Enterprises’ willingness to adopt/develop cleaner production technologies: an empirical study in Changshu, China

Cleaner Production (CP) has been adopted by China as one of the prime tools in its fight against industrial pollution. Understanding enterprises’ willingness to adopt/develop CP technologies is essential to promote the implementation of CP strategies. This paper applied theory of planned behavior (TPB) framework to examine enterprises’ willingness to adopt/develop cleaner production technologies. Based on the structural equation model (SEM), the empirical study of Changshu in China showed that the impact of perceived attitudes and social pressure on enterprises’ adoption/development of CP technologies was significant and positive, while the impact of perceived behavioral control (PBC) on enterprises’ adoption/development of CP technologies was significant and negative. In addition, the direct effect of social pressure on CP behavior intention (BI) was greater than perceived attitude (A) and perceived behavioral control (PBC). Further findings indicated the positive indirect effect of social pressure (SP) on CP behavior intention by influencing perceived attitude (A) of CP technologies. Finally, focused policies are advanced to promote the implementation of CP in China.