Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-5lx2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-01T18:34:01.741Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Environmental Concerns among Tertiary Business School Students

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2015

Michael Schaper*
Affiliation:
School of Management, Curtin University of Technology

Abstract

This study evaluated the current level of environmental concern amongst business school students, and attempted to determine if the personal characteristics of respondents (namely, their nationality, gender and age) were reliable predictors of scores. Two hundred students in three nations (Australia, France and Singapore) were surveyed, using a modified version of the Environmental Concern Scale originally developed by Weigel and Weigel (1978).

It was found that, in general, students displayed a relatively high level of environmental concern. However, whilst substantial differences in mean scores were not found between all three nationalities, the results did show that statistically significant differences exist between at least two countries – the Australian and Singaporean samples.

There was no statistically significant link between gender and environmental concern. However, the results did indicate a significant correlation with age, with older students displaying higher levels of environmental concern than their younger counterparts.

Type
Stories from Practice
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Antil, J. A. and Bennett, P. D. 1979, ‘Construction and Validation of a Scale to Measure Socially Responsible Consumption Behavior’, in Henion, K. H. & Kinnear, T. C. (eds), The Conserver Society, American Marketing Association, Chicago, pp. 5168.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics 1998, Environmental Issues: People's Views and Practices (Cat.No. 4602.0), Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics 1999, Environmental Issues: People's Views and Practices (Cat.No. 4602.0), Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra.Google Scholar
Azjen, I. & Fishbein, M. 1980, Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Behavior Upper, Prentice-Hall, Saddle River, NJ.Google Scholar
Bandura, A. 1969, Principles of Behavior Modification, Rinehart and Winston, New York.Google Scholar
Berberoglu, G. & Tosunoglu, C. 1995, ‘Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses of an Environmental Attitude Scale (EAS) For Turkish University Students’, Journal of Environmental Education, no. 26 [Online] Electronic Library Australia.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berkowitz, L. 1975, A Survey of Social Psychology, Dryden Press, Hinsdale.Google Scholar
Cave, S. 1998, Applying Psychology To The Environment, Hodder and Stoughton, London.Google Scholar
Cooper, J. & Croyle, R. T. 1984, ‘Attitudes and Attitude Change’, Annual Review of Psychology, no. 35, pp. 395426.Google Scholar
Cramer, J. 1998, ‘Environmental Management: From “Fit” To Stretch’”, Business Strategy and the Environment, no. 7, pp. 162172.Google Scholar
Dohmen, P., Doll, J. & Feger, H. 1989, ‘A Component Theory for Attitude Objects’, in Upmeyer, A. (ed), Attitudes and Behavioral Decisions, Springer-Verlag, New York, pp. 1959.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fishbein, M. 1967, Readings in Attitude Theory and Measurement, John Wiley and Sons, New York.Google Scholar
Gifford, R. 1997, Environmental Psychology: Principles and Practice (2nd ed.), Allyn and Bacon, Boston.Google Scholar
Gifford, R., Hay, R. & Boros, K. 1983, ‘Individual differences in environmental attitudes’, Journal of Environmental Education, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 1923.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutteling, J. M. & Wiegman, O. 1993, ‘Gender-specific reactions to environmental hazards in the Netherlands’, Sex Roles, no. 28, pp. 433447.Google Scholar
Hair, J. F., Anderson, R. E., Tatham, R.L. & Black, W.C. 1998, Multivariate Data Analysis (5th edn), Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs.Google Scholar
Holahan, C. J. 1982, Environmental Psychology, Random House, New York.Google Scholar
Honnold, J. A. 1984, ‘Age and environmental concern: Some specification of effects’, Journal of Environmental Education, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter, D., Bailey, A. & Taylor, B. 1999, The Essence of Facilitation, Tandem Press, Auckland.Google Scholar
Klineberg, S. L., McKeerer, M. & Rothenbach, B. 1998, ‘Demographic predictors of environmental concern: It does make a difference how it's measured’, Social Science Quarterly, vol. 79, no. 4, pp. 734753.Google Scholar
Kuhlemeier, H., Van Den Bergh, H. & Lagerweij, N. 1999, ‘Environmental knowledge, attitudes, and behavior in dutch secondary education’, Journal of Environmental Education, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhn, R. G. & Jackson, E. L. 1989, ‘Stability of factor structures in the measurement of public environmental attitudes’, Journal of Environmental Education, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 2733.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lothian, J. A. 1994, ‘Attitudes of Australians towards the environment: 1975 to 1994’, Australian Journal of Environmental Management, vol. 1, (09), pp. 7899.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maloney, M. P. & Ward, M. P. 1973, ‘Ecology: let's hear from the people’, American Psychologist, no. 28, pp. 583586.Google Scholar
Maloney, M. P., Ward, M. P. & Braucht, G. N. 1975, ‘Arevised scale for the measurement of ecological attitudes and knowledge’, American Psychologist, no. 30, pp. 787790.Google Scholar
Manzo, L. C. & Weinstein, N. D. 1987, ‘Behavioral commitment to environment protection: A study of active and non-active members of the Sierra Club’, Environment and Behavior, no. 19, pp. 637694.Google Scholar
Nelissen, N., Perenboom, R., Peters, P. & Peters, V. 1987, The Dutch and Their Environment, Kerckebosch, Zeist.Google Scholar
Newhouse, N. 1990, ‘Implications of attitude and behavior research for environmental conservation’, Journal of Environmental Education, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 2632.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pornpitakpan, C. 2000 ‘The Environmental Concern of Thais: Managerial Implications’, Paper presented to the conference The 21st Century in Asia: Scenarios for the Next Millenium 4-5 February, INSEAD Euro-Asia Centre, Fontainebleau.Google Scholar
Ray, J. J. 1975Measuring environmentalist attitudes’, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology, vol. 11, no. 2 (06), pp. 7071.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ray, J. J. 1980, ‘Does living near a coal mine change your attitude to the environment? A case study of the Hunter Valley’, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology, vol. 16, no. 3 (09), pp. 110111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ray, J. J. & Hall, G. P. 1995, ‘Are environmentalists radical or conservative? Some Australian data’, Journal of Social Psychology, vol. 135, no. 2, pp. 225229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schahn, J. & Holzer, E. 1990, ‘Konstruktion, validerung und anwendung von skalen zur erfassung des individuellen umwettbewu (Construction, validation and application of scales for the measurement of individual environmental concern)Zeitschrift fur Differentielle und Diagnostische Psychologie, no. 11, pp. 185204.Google Scholar
Sekaran, U. 2000, Research Methods For Business: A Skill Building Approach (3rd ed.), Jahn Wiley and Sons, New York.Google Scholar
Smith, P. B. & Bond, M. H. 1993, Social Psychology Across Cultures: Analysis & Perspectives, Harvester Wheatsheaf, London.Google Scholar
Stanton, H. E. 1972, ‘A comparison of two approaches to personality measurement’, Australian Psychologist, no. 7, pp. 3339.Google Scholar
Steel, B. S. 1996, ‘Thinking globally and acting locally? environmental attitudes, behaviour and activism’, Journal of Environment Management, no. 47, pp. 2736.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Triandis, H. C. 1971, Attitudes and Attitude Change, John Wiley & Sons, New York.Google Scholar
Weigel, R. & Weigel, J. 1978, ‘Environmental concern: The development of a measure’, Environment and Behavior, no. 10, pp. 315.Google Scholar
World Resources Institute (1999) Beyond Grey Pinstripes: Preparing Students for Social & Environmental Stewardship [online]http://www.wri.org/bschools/index.html (accessed 18 September 2000).Google Scholar