Sharmin Attaran

Students’ environmental responsibility and their willingness to pay for green buildings

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore environmental attitudes and how such attitudes, when combined with a specific cost, can affect environmental behavior. Environmental attitudes are important to study due to the rising belief by building occupants that they are owed safe, healthy, environmentally responsible, and comfortable living environments. Universities around the world are responding to such demands as the majority of prospective college students and their parents claim that the environmental record is a determining factor in their selection of a university. Therefore, this study examines the environmental responsibility levels of a sample student population and to explore how these scores, along with gender, impact their willingness to pay for studying and living in green buildings. Design/methodology/approach – An online survey consisting of three parts was administered to undergraduate university students to measure environmental responsibility, willingness to pay and demographic v...

Consumer Perceptions of Credibility and Selling Intent Among Advertisements, Advertorials, and Editorials: A Persuasion Knowledge Model Approach

This article presents the results of a study of consumer reaction to three different types of information delivery in magazines: editorials, advertorials, and advertisements. The study draws on the Persuasion Knowledge Model to examine the effect of each form of information delivery on source influence, source credibility, perceived selling intent and purchase intention. The analysis indicates that the form of information delivery in print media affects the perceived credibility of the source of the information, the perceived selling intention and the purchase intention. Implications for marketers and policy-makers are also discussed.

Comparison of Environmental Responsibility of Construction Management Students Based on Exposure to Sustainability in Curricula and on Campus

Universities around the world are focusing more on sustainability, not only in their academic education but also in the overall administration of their campuses. Sustainability is becoming more important for both students and the employers hiring them upon graduation. Specifically in programs such as architecture, engineering, and construction management (CM), the focus on environmental responsibility is increasing faster due to increased regulations, codes of ethics, and increasing opportunities for practicing green building knowledge upon graduation. While the efforts both at the curriculum level and at the whole campus level to promote sustainability have been increasing, it is not yet fully determined how effective these approaches are in advancing the environmental responsibility of students. This study presents the results of a survey to measure the environmental responsibility of subjects from three different groups of students studying CM at two different universities with different records of sustainability initiatives. The results of this study reveal that CM programs can significantly strengthen students’ environmental responsibility by adding sustainability course(s) into higher education curricula. This study was unable to identify a positive and linear relationship between a university’s sustainability record and its students’ environmental responsibility.