Intention and behavior toward bringing your own shopping bags in Vietnam: integrating theory of planned behavior and norm activation model

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors affecting Vietnamese consumers’ intention and behavior toward “bringing your own shopping bags” (BYOB) instead of using plastic bags based on integrating theories: theory of planned behavior (TPB) and norm activation model (NAM). Design/methodology/approach The study used a combination of in-depth interviews and large-scale surveys. Data were collected from 536 Vietnamese consumers to explore the relationship among eight factors in the research model, including behavior, intention, attitude (AT), subjective norms (SN), perceived behavioral control, the ascription of responsibility, awareness of consequences and personal norm (PN). The data collected went through quantitative analysis steps, including Cronbach’s alpha reliability test, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling for scales and hypotheses testing by using SPSS and AMOS data analysis tools. Findings The results show that in a developing country like Vietnam, attitude and PNs have a stronger impact on intention toward BYOB than other factors, and the study also reveals the moderate relationship between intention with actual behavior toward BYOB. The proposed hypotheses are all accepted except the hypothesis about the relationship between SN and PNs. Research limitations/implications The main limitation of this paper is that the integrative model of TPB and NAM only explains 57% of the variance of the intention toward BYOB. Practical implications Based on the results of the study, the author makes some suggestions for Vietnamese state management agencies to promote BYOB. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study represents for the first time the application of an integrated model of TPB and NAM to learn about the intention and behavior toward BYOB.