Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

The importance of non-linear relationships between attitude and behaviour in policy research

The importance of non-linear relationships between attitude and behaviour in policy research The relation between consumers’ attitude and behaviour is of importance in designing marketing and public policy measures. However, many empirical studies find only low effects of attitudes on behaviour. In this paper, we suggest that the conflicting evidence on the attitude-behaviour link is partly due to only extreme attitudes impacting behaviour. That is, possible non-linearities not detected by standard linear models could occur in the relationship between attitudes and behaviour. We present and compare alternative model specifications to assess the non-linear relationship. We test our view using empirical examples relating to the link between environmental concerns and the purchase of organic products, and the link between privacy concerns and the possession of loyalty cards. We find strong support for the appearance of a non-linear relationship between environmental concern and the purchase of organic products, while only weak support for such a relationship between privacy concern and the possession of loyalty cards. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Consumer Policy Springer Journals

The importance of non-linear relationships between attitude and behaviour in policy research

Loading next page...
 
/lp/springer-journals/the-importance-of-non-linear-relationships-between-attitude-and-g1qjrAw5Ew

References (42)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 by Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
Subject
Social Sciences; Social Sciences, general; Marketing; Economic Policy; Commercial Law
ISSN
0168-7034
eISSN
1573-0700
DOI
10.1007/s10603-007-9028-3
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The relation between consumers’ attitude and behaviour is of importance in designing marketing and public policy measures. However, many empirical studies find only low effects of attitudes on behaviour. In this paper, we suggest that the conflicting evidence on the attitude-behaviour link is partly due to only extreme attitudes impacting behaviour. That is, possible non-linearities not detected by standard linear models could occur in the relationship between attitudes and behaviour. We present and compare alternative model specifications to assess the non-linear relationship. We test our view using empirical examples relating to the link between environmental concerns and the purchase of organic products, and the link between privacy concerns and the possession of loyalty cards. We find strong support for the appearance of a non-linear relationship between environmental concern and the purchase of organic products, while only weak support for such a relationship between privacy concern and the possession of loyalty cards.

Journal

Journal of Consumer PolicySpringer Journals

Published: Apr 5, 2007

There are no references for this article.