How does destination psychological ownership affect tourists’ pro-environmental behaviors? A moderated mediation analysis

Abstract

Tourists’ pro-environment behavior (TPEB) plays a central role in fostering a destination’s sustainability. As an essential connection between tourist and destination, destination psychological ownership (DPO) has been found to exert a direct effect on TPEB. Still, a more profound underlying psychological mechanism behind this relationship remains unclear. This study proposed a moderated mediation model to investigate the ways in which DPO influences TPEB by addressing the mediating role of ascribed responsibility and the moderating role of perceived effectiveness. Data collected from 419 tourists at three national tourist resorts in China, through an on-site intercept survey, were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) and the bootstrap approach. The results indicated that DPO positively impacts TPEB, and ascribed responsibility partially mediates such effect. Furthermore, perceived effectiveness moderates the direct impacts of DPO and ascribed responsibility on TPEB, as well as the indirect effects of DPO on TPEB through ascribed responsibility. The proposed model extends the existing literature by exploring the mediating mechanism of how DPO affects TPEB and the potential boundary condition. Meanwhile, the findings illuminate implications for tourism management to advocate TPEB effectively.

Keywords:

• Destination psychological ownership
• tourists’ pro-environmental behavior
• ascribed responsibility
• perceived effectiveness
• moderated mediation analysis

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the reviewers for their beneficial suggestions that helped improve this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China under Grant number 20BGL151.

Notes on contributors

Zhimeng Xu

Zhimeng Xu is a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Tourism and Urban-rural Planning, Zhejiang Gongshang University. His research interests include tourism management and leisure studies.

Gang Yang

Gang Yang is a researcher at the Department of Resort Hotel Management, Zhejiang Kaiyuan Hotel Management Corporation Limited. His research interests include tourism planning and tourism management.

Lijun Wang

Lijun Wang is an associate professor at the School of Educational Science, Anhui Normal University. His research interests include theoretical psychology and psychological counseling.

Lufang Guo

Lufang Guo is a professor at the School of Tourism and Urban-rural Planning, Zhejiang Gongshang University. Her research interests include tourism economics, tourism management, and leisure studies.

Zhangyu Shi

Zhangyu Shi is a professor at the Hangzhou College of Commerce, Zhejiang Gongshang University. His research interests include tourism economics and tourism information technology.