Investigating sustainable behavioural intentions using a modified version of the theory of planned behaviour

As the awareness and adoption of sustainable behaviours has grown, the extant literature has increasingly focussed on examining behavioural intentions for sustainable behaviours such as recycling and building a new dam. This study uses an extended version of The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to examine sustainable behavioural intention in the daily lives of Australian consumers. Quantitative data was collected using an online panel and the final sample size was 511 Australian consumers. Structural equation modelling revealed that consumers' attitudes, perceived behavioural control, subjective norm, personal normative motives, normative beliefs, and moral intensity were not significant predictors of Australian consumers' likely behavioural intention (LBI). However, LBI was largely influenced by their internal ethics. This demonstrates that managers who intend to incorporate sustainability into their business strategies need to emphasise that the community has an ethical obligation to live sustainably, by adopting sustainable, ethical and green practices.