Factors preventing and enabling practice change: A systems social marketing study

Abstract

Coastal water quality is changing around the world as a result of increasing terrestrial loads discharged from the land (Fabricius, 2005). This is evident for the iconic World Heritage Listed Great Barrier Reef (GBR) (Waterhouse et al., 2017). Agricultural land use and farm management practices contribute to deteriorating water quality in coral reefs (Di Bella et al., 2015; Pickering et al., 2017). Addressing on-farm practices and understanding decisionmaking behaviour is urgently needed to mitigate the impact of agriculture on environmental health (Blackstock et al., 2010; GBRWST, 2016; Rolfe & Harvey, 2017; Royle & Di Bella, 2017). The delivery of behaviour change remains a complex task. Linear causality is insufficient in its response to address complex and pressing environmental challenges. Despite significant efforts and substantial funding channelled to improve the health of the reef (Rolfe & Harvey, 2017; Trendell, 2013), concentrations of nutrients and pesticides exceeding ecosystem protection guidelines continues to occur (Brodie & Landos, 2019; Huggins et al., 2018). Achieving change requires different ways to co-create triple win solutions for all stakeholders.\nSocial marketing is capable of addressing environmental issues (Almosa et al., 2017; Kim et al., 2020a; Truong & Dang, 2017). Social marketing creates value for individuals and societies through delivery of exchange-based solutions. It is the reliance on voluntary exchange that differentiates social marketing from other behavioural disciplines, extending approaches beyond information provision and rule setting approaches provided by educational and legislative instances respectively with delivery of programmes, products and services that people choose to exchange with. Drawing on complex exchanges, this thesis adopts a systems social marketing approach, extending beyond reductionist approaches which dominate social marketing research and practice to assess why change has or has not occurred.\nConducted within a Queensland-focused farming practice change project that was delivered in Australia, this thesis reports two qualitative studies. Responding to the call to move away from social marketing’s reductionist approaches, Study 1 applied Stakeholder Theory (1984) to investigate on-ground stakeholder actions and interactions to identify factors impeding or facilitating practice change. Utilising an unstructured observational method, more than 100 hours of observations were undertaken across 48 events with as many as 150 observees. Field notes were gathered by researchers and analysis involved thematic coding focussed on understanding how stakeholders facilitated or impeded practice change. Findings suggested poor project management practices, delayed feedback loops and participating stakeholders did not freely support delivery of activities needed to support individual farming practice change. Study 2 delivered a dynamic realist evaluation methodology. Informed by systems thinking, a Creating Collective Solution (CCS) 4-stage process was applied culminating in a ½ day facilitated workshop involving 20 diverse stakeholders including government, extension service providers, agronomists, farmers, chemical resellers, contractors and natural resource management stakeholders. Stakeholders were diverse representing multiple levels in the system. Across the CCS process 35 diverse stakeholders identified 219 barriers in response to one trigger question set by the Project Working Group. Consensus voting was used to identify 12 priority barriers. An action map, demonstrating aggravation points for 11 out of 12 prioritised barriers, emerged. Stakeholders co-designed solutions for implementation to address water quality including Bottom up initiatives, Extend the evidence base and local knowledge, Expert support services, Enhanced communication effectiveness and Industry engagement. The CCS process created buy-in from the vast agricultural industry and provided a unique opportunity for stakeholders to interact and engage with each other resulting in hard conversations, emotional responses and a willingness to be involved in efforts needed to realise the outcomes sought.\nTaken together, this thesis contributes to social marketing knowledge and practice. This thesis directs focus away from reductionist approaches, adopting and promoting the need for holistic approaches which acknowledge the interconnected web of exchange relationships and diverse stakeholder actions that are constantly interacting to support or prevent the desired outcomes from occurring. Application of a systems social marketing approach can foster shared responsibility and it can enable co-creation of value-based solutions to guide implementation and subsequent programme evaluation. This research delivers a transdisciplinary approach focused on generating collective solutions to ensure a shared implementation agenda that allows for monitoring and measuring against outcomes that are agreed upon by diverse stakeholders. A triple win can direct change efforts to create holistic buy-in and to account for external factors and actors with the potential of resetting the behavioural change agenda to reach set targets. Limitations of the thesis and future research directions are outlined.