Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior in Environmental Science: A Comprehensive Bibliometric Analysis

Hongyun Si, Jian-gang Shi, Daizhong Tang, Shiping Wen, Wei Miao and Kaifeng Duan
Additional contact information
Hongyun Si: School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Jian-gang Shi: School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Daizhong Tang: School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Shiping Wen: School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Wei Miao: School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Kaifeng Duan: School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 15, 1-26

Abstract: Since the theory of planned behavior (TPB) was proposed by Ajzen in 1985, it has attracted extensive interest and been widely applied worldwide. Although an increasing number of studies have employed the TPB in the domain of environmental science, there have been no attempts to retrospectively analyze existing articles. The current study aimed to holistically understand the application status of the TPB in environmental science from a knowledge domain visualization perspective. A total of 531 journal articles were obtained through the Scopus database to perform a bibliometric analysis and content analysis. The results showed that waste management, green consumption, climate and environment, saving and conservation, and sustainable transportation are the primary research topics; the United States (U.S.), Mainland China, the United Kingdom (UK), and Malaysia are the most productive countries/regions. Moreover, the cross-disciplinary situations, main source journals, and key articles were revealed. Furthermore, the extended factors, integrated theories, major methods, specific groups, and control variables of environmental science research using the TPB were elaborated and integrated into a comprehensive application framework. Constructive criticisms were ultimately discussed. The findings contribute in several ways to help relevant researchers learn about the application of TPB to environmental science and provide new insights and holistic references for further research on environment-related behavior.

Keywords: theory of planned behavior; TPB; environmental behavior; intention; bibliometric analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/15/2788/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/15/2788/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:15:p:2788-:d:254744

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().