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Antecedents of sustainable e-waste disposal behavior: the moderating role of gender

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Abstract

This study presents an integrative sustainable e-waste model, drawing on organismic integration theory and gender schema theory. E-waste behavior has attracted considerable attention in the cleaner production literature in recent years. However, there is growing debate, and little research has been conducted in developing countries, especially Pakistan, to investigate the motivational factors influencing sustainable e-waste behavior. This study empirically examines the different effects of motivational (intrinsic, identified, introjected, and external) regulations on sustainable e-waste disposal behavior and identifies whether customer gender moderates these effects. To address this gap, we recruited 209 households, and structural equation modeling (SEM) and multi-group modeling (MGM) techniques were used to test the proposed hypotheses using AMOS. When assessing customers’ habits and external, introjected, identified, and intrinsic motivations in terms of gender differences, the SEM results revealed that female has more motivational sentiments and compliance to social norms for disposing e-waste behavior. The MGM results revealed that the effect of intrinsic motivation on sustainable e-waste disposal behavior is important for male customers, while the impact of external motivation is important for female customers. Identified motivation appears to be a significant predictor both for male and female customers. Finally, we briefly discuss the study’s implications for theory and practice and highlight priorities for future research.

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Funding

This research was supported by the National Statistics Research Project of China (2016LY96).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, 212013, People’s Republic of China

    Mingyue Fan

  2. Research Center for Green Development and Environmental Governance, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, People’s Republic of China

    Mingyue Fan

  3. Department of Business Administration, Sukkur IBA University, Sukkur, 65200, Pakistan

    Abdul Khalique, Faheem Gul Gillal & Rukhsana Gul Gillal

  4. School of Finance and Economics, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, 212013, People’s Republic of China

    Sikandar Ali Qalati

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  1. Mingyue Fan
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  2. Abdul Khalique
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  3. Sikandar Ali Qalati
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  4. Faheem Gul Gillal
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  5. Rukhsana Gul Gillal
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Contributions

This research study was possible with the valuable contributions from the following: conceptualization, A.K.G. and S.A.Q.; methodology, A.K.G and M.F.; software, M.F., R.G.G. and F.G.G; validation, S.A.Q., F.G.G, and A.K.G.; formal analysis, M.F., A.K.G, and S.A.Q.; investigation, A.K.G. and R.G.G.; resources, F.G.G.; data curation, A.K.; writing (original draft preparation), M.F.; writing (review and editing), S.A.Q.; visualization, R.G.G. and A.K.G.; supervision, M.F.; project administration, F.G.G.; funding acquisition, M.F. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Sikandar Ali Qalati.

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Fan, M., Khalique, A., Qalati, S.A. et al. Antecedents of sustainable e-waste disposal behavior: the moderating role of gender. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 20878–20891 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-17275-y

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