Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2010, Human Ecology: Textiles and Clothing

Previous research supported the predictive effectiveness of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model, and extended it to explain consumers' behaviors in various social friendly behavioral settings. However, little research has used a psychosocial perspective to examine the predictors of consumers' purchase intentions towards socially responsible products. The present study provides an empirical application of the TPB model to increase understanding of socially responsible purchasing. Based on a literature review, in this study I add personal moral norms as a predictor of purchase intention, along with the other three predictors in the original TPB model. Based on the results of an online survey of 198 college students, the original TPB model and the extended model are tested and compared regarding the predictive power for purchasing intention. The relationships of the personal norm to other volitional variables, i.e. attitude and subjective norm, are also discussed, in order to have a better understanding of the comprehensive role of personal norms in a normative-related context.

Committee: Leslie Stoel (Advisor); Margaret Binkley (Committee Member); Jae Eun Chung (Committee Member) Subjects: Marketing