Abstract

This study is one of a series of research outputs yielded as part of a green innovation project led by a group of researchers at the University of Tirana and funded by the “UT—Research, Excellence and Innovation” grant. The project’s goal is to increase students’ sustainable behavior by incorporating sustainability and climate change topics into the applied curriculum at the University of Tirana’s Faculty of Economics. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as a framework, this research investigates the effects of students’ attitudes toward sustainable consumption intention and intention to be sustainable employees and compares the influence of attitude with the effect of the entire TPB. Using a sample of 319 students from the University of Tirana, Faculty of Economics, we used linear regression to assess the effect of student’s sustainable attitude on sustainable consumption intention and intention to be a sustainable employee. The results of the attitude and behavior intention model created using four constructs show a correlation between students’ attitude and their intention to green consumption, as well as students’ attitude and their attention to act as sustainable employees/managers. We also identified that only the effect of attitudes was comparable to the full TPB model. In this study, surprisingly, we identified that none of the demographic variables impact this relationship. Our results give further empirical information for higher education institutions, teachers, parents, and peers, as well as some hints for policymaking. Increased focus on improving students’ green attitudes would result in intentions for more environmentally conscious behavior as customers and employees.