scholarly journals Experience is Key: Examining the Relative Importance of Factors Influencing Individuals’ Water Conservation

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1870 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derrick Holland ◽  
Kristina Janét ◽  
Asheley Landrum

Conservation of our global natural resources is one of the most pressing concerns facing our international society. One of these crucial resources is water. The current study sought to understand how individual factors such as experience with water scarcity, message framing, and ideology can impact perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors related to water conservation. Through the utilization of an online experiment, the current findings suggest that higher levels of experience with water scarcity predict more concern, more positive credibility perceptions of water conservation messages, and a higher likelihood of conserving water in the future. Message framing, specifically gain frames, predicted more concern and more positive perceptions of message credibility, and ideology only predicted perceptions of message credibility. Implications for global communities, resource managers, and policy decision-makers are discussed.

2019 ◽  
pp. 1386-1419
Author(s):  
Mohammad Dalvi Esfahani ◽  
Mehrbakhsh Nilashi ◽  
Azizah Abdul Rahman ◽  
Amir Hossein Ghapanchi ◽  
Nor Hidayati Zakaria

This paper proposes a comprehensive framework of the individual factors that influence organizational decision-makers to adopt Green information systems (IS), based on a review of psychological theories and empirical studies on Green IS and technology adoption. The objectives of this paper are, firstly, to explain that the adoption of Green IS by managers is directly influenced by their intention, which is assumed to be influenced by their attitude towards Green IS, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and personal norms. In the framework, attitude towards Green IS is influenced by managers' positive and negative affect in response to Green IS. The findings of this study show that subjective norms are reflected from three sources containing primary, secondary and work referents. Perceived behavioral control includes self-efficacy, monetary cost–benefit assessment and the ethical climate of the organization. Personal norms are influenced by awareness of consequences, ascription of responsibilities and personal values including self-transcendence and self-enhancement. Secondly, the paper aims to assess the importance of the individual factors that influence the organizational decision-makers to adopt Green IS. Accordingly, the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is applied to rank the importance of the factors incorporated in the proposed framework. The data for this study is collected by conducting an online survey through a structured questionnaire-based instrument comprising 5-point Likert-type scales. The findings of this study contribute to the Green IS literature by improving the decision-making process in IS adoption for the purpose of environmental sustainability enhancement. It is hoped that the proposed model would help to clarify the relative importance of the psychological and socio-demographic factors influencing the adoption of Green IS by organizational decision-makers.


2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 28-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Dalvi Esfahani ◽  
Mehrbakhsh Nilashi ◽  
Azizah Abdul Rahman ◽  
Amir Hossein Ghapanchi ◽  
Nor Hidayati Zakaria

This paper proposes a comprehensive framework of the individual factors that influence organizational decision-makers to adopt Green information systems (IS), based on a review of psychological theories and empirical studies on Green IS and technology adoption. The objectives of this paper are, firstly, to explain that the adoption of Green IS by managers is directly influenced by their intention, which is assumed to be influenced by their attitude towards Green IS, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and personal norms. In the framework, attitude towards Green IS is influenced by managers' positive and negative affect in response to Green IS. The findings of this study show that subjective norms are reflected from three sources containing primary, secondary and work referents. Perceived behavioral control includes self-efficacy, monetary cost–benefit assessment and the ethical climate of the organization. Personal norms are influenced by awareness of consequences, ascription of responsibilities and personal values including self-transcendence and self-enhancement. Secondly, the paper aims to assess the importance of the individual factors that influence the organizational decision-makers to adopt Green IS. Accordingly, the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is applied to rank the importance of the factors incorporated in the proposed framework. The data for this study is collected by conducting an online survey through a structured questionnaire-based instrument comprising 5-point Likert-type scales. The findings of this study contribute to the Green IS literature by improving the decision-making process in IS adoption for the purpose of environmental sustainability enhancement. It is hoped that the proposed model would help to clarify the relative importance of the psychological and socio-demographic factors influencing the adoption of Green IS by organizational decision-makers.


2011 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 256-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christophe Matthys ◽  
Pieter van ‘t Veer ◽  
Lisette de Groot ◽  
Lee Hooper ◽  
Adriënne E.J.M. Cavelaars ◽  
...  

In Europe, micronutrient dietary reference values have been established by (inter)national committees of experts and are used by public health policy decision-makers to monitor and assess the adequacy of diets within population groups. The approaches used to derive dietary reference values (including average requirements) vary considerably across countries, and so far no evidence-based reason has been identified for this variation. Nutrient requirements are traditionally based on the minimum amount of a nutrient needed by an individual to avoid deficiency, and is defined by the body’s physiological needs. Alternatively the requirement can be defined as the intake at which health is optimal, including the prevention of chronic diet-related diseases. Both approaches are confronted with many challenges (e. g., bioavailability, inter and intra-individual variability). EURRECA has derived a transparent approach for the quantitative integration of evidence on Intake-Status-Health associations and/or Factorial approach (including bioavailability) estimates. To facilitate the derivation of dietary reference values, EURopean micronutrient RECommendations Aligned (EURRECA) is developing a process flow chart to guide nutrient requirement-setting bodies through the process of setting dietary reference values, which aims to facilitate the scientific alignment of deriving these values.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6287
Author(s):  
Suyeon Kim ◽  
Sang-Woo Lee ◽  
Se-Rin Park ◽  
Yeeun Shin ◽  
Kyungjin An

It is imperative to develop a methodology to identify river impairment sources, particularly the relative impact of socioeconomic sources, to enhance the efficiency of various river restoration schemes and policies and to have an internal diagnosis system in place. This study, therefore, aims to identify and analyze the relative importance of the socioeconomic factors affecting river ecosystem impairment in South Korea. To achieve this goal, we applied the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to evaluate expert judgement of the relative importance of different socioeconomic factors influencing river ecosystem impairment. Based on a list of socioeconomic factors influencing stream health, an AHP questionnaire was prepared and administered to experts in aquatic ecology. Our analysis reveals that secondary industries form the most significant source of stream ecosystem impairment. Moreover, the most critical socioeconomic factors affecting stream impairment are direct inflow pollution, policy implementation, and industrial wastewater. The results also suggest that the AHP is a rapid and robust approach to assessing the relative importance of different socioeconomic factors that affect river ecosystem health. The results can be used to assist decision makers in focusing on actions to improve river ecosystem health.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Awais Ali Khan ◽  
Khalid Mahmood Ch. ◽  
Ijaz Ashraf ◽  
Muhammad Tahir Siddiqui ◽  
Jerry W. Knox

2009 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 1217-1229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven M. Quiring

Abstract Drought is a complex phenomenon that is difficult to accurately describe because its definition is both spatially variant and context dependent. Decision makers in local, state, and federal agencies commonly use operational drought definitions that are based on specific drought index thresholds to trigger water conservation measures and determine levels of drought assistance. Unfortunately, many state drought plans utilize operational drought definitions that are derived subjectively and therefore may not be appropriate for triggering drought responses. This paper presents an objective methodology for establishing operational drought definitions. The advantages of this methodology are demonstrated by calculating meteorological drought thresholds for the Palmer drought severity index, the standardized precipitation index, and percent of normal precipitation using both station and climate division data from Texas. Results indicate that using subjectively derived operational drought definitions may lead to over- or underestimating true drought severity. Therefore, it is more appropriate to use an objective location-specific method for defining operational drought thresholds.


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