information, and to conduct business, their susceptibility to various threats to information security has also increased. Research has consistently shown that a user’s intention is a significant antecedent of information security behavior. Although research on user’s intention has expanded in the last few years, not enough is known about how cognitive factors and personality traits impact the adoption and use of mobile device security technologies. The purpose of this research was to empirically investigate the influence of cognitive factors and personality traits on mobile device user’s intention in regard to mobile device security technologies. A conceptual model was developed by combining constructs from both the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) and the Big Five Factor Personality Traits. The data was collected using a web-based survey according to specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. Respondents were limited to adults 18 years or older who have been using their mobile devices to access the internet for at least one year. The Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the data gathered from a total of 356 responses received. The findings of this study show that perceived threat severity, perceived threat susceptibility, perceived response costs, response efficacy, and mobile self-efficacy have a significant positive effect on user’s intention. In particular, mobile self-efficacy had the strongest effect on the intention to use mobile device security technologies. Most of the personality traits factors were not found significant, except for conscientiousness. The user’s intention to use mobile device security technologies was found to have a significant effect on the actual usage of mobile device security technologies. Hence, the results support the suitability of the PMT and personality factors in the mobile device security technologies context. This study has contributed to information security research by providing empirical results on factors that influence the use of mobile device security technologies

Cybersecurity Strategies for Universities With Bring Your Own Device Programs

The bring your own device (BYOD) phenomenon has proliferated, making its way into different business and educational sectors and enabling multiple vectors of attack and vulnerability to protected data. The purpose of this multiple-case study was to explore the strategies information technology (IT) security professionals working in a university setting use to secure an environment to support BYOD in a university system. The study population was comprised of IT security professionals from the University of California campuses currently managing a network environment for at least 2 years where BYOD has been implemented. Protection motivation theory was the study\u27s conceptual framework. The data collection process included interviews with 10 IT security professionals and the gathering of publicly-accessible documents retrieved from the Internet (n = 59). Data collected from the interviews and member checking were triangulated with the publicly-accessible documents to identify major themes. Thematic analysis with the aid of NVivo 12 Plus was used to identify 4 themes: the ubiquity of BYOD in higher education, accessibility strategies for mobile devices, the effectiveness of BYOD strategies that minimize risk, and IT security professionals\u27 tasks include identifying and implementing network security strategies. The study\u27s implications for positive social change include increasing the number of users informed about cybersecurity and comfortable with defending their networks against foreign and domestic threats to information security and privacy. These changes may mitigate and reduce the spread of malware and viruses and improve overall cybersecurity in BYOD-enabled organizations

Hubungan sikap, pengaruh sosial, jangkaan bersalah, niat dan tingkah laku pembelian produk tiruan dalam kalangan pengguna di Malaysia

Counterfeiting refers to illegally making copies of trademark, patent, and copyright of product without permission from the owner with the aim to reap the benefits offered by a branded product. Counterfeiting is a phenomenon that has long been neglected in previous studies. Production and sale of counterfeit products is an issue that has no ending, and becoming an increasingly serious problem in the international market in general and Malaysian market in particular. Based on Theory of Planned Behaviour, this study focuses on the factors that influence the purchase intention and behavior among consumers towards counterfeit products in Malaysia. This study examined the relationships between attitudes, social influence, perceived behaviour control, anticipated guilt and past experience on intention and purchase behavior of counterfeit products. The consideration of putting both mediator and moderator factors in this research allow a more previse descriptions on the relationship between all the variables mentioned and the outcome of the research. This study involved 392 respondents in the area of Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Johor Baharu who have experience buying counterfeit products. Out of seven hypotheses tested, six were supported. The analyses revealed positive relationship between intention and purchase behaviour of counterfeit products. Attitudes and social influence have positive relationships with intention to purchase counterfeit products while perceived behavioural control has positive influence on purchase behaviour of counterfeit products. Anticipated guilt mediates the relationship between attitude and intention to purchase counterfeit products while past experience moderates the relationship between intention and purchase behaviour of counterfeit products. The study also highlighted implications of the study, limitations as well as suggestion future research

A predictive model for the acceptance of wearable ubiquitous activity monitoring devices

Acceptance of wearable ubiquitous activity monitoring devices that track activity has been a hot topic for the last decade. Several theories have been made, particularly how to think about the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). These theories have been used in different situations to learn more about how people and organizations accept new technology. Even though the TAM is mature and works in different situations, there is not much published research that tries to expand its ability to predict how people will react to wearable ubiquitous activity monitoring devices. One reason for this gap could be that the TAM is based on the idea that people's acceptance behavior can only be predicted by two beliefs: Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) and Perceived Usefulness (PU). Literature shows that PU and PEOU beliefs are not enough. This means that they may not be able to explain why people accept new things, like Activity Trackers (AT). Because of this, it is important to include any other factors that can help predict how likely people are to use activity trackers. As an extension of research on the TAM, this study created and tested two models of how people accept and use wearable ubiquitous activity monitoring devices, with two questionnaires with more than 200 respondents that shield light on the subject. The proposed models added key concepts from the research stream on how people accept information systems to the theoretical framework of the TAM and Health Information Technology Acceptance Model (HITAM). The resulting models were analyzed using a variety of statistical techniques including Structural Equation Analysis. The first model was reanalyzed via qualitative analysis with 20 interviews, and reanalyzed via another quantitative method of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). The most significant contributions of this dissertation are: 1. The construction of two models that predict activity tracking adoption and usage. 2. Guidelines for designing activity trackers. These contributions can help promote activity trackers as an essential piece of equipment that helps monitor progress during workouts as well as other times, such as when the user is at rest or sleeping. We will see that by being continually reminded to walk about and avoid sitting for extended periods of time or doing nothing at all, this helps a person build healthy behaviors. Additionally, activity trackers should be designed to maintain a person's motivation to finish the daily activity routine, which is necessary for people to accomplish their health and fitness objectives. This thesis contributes with two quantitative models for the acceptance and use of activity trackers, and creates recommendations for different types of users.A aceitação de dispositivos ubíquos vestíveis de monitorização de atividade que rastreiam a atividade tem sido um tema cálido na última década. Várias teorias foram concebidas, principalmente como pensar o Modelo de Aceitação de Tecnologia (TAM). Essas teorias têm sido usadas em diferentes situações para aprender mais sobre como as pessoas e as organizações aceitam novas tecnologias. Conquanto o TAM seja maturo e funcione em diferentes situações, não há muitas investigações publicadas que tentem expandir a sua capacidade de prever como as pessoas reagirão a dispositivos ubíquos vestíveis de monitoramento de atividade. Uma razão para essa lacuna pode ser porque o TAM é baseado na ideia de que o comportamento de aceitação das pessoas só pode ser previsto por duas asseverações: Facilidade de Uso Percebida (PEOU) e Utilidade Percebida (PU). A literatura mostra que as asseverações nas PU e PEOU não são suficientes. Isso significa que essas duas asseverações podem não ser capazes de explicar o porquê de as pessoas aceitarem coisas novas, como monitores de atividade (AT). Por isso, é importante incluir quaisquer outros fatores que possam ajudar a prever a probabilidade de as pessoas usarem monitorizadores de atividade. Como extensão da pesquisa sobre o TAM, esta investigação criou e testou dois modelos de como as pessoas aceitam e usam dispositivos ubíquos vestíveis de monitorização de atividade, com dois questionários com mais de 200 repostas cada, que clarificam o assunto. Os modelos propostos agregaram conceitos-chave da pesquisa sobre como as pessoas aceitam os sistemas de informação ao referencial teórico do TAM e do Modelo de Aceitação de Tecnologia da Informação em Saúde (HITAM). Os modelos resultantes foram analisados usando uma variedade de técnicas estatísticas, incluindo Modelação de Equações Estruturais. O primeiro modelo foi reanalisado por meio de uma análise qualitativa com 20 entrevistas, e de novo reanalisado por meio de outro método quantitativo com Redes Neurais Artificiais (RNA). A construção de dois modelos que predizem a adoção e uso do monitorização da atividade é a contribuição mais significativa que pode ser retirada deste trabalho, juntamente com as diretrizes para o design de monitorizadores de atividade. Essas contribuições podem ajudar a promover os monitorizadores de atividade como um equipamento essencial que ajuda a monitorizar a evolução durante os treinos e em outros momentos, como quando o utilizador está em repouso ou dormindo. Ao ser continuamente lembrado para andar e evitar ficar sentado por longos períodos de tempo ou não fazer nada, isso ajuda o utilizador a construir comportamentos saudáveis. Além disso, os monitorizadores de atividade devem ser projetados para manter a motivação de uma pessoa em concluir a rotina diária de atividades, o que é necessário para que as pessoas atinjam seus objetivos de saúde e condição física. Esta tese contribui com modelos quantitativos para a aceitação e uso de monitorizadores de atividades e cria recomendações para diferentes tipos de utilizadores