LINKING SHARING ECONOMY, ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITMENT AND GREEN BEHAVIOUR ON CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Abstract

In contemporary society, the production and consumption of plastic are unavoidable. Nonetheless, due to its unsustainable nature, such practices pose significant threats to both the environment and society. The circular economy has emerged as a sustainable model explicitly designed to mitigate the harmful growth of emissions while simultaneously addressing environmental challenges. However, this innovative approach must contend with entrenched conventional consumption patterns. To ensure the successful implementation of the circular economy, it is essential to understand organisational behaviour from the perspective of individuals. This study specifically examines the behaviour of Vietnamese manufacturing firms, given that commercial waste, as opposed to household waste, has not been extensively investigated in the existing literature. Utilising the Theory of Planned Behaviour, the study evaluates a conceptual framework through the PLS-SEM method to assess factors such as personal attitude, environmental commitment, social pressure, and perceived behavioural control from an employee’s viewpoint, aiming to identify an organisation's actual behaviour towards circular economy adoption. The findings indicate that personal attitude, environmental commitment, and social pressure significantly influence an organisation’s behaviour in implementing circular economy best practices. Additionally, perceived behavioural control plays a positive mediating role in the relationships among these constructs. The study demonstrates that most firms not only exhibit positive intentions through environmental commitment and attitudes but also effectively apply best practices within the circular economy framework. This confirms firms' actual behaviour, thus bridging the intention-behaviour gap through the stakeholders' perspective. Based on the findings, it is recommended that, in addition to enabling factors, barriers to circular economy implementation must be considered to fully understand the genuine behaviour of firms in this context.