Social Marketing Campaigns On Waste Disposal Behaviour: Evidence From Ghana

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to use the Theory of Planned Behaviour in social marketing to examine the behavioural intentions and actual waste disposal behaviour of Ghanaians. This developing country context study into waste disposal is focused on the use of a social marketing theory to assess the factors affecting the adoption of waste disposal behaviour as a means of resolving the country’s waste problems. The study, therefore, sought to assess the effect of individual attitudes, perceived behavioural control, and subjective norms on the intentions by individuals to dispose of waste, and the consequent impact on the actual adoption of waste disposal behaviour. This study also acknowledges the importance of demographic variables such as age, gender, education, and income level in social marketing studies and therefore was also assessed to find out how they affect waste disposal behaviour. The study adopted the use of a quantitative approach using survey questionnaires as the source of data collection from 310 respondents. The respondents were selected using convenient sampling technique. A structural equation modelling was used to analyse the relationship between the variables. This study found that apart from subjective norms, individuals’ attitudes, and perceived behaviour control has a statistical and significant relationship with behavioural intentions to dispose of waste. This implies that the subjective norms contrary to other studies could not affect the intentions of respondents to dispose of waste. The intentions of the respondents were found to have a significant relationship with actual waste disposal. The study, therefore, concludes that social marketing interventions on waste disposal should ensure the formative studies; such that identifying the intentions to adopt the behaviour is understood. The demographic variables used were found not to affect the differences in the adoption of waste disposal behaviour. This study concludes that the age, education, income, and gender of individuals do not lead to differences in waste disposal behaviour. The findings of this study contribute to the literature on the use of social marketing principles to develop social marketing interventions in a developing country context.