Economic growth and rapid urbanization have resulted in various urban issues related to sustainable development in emerging economies such as China. Nowadays, two-thirds of China’s cities are besieged by waste and one-fourth of the cities have no space to build landfills. China is embarking on a top-down waste sorting revolution, in which residents’ awareness and behaviour of participation are fundamental to the success of garbage classification. The purpose of this paper is to understand residents’ waste sorting behaviour and identify the influencing factors in China. The subjects of this study are urban and rural residents in Jiaxing, where local government has begun to encourage waste classification but has not yet legalized it. With the integration of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and value-belief-norm theory (NAM), this study represents a “motivation-intention-behaviour” theoretical model for the systemic illustration of the antecedents of household waste sorting behaviour. A total of 541 questionnaires were administered in person in households in Jiaxing, China. Structural equation modelling with partial least squares was applied to analyse empirically. The results show that attitudes (ATT), subjective norm (SN), and perceived behavioural control (PBC) have a significant positive effect on the intention of household waste sorting (WSI), and the perceived policy effectiveness (PPE) has a positive and significant effect on the attitudes and waste sorting intention. The waste sorting intention has a positive and significant effect on waste sorting behaviour (WSB). In addition, individual characteristics have a significant impact on waste sorting behaviour, where respondents of women, higher income, and middle and old age are more willing to implement waste sorting behaviours. This study theoretically contributes to the literature by improving the understanding of the determinants of household solid waste sorting behaviour. It also provides several recommendations to improve existing policies at the practitioner level. These recommendations can be valuable references for waste management in China and other emerging economies.

Following the detection of COVID-19 in cold chain aquatic products (CCAP) at Xinfadi Produce Wholesale Market in Beijing, China, in June 2020, novel coronavirus positive tests of CCAP have been reported in such markets of Dalian, Xi’an, Qingdao, Taiyuan, and other places, which has aroused the concern of Chinese consumers. The CCAP outbreak puts tremendous pressure on public health management and threatens customer well-being. This article uses the theoretical model of planned behavior (TPB) to investigate Chinese consumers’ purchasing intentions of CCAP under this circumstance. A total of 783 questionnaires were administered in China with empirical analysis through a structural equation model. The results show that attitudes (ATT) towards the safety of CCAP and subjective norms (SN) have significant positive effects on customers’ purchasing behavior intention (BI); the emotional response to the health concern (EM) of CCAP has a significant positive impact on SN, ATT, and BI; and BI of CCAP is significantly affected by individual characteristics. The BI of CCAP for those married consumers living in cities and towns with a low monthly consumption frequency is more likely to be affected by the new coronavirus epidemic events. This paper is one of the first studies that contribute to the literature by exploring the influencing factors of the consumption behavior intention over the COVID-19 pandemic in China from a public health perspective. The findings provide significant implications for cold chain operators, market managers, and policymakers to develop guidelines and offer a framework to initiate and support the produce market and boost consumer health confidence in CCAP at the practitioner level.

No abstract

Purpose This paper aims to examine 12 factors influencing environmental activity adoption by Australian logistics companies. Design/methodology/approach After a literature review and collect the major factors influencing environmental activity adoption, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and Friedman test are used to cluster and prioritize these factors through a Web survey. Findings The results of EFA show that these factors belong to three main groups including social and economic, pressure and governmental factors. The results of a Friedman test prioritizes 12 factors to find which factors have the greatest importance toward the adoption of environmental activity by managers of Australian logistics companies and reveals that governmental regulation, fuel and energy prices and the potential for achieving a competitive advantage, had the first to third ranking, respectively. Some new influencing factors in implementing environmental activities are found such as the willingness to be the market leader, responsibility and risk mitigation. Research limitations/implications This paper contributes to the literature by exploring the new factors influencing environmental adoption. Practical implications Australian logistics managers can use the results of this paper in developing their strategies and public policymakers can also use these results to improve sustainable development. Originality/value This is the first paper that clusters and prioritizes factors influencing environmental adoption in the Australian logistics industry.