This report is associated with NESP Tropical Water Quality Hub Project 2.1.3 Harnessing the science of social marketing and behaviour change for improved water quality in the GBR: an action research project. Using insights from the science of social marketing and behaviour change this project aims to aid strategies to:
• implement (and test the efficacy of) changes to the marketing and engagement strategy associated with programmes designed to be rolled out under the Reef 2050 Plan
• change key behaviours, particularly amongst those who have not previously engaged, to improve water quality (WQ).
This document provides an extensive review of the existing literature that relates to proenvironmental behaviour, behaviour change and determinants of pro-environmental behaviour in agricultural settings. There is a specific focus on key determinants of behaviour particularly within the Theory of Planned Behaviour (ToPB) (Section 2.3). It is intended to be read as a supplement to the full Literature Review released prior to the commencement of the first round of data collection (Eagle et al., 2016).
The literature review indicated that:
• most research in the agricultural sector is about general attitudes towards the environment, best land management practices and perceptions of barriers and enablers to change in land management
• there is a need to distinguish between descriptive and injunctive social norms1 which has not been done in agricultural behaviour studies
• there is widespread recognition of the various inter-related factors influencing proenvironmental behaviour and affecting adoption of best land management practices
• most research assumes a direct relationship between background factors and behaviour but the decision making is more complex
• the determinants of behaviour are different depending on theoretical and econometric approaches
• there is limited understanding of the relative importance and inter-relations between these factors, particularly for different segments of land managers
• appropriate analytical methods and techniques such as structural equation modelling (SEM) or similar are required to analyse such complex relationships between behaviour, intentions, attitudes, norms and other factors
• because of the interactive nature of the factors that influence ‘behaviours’ and behaviours related to water quality, there is a possibility (in the future) of creating some kind of pro-water-quality ‘index’ for analysis in the Structural Equation model in addition to individual behaviours which are often measured by binary responses (yes/no) or categorical responses. This is beyond the scope of the existing project.
The ToPB has been used for guidance for the development of the surveys used with both cane growers and graziers
