Behavioral Intention Mechanism of Socially Sustainable Activities : Bioethanol Feedstock Production in Khon Kaen , Thailand

Emerging concern over social implications of large-scale adoption is a motivation to require certification of the sustainable origins of biofuels. In terms of the feasibility of biofuel supply in Japan, this study examines the behavioral intentions of sustainable activities by using social criteria of international levels in the context of bioethanol feedstock production in Khon Kaen, Thailand. The models adapted from the theory of planned behavior were tested by using the structural equation model. The main results are as follows: (1) In terms of the perception of working rights and conditions, which was largely influenced by the “awareness: real conditions” and “awareness: real conditions for the participants’ personal lives”, “personal norm” indicated the highest score. (2) “Education” had the greatest impact on solutions for personal welfare and well-being with respect to sustainable activities. (3) The scores of the importance for social welfare and well-being included six categories: reasonable compensation, reasonable working hours, healthcare and safety, fair treatment of all workers, good communication, and education with the similar ranges of scores and regression weights. (4) The “attitude toward the behavior” was the most influential predictor of “behavioral intention”. Results of this investigation give an implication to design a social criteria framework in agriculture activities such as the ethanol feedstock production.


Introduction
In recent years, the global production and use of biofuels have increased dramatically because of increasing energy security concerns, environmental and social considerations, and the urgent need to revitalize rural communities.Sustainability criteria including environmental and social aspects would have a direct impact on international biofuel trade.However, the transformation of conventional farms into the fast-growing biofuel agribusiness has changed the income, employment, and quality of life of farming communities in affected rural areas, particularly those in developing countries.In addition, there has been growing concern over the social implications of large-scale adoption efforts as well as the health and well-being of those affected (IEA Bioenergy, 2005).This was a motivation to require certification, which is derived from many forms of the principles and criteria of the sustainable origins of biofuels as shown in Table 1 (eXtension, 2013).The second part investigated the solutions for personal welfare and well-being (quality of life and happiness), which were divided into good working conditions (reasonable compensation, reasonable working hours, and provision of water and food), minimal use of chemicals (minimal use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides for health reasons), communication (listening and discussing to solve conflicts), and education (providing advice on good working conditions and well-being).
The third part investigated the importance for social welfare and well-being, which was divided into six categories: reasonable compensation, reasonable working hours, healthcare and safety, fair treatment of all workers, good communication, and education.
The forth part estimated the behavioral intention mechanisms regarding the six categories (the underlined phrases were replaced with each of the six categories), which were composed of four variables: AB (e.g., What I give agreed-upon pay/reasonable compensation in time to workers in my farm is good/bad), SN (My family or friends think that I should give agreed-upon pay/reasonable compensation in time to workers in my farm), PBC (PBC1= Actually, What I give agreed-upon pay/reasonable compensation in time to workers in my farm is difficult/easy; PBC2= Whether I give agreed-upon pay/reasonable compensation in time to workers in my farm is entirely up to me), and I (I try to give agreed-upon pay/reasonable compensation in time to workers in my farm).The six categories were adopted from the previous analysis of the importance of social welfare and well-being; the categories were modified (by hearing research and a pretest) so that they could be easily understood by the respondents (farmers in Khon Kaen).The questionnaire of this part was constructed based on the TPB questionnaire instruction (Ajzen, 2006).The hypothesis of this model is that the three core variables, AB, SN, and PBC, can collectively explain a statistically significant amount of variance in I for sustainable activities in feedstock production.The questions were constructed in the order of I, AB, SN, PBC1, and PBC2.

Descriptive Statistics
Socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents (one individual per household), along with some household features, are summarized in Table 3.According to the one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) results, there were no correlations (Levene's Test for Equality of Variances F ≥ 1) between gender and the educational level (F 7.599 and Sig 0.006), gender and work frequency (F 5.140 and Sig 0.024), and work frequency and household income (F 2.313 and Sig 0.130).

Perception of Working Rights and Conditions
In terms of the perception of working rights conditions, "personal norm" indicated the highest score (Figure 5).The hypothetical model for the perception of working rights and conditions was based on the factors chosen from PCA (KMO MSA 0.719, good adequacy) in Table 4; it was further modified to establish a link of error valuables between "knowledge" and "personal norm" (Figure 6).The variance was also modified from -0.462 to 0.005 because the variance of error valuable for "awareness: real condition in Khon Kaen" was negative.The modified model indicated that the perception was influenced the most by the "awareness: real condition in Khon Kaen" (regression weight: 1.00) and the least by "personal norm" (regression weight: 0.01).This implies that even if the current average score for the "awareness: real condition in Khon Kaen" is the lowest, the perception of working rights and conditions can be changed dramatically by changes in the real conditions of Khon Kaen in future.The hypot (i.e., AB, S e26.The m good fit), exogenous weight/pat on I. Out (Table 5).

Conclusions
The generalizability of the holistic behavioral intention mechanisms for sustainable activities on social aspects is limited.The modified structure equation models indicated that the attitude (AB) was the main predictor and that perceived behavior control (PBC2) had a weak effect on the intention (I).This indicates that because the intention (the amount of effort one is willing to exert to attain a goal, Ajzen, 1991) was closely linked to the respondents' attitudes, sustainable behaviors regarding social aspects are likely to be influenced by the willingness (behavioral intentions) of farmers.This also suggests that the promotion of sustainable activities should focus on attitudes toward behavior.In further study, these attitudes (individual favor) can be identified by driving forces, e.g.perceptions, solutions, and importance of social issues, which lead to increases in the scores of attitudes.
The results of this combined top-down and bottom-up approach imply that international standards can be applied to solve both personal and social welfare and well-being.Recognition of international standards relating to biofuel feedstock producers should be a criterion of acceptable management, and effective respect for social indicators.The results have implications for designing frameworks of social criteria for biofuel feedstock production, internationally acceptable social criteria, and certification in sustainable feedstocks of biofuels.
The results of the pre-survey indicate that the participants, who were interviewed as current or potential producers of bioethanol feedstock, perceived the need for proactive responses to economic, environmental, and social sustainability because of the expansion of bioethanol feedstock production.Thus, this indicates that the results for the behavioral intention mechanism cannot be generalized to various types of agricultural activities.Future research should examine the relationship between sustainable behavior and the impact of the feedstock price in Khon Kaen.
Further research had already been finished to investigate the behavioral intention model of environmental aspects using the structural equation model (SEM).In addition, the comparisons of the behavioral intention model based on both of environmental and social sustainability have been discussed (Yi, 2010).

Table 1 .
Definition of sustainability standards for biofuels

Table 3 .
Socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents

Table 4 .
Factors chosen from PCA Awareness (Real condition in Khon Kaen): I think that "working condition (wage, forced labor, and healthcare) in the farm is bad in my village".