Psychosocial Determinants of COVID-19 Vaccination Intention Among White, Black, and Hispanic Adults in the US

Background COVID-19 vaccine uptake is an urgent public health priority. Purpose To identify psychosocial determinants (attitudes, normative pressure, and perceived behavioral control) of COVID-19 vaccination intentions for U.S. White, Black, and Hispanic adults, and how COVID-19 misperceptions, beliefs about the value of science, and perceived media bias relate to these determinants. Methods Longitudinal online survey using two national samples (18–49 years old/50 years and older), each stratified by racial/ethnic group (n = 3,190). Data were collected in October/November 2020 and were weighted by race group to be representative. Results Path analyses showed that more positive attitudes about getting vaccinated predict intention across age and racial/ethnic groups, but normative pressure is relevant among older adults only. Belief in the value of science was positively associated with most determinants across all groups, however the association of COVID-19 misperceptions and perceived media bias with the determinants varied by age group. Conclusions Messages that emphasize attitudes toward vaccination can be targeted to all age and racial/ethnic groups, and positive attitudes are universally related to a belief in the value of science. The varying role of normative pressure poses messages design challenges to increase vaccination acceptance.

Environmental Accountability Practices of Environmentally Sensitive Firms in Ghana: Does Institutional Isomorphism Matter?

Operational activities of firms accumulate over time and adversely impact the environment, which, in turn, threaten the earth’s ecosystem and sustainable development agendas. Both internal- and external-specific pressures may play a crucial part in a firm’s decision to conform to environmental accountability practices (EAP). This paper examines the associations between institutional isomorphic forces and EAP among environmentally sensitive firms in Ghana. A representative sample of 166 environmentally sensitive firms were randomly selected and included in this study. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain relevant data for the analysis. Multiple regression models estimated the hypothesized crude and adjusted associations between EAP and isomorphic factors (mimetic, normative and coercive pressures). Initial adjustment with the isomorphic factors revealed significant associations of mimetic pressure which arises when companies engage in competition seeking superior performance and normative force with EAP but not coercive. A further control for the firm’s characteristics found a strong association of normative pressure with EAP. The findings suggest that mimetic and normative pressures may be essential in an attempt to stimulate EAP among environmentally sensitive firms in Ghana. Our results are broadly consistent with the predictions of institutional theory as it applies to EAP. Efforts to ensure environmental reporting among firms should strengthen normative and mimetic forces, particularly in the low- and middle-income settings.

South African Executives Propensity to Use, Diffuse, and Adopt the Humanitarian Logistics Digital Business Ecosystem (HLDBE)

The employment of advanced technology in sustaining South African humanitarian organizations and business logistics firms has been a crucial concern for many years. The aim of this study is to examine the propensity of senior executives to use, diffuse, and adopt Humanitarian Logistics Digital Business Ecosystem (HLDBE) as another future sustainable tool. A PLS-SEM multivariate analysis was conducted using technology innovation theories to understand their perceived interest. The findings indicated that donor/top-level management support (D_TLMS), normative pressure (NP), perceived compatibility (PC), and perceived safety and security concerns (PSSC) served as essential factors that influenced decision-makers decision to use, diffuse, and adopt HLDBE with their noted concerns indicated. An IPMA analysis was also used in assisting executives on important factors to improve. Implications, limitations, and further research directions are therein proposed.

Investigating the Influence of COVID-Related Worry on University Enrollment Intentions: An Application of the Reasoned Action Model

The current study was designed to investigate the influence of COVID-19-related worry and online learning attitudes on enrollment behavior using the Reasoned Action Model. Participants (N = 246) completed measures of other-focused COVID-19 worry, self-focused COVID-19 worry, attitudes, perceived normative pressure, perceived behavioral control, and behavioral intention during the Spring and Summer 2020 academic semesters. Additionally, participants allowed us access to their university records to determine their enrollment status during the Fall 2020 semester. Mediation analysis results indicated the relationship between other-focused COVID-19 worry and enrollment intention was mediated by both perceived normative pressure and perceived behavioral control. Further, behavioral intention was found to share a positive relationship with enrollment behavior. Our discussion focuses on how the findings of the current research can be used to enhance student enrollment and retention.

The Use of Technology Acceptance Model in Mobile Banking

This chapter aims to determine the variables that explain using mobile banking. This study identifies and investigates the factors that influence the adoption of mobile banking, and specifically focuses on the evaluation of mobile banking application with users or non-users. The research model includes the basic concepts of the technology acceptance model. The technology acceptance model (TAM) tries to explain the adoption process and underlying influencing factors in technology acceptance. The survey was conducted to gather data which was coded in SPSS 17. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to analyze data, and structural equation modeling using Amos 17 software was used to validate the research model. The result shows that perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and perceived normative pressure significantly influences customer attitude, which affects the adoption of mobile banking.

The Increasing Representativeness of International Organizations’ Secretariats: Evidence from the United Nations System, 1997–2015

Although international organizations (IOs) and their secretariats play important roles in international politics, we know surprisingly little about their staffing composition and the factors that shape it. What accounts for the national composition of the secretariats of IOs? We theorize that the national composition of international secretariats is shaped by three factors: the desire by powerful states for institutional control, a commonly shared interest in a secretariat's functional effectiveness, and, increasingly, a need for secretariats to be seen as legitimate by being representative of the global population. Building on recent constructivist literature, we argue that IOs face increasing normative pressure to be representative in their staffing patterns. Using panel regression, we assess our argument with a new dataset covering states’ representation in the secretariats of thirty-five United Nations system bodies from 1997 to 2015. The results indicate that while functional effectiveness plays a significant and stable role, international secretariats have become increasingly representative of the global population. Moreover, this has come primarily at the expense of the over-representation of powerful states. This shift from power to representation is particularly strong in large IOs with high political and societal visibility. When it comes to IO secretariats, representativeness (increasingly) matters.

Squaring the Circle

This chapter cites the adoption of Common Article 3 (CA3) as the product of a two-step process characterized by normative pressure and social pressure via forum isolation. It illustrates how the action of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was often hindered by government refusal to admit its services or to show humanitarian restraint in internal violence despite the normative inroads made in 1921. It also mentions a new wave of civil war atrocity that was key for slowly generating a shared interest among a majority of states to include humanitarian protections for internal conflicts in the Geneva Conventions. The chapter shows how intense public and private pressures blocked the dismissal of the idea of humanizing internal conflicts and tamed delegates pushing for high conditions of application. It investigates the early Cold War contest between competing liberal and socialist ideologies that accentuated global political status struggles.

Who Cares If You Vote? Partisan Pressure and Social Norms of Voting

Social norms are important in explaining why people vote, but where do those norms come from and is social pressure motivated by partisanship? In this article, we use political discussion network data to examine the role of party identification in shaping the relationship between injunctive norms, civic duty and voter turnout. More specifically, we examine the extent to which both the application of injunctive norms and their impact on turnout is affected by shared partisan identification. We find that citizens are more likely to perceive normative pressure to vote from fellow partisans, a phenomenon we refer to as “partisan pressure”. However we do not find consistent evidence for the hypothesis that turnout is more closely related to the approval or disapproval of discussants who share a partisanship. By separating the role of social pressure from that of normative beliefs we also demonstrate that injunctive norms affect voter turnout both directly and indirectly by increasing civic duty.

Political Participation, Volunteering During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Hungary

The COVID-19 pandemic has had massive, global-scale impacts. For the realization of policy goals, the pandemic calls for citizen co-production. Since most policies are voluntary, levers for encouraging compliance with them oblige public servants to find ways to activate residents’ civic sense of duty. Such efforts are likely to be more effective if they harness the popular legitimacy of intermediaries – from civic organizations to for-profit companies – that can exert normative pressure for compliance. With the aim of the management and reduction of health, economic risks, and damages, several initiatives have been organized in Hungary. Initiators included political parties, registered NGOs, companies and informal groups and communities.