Factors Influencing Consumers’ Intentions to Participate in a Formal E-Waste Collection System: A Case Study of Onitsha, Nigeria

Chibuike Kingsley Nduneseokwu, Ying Qu and Andrea Appolloni
Additional contact information
Chibuike Kingsley Nduneseokwu: Faculty of Management and Economics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
Ying Qu: Faculty of Management and Economics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
Andrea Appolloni: Sino-Us Global Logistics Institute (SUGLI), Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 1954 Huashan Rd., Xuhui District, Shanghai 200030, China

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 6, 1-17

Abstract: Due to the increasing amount of electronic waste (e-waste) generated in Nigeria, challenges such as consumer disposal behaviors have emerged. An understanding of consumers’ intentions to participate in formal e-waste collections is key in increasing the level of participation in an e-waste collection scheme. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) creates an applicable platform for identifying the determinants of recycling intention. Based on the TPB, we develop a theoretical framework to study how influencing factors such as attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and environmental knowledge influence intentions to participate in formal e-waste collections. Additionally, we extend the research framework to examine whether the factors of infrastructure and economic incentive moderate the relationships between the influencing factors and intention. Using an empirical survey conducted in Onitsha with 384 usable questionnaire responses, we observe that attitude, subjective norm, and environmental knowledge directly influence consumers’ intentions. Statistical results also show that only the factor of infrastructure moderates the relationship between two influencing factors (attitude and subjective norm) and intention. The resulting negative coefficients of regression for the interactions indicate that the introduction of infrastructure will result in a weaker influencing ability of attitude and subjective norm on intention. Thus, the implications of this study in motivating consumers’ intentions suggest it would be beneficial for the government to provide functional and adequately managed infrastructure situated close to the community, such that it can be easily accessed by household consumers.

Keywords: e-waste; theory of planned behavior; influencing factors; moderating factors; intention (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (32)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/6/881/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/6/881/ (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:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:6:p:881-:d:99436

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

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