Resident cognitions associated with branding Thompson, Manitoba as the Wolf Capital of the World

ABSTRACT

A nonprofit tourism organization, Spirit Way Inc., has been attempting to brand Thompson, Manitoba as the “Wolf Capital of the World” (WCOTW). Success of this initiative, however, requires local support. It was hypothesized that general attitude toward wolves mediates relationships between existence value of wolves and three behavioral intentions, including support. The relationship between existence value and attitude toward wolves was predicted to be positive. Positive relationships were also predicted between attitude and: (a) willingness to pay for the WCOTW, (b) support for the WCOTW, and (c) interest in visiting wolf exhibits/enclosures. Data were obtained from a self-administered questionnaire that was distributed to a random sample of Thompson residents (n = 389, response rate = 77%). Results indicated that attitude fully mediated relationships between existence value and the three behavioral intentions. Attitude was also positively related to each intention. Understanding concepts related to support for an initiative facilitates educational efforts.

KEYWORDS:

• Attitudes
• existence values
• tourism
• wolves
• wildlife management

Notes

1. Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, and Podsakoff (2003) proposed the Harman single factor test as one approach for examining common method bias. This test is based on a principal components exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of all original questionnaire items being examined, without rotation and with the number of factors fixed to one. If this single factor EFA explains < 50% of the variance, method bias is generally not considered to be a problem. Applied to the 15 items in this research note, the single factor explained 37% of the variance. This approach, when coupled with the CFA and Cronbach reliability analysis results presented here (e.g., factor loadings, fit indices, reliability coefficients), suggests that common method bias was generally absent.

Additional information

Funding

Support was provided by Spirit Way, Inc. in Manitoba and Memorial University in Newfoundland, Canada.