Residents' waste mobile recycling planned behavior model: the role of environmental concern and risk perception

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to investigate the relationships of environmental concern and risk perception with residents' waste mobile recycling behavior in the scenario of continuously increasing electronic waste (aka e-waste) around the world.Design/methodology/approachFor empirically testing proposed research model, this study utilized convenience sampling strategy and collected 346 responses from residents in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) through an online survey. The hypotheses were tested utilizing the structural equation modeling (SEM) framework through Mplus 7.0 program (Muthen and Muthen, 1998–2012). Robust maximum likelihood (MLR) was used as the method of estimation.FindingsThe results revealed that environmental concern is positively associated with individuals' intentions to recycle waste mobile phones and that the relationship between concern for the environment and individuals' intention to recycle is mediated by the factors such as individuals' mobile phone recycling attitude and subjective norms. The results further indicated that individuals' information security risk perception moderates the relationship between individuals' intention for recycling and subsequent recycling behavior.Originality/valueThis study provides substantial theoretical and practical implications for residents' e-waste recycling behavior while considering their environmental concern and information security risk perceptions.