Monteiro, Mario Augusto Parente (2015) Intention to recycle solid waste in civil construction companies. PhD thesis, Universidade de Fortaleza, Brazil.
Abstract
The current levels of production and consumption of contemporary societies is being achieved through the increasing use of resources provided by the environment, which is about to show its limits to provide the inputs for production and to assimilate the waste from this activity. In this scenario, the growing environmental awareness encourages the adoption of new behaviors, aimed to preserving the environment. Among these behaviors, must be highlighted those aimed at reducing the generation of solid waste and its adequate disposal. At the same time, the growing environmental awareness of social actors manifests itself in greater pressures on businesses, to the adoption of environmentally responsible practices and behaviors. Despite this increased environmental awareness, it is observed that the determinants of behavioral change in favor of the environment are not the same in different circumstances and for different actors (individuals/companies). Thus, it is essential to analyse this issue within the disciplines that study the relationship between human behavior and the environment. Among the approaches used by studies of the environmental behavior, the cognitive-behavioral approach, represented by Ajzen's Planned Behavior Theory provides a robust theoretical framework to systematically identify the factors that influence the decision to recycling. Based on this theoretical framework, this study sought to determine the influence of the constructs “attitude”, “social norms”, “perceived behavioral control”, “experience recycling”, “opportunities for recycling”, “legal requirements” and “economic incentives” in predicting the intention of recycling construction solid waste of managers of construction companies presently operating in the state of Ceará. This is a research with quantitative approach based the deductive method, classified as explanatory and exploratory. A model that integrates the antecedents of the intentions to the recycling behavior, identifying the constructs and corresponding indicators was presented. It was conducted a survey, with managers of construction companies operating in the State of Ceará. Data were collected through the application of a questionnaire with Likert scale of five points, having been analyzed with the use of multivariate techniques of data analysis (exploratory factor analysis) and structural equation modeling with the use of the Statistic Package programs for Social Sciences (SPSS) and SmartPLS. The results confirmed the validity and explanatory relevance of the proposed model, based on the Theory of Planned Behavior, applied to explaining of the intention for recycling. Furthermore, these results confirmed that the intention for recycling is directly influenced by (a) social norms, (b) perceived behavioral control and (c) legal commands, not being proven the existence of direct or significant relationship between the intention for recycling and (a) economic incentives, (b) attitude, (c) experience with recycling and (d) opportunities for recycling.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Fontenele, Raimundo Eduardo Silveira |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | environmental sustainability; solid waste management; theory of planned behavior; civil construction |
| Index terms: | environmental sustainability, consumption, questionnaire, Likert scale, program, economic incentive, human behaviour, social norms, survey, construction company, structural equation modelling, data analysis, society, exploratory factor analysis, manager, recycle, planned behaviour, solid waste management, determinant, environmental behaviour, environmental awareness, social science, validity, recycling, package |
| Subjects: | economic analysis, contractual arrangements, organization, evaluation and assessment methods, practitioner, health behaviours and lifestyles, waste management, consumer economics, social justice, behavioral psychology, communities and social development, theoretical framing, health safety and environment, environmental behaviour, data analysis and analytics, data collection methods, risk assessment, statistical analysis, software systems |
| Topics: | Ethics, Health and Safety, Sustainability, Procurement, Risk Management, Digital Applications, Research Practice, Business Strategy, Roles and Professions, Stakeholder Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here