Journal of Cleaner Production 256 (2020) 120479

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Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro

Received vs. given: Willingness to pay for sponge city program from a
perceived value perspective
Yang Wang a, Xuan Liu a, Miansong Huang b, *, Jian Zuo c, Raufdeen Rameezdeen d
a
School of Civil Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China
b
Beijing Capital Co., Ltd, Beijing, 100044, China
c
School of Architecture & Built Environment, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, 5005, Australia
d
School of Natural and Built Environments, University of South Australia, Adelaide, 5001, Australia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Rapid urbanization and global climate change have led to urban flooding on the one hand and water
Received 13 September 2019 shortages on the other hand, which presents a global issue. To deal with the urban flooding and water
Received in revised form quality issues, China has introduced the sponge city initiative to optimize urban water ecosystem. As a
2 February 2020
large-scale public project addressing environmental issues, the sponge city initiative is subject to public
Accepted 6 February 2020
Available online 7 February 2020
financial support and perception. Willingness to pay (WTP) is an effective tool to explore public
behavioral intention and evaluate integrated benefits of project. This study aims to investigate the
^ as de
Handling Editor: Cecilia Maria Villas Bo pathway to improve WTP from a ‘perceived value’ perspective based on Theory of Planned Behavior.
Almeida Guyuan city, one of the pilot sponge cities in China, is chosen as a case study, and a questionnaire survey
was administered in the affected communities with 656 respondents. Under the framework of planned
Keywords: behavior, the results showed that: (1) Perceived behavioral control had the strongest effect on WTP,
Willingness to pay especially the obstacle from perceived economic capacity was highlighted; (2) The consistency of
Sponge city attitude-intention relationship was identified, while subjective norm was not critical to WTP; (3)
Perceived value
Perceived value was highlighted as the antecedent to predict WTP indirectly via the dual frameworks
Theory of planned behavior
from value to behavior; (4) A 8.3% surcharge of domestic water tariff was accepted as reasonable for the
sponge city development. These findings provide practical implications for government and developers
to optimize financing and operation of sponge city developments. As a result, the sustainable perfor-
mance of sponge city could be improved.
© 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

1. Introduction initiative called Sponge City Program (SCP) in 2012 (GYSTAT,

2017). Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development
Climate change and rapid urbanization trigger environmental (UHURD) promulgated a series of policies and guidelines, and 30
deterioration and extreme weather, while water-related risks such cities were selected for piloting which could be used as demon-
as urban flooding, water shortage and pollution, have attracted a strations. Ministry of Finance (MOF) provided an annual subsidy of
global concern (Dai et al., 2018). In 2018, Japan, a populous country 400e600 million CNY to these pilot cities for 3 years starting in
with the highest urbanization level worldwide, suffered the most 2015 and local governments are encouraged to finance SCP through
severe rainstorm since 1982, and the torrential rain killed about a public-private-partnership (PPP) model (MOF, 2014).
220 people (UNISDR, 2019). Among 654 large and medium cities in Despite the government support, SCP faced numerous chal-
China, 641 are exposed to frequent urban waterlogging and flood- lenges (Jiang et al., 2018). First of all, as a public project, its oper-
ing, causing a direct economic loss of 15 billion CNY from 2015 to ation is considered risky from a financial perspective due to the
2018 and much larger indirect losses (NBS, 2018). To mitigate this enormous capital investment but uncertainty surrounding eco-
challenge, Chinese Central Government launched a nation-wide nomic returns (Li et al., 2017). This could lead to low participation
and enthusiasm from private entities. Being the biggest beneficiary
from SCP, general public is extremely essential to financial support
for such an initiative (Wang et al., 2017). However, influences of
* Corresponding author.
their perceived value, attitude and other psychosocial factors on
E-mail address: hms@capitalwater.cn (M. Huang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120479
0959-6526/© 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
2 Y. Wang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 256 (2020) 120479

SCP remain unclear. To overcome these issues, previous studies new concept of urban pluvial flooding and storm water manage-
advocated willingness to pay (WTP) as an efficient tool to explore ment that has integrated these advanced rainwater management
public behavior intention towards public projects and green concepts (Liu, 2016). It is considered to be more integrated in scope
products, which can assess benefits and impacts of projects (de and depth, covering the whole urban water environment system
Medeiros et al., 2016; Peng et al., 2018; Zhan and Chui, 2016). (e.g. buildings, roads, parklands, rivers, drainage systems, water
Motivations and preferences behind the payment, constantly treatment facilities etc.) that should be fully exploited to absorb,
influenced by socio psychological factors, are complicated. In such maintain and purify rainwater (Chan et al., 2018; Mei et al., 2018;
events, Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), a social-psychological Wang et al., 2018). To address urban water-related risks, SCP is
framework, is widely applied for forecasting and interpreting hu- developed to revitalize the overall natural urban eco-system and
man behavior intention (Ajzen, 1991; Ajzen and Driver, 1992). As an optimize water efficiency so as to reach harmony between human
extension of the theory of reasoned action (TRA) by adding the civilization and urban natural resources (Liu et al., 2017). Similar to
perceived behavioral control over the behavior, TPB is based on other climate change adaptation strategies worldwide, SCP may
theoretical constructs dealing with individual motivational factors still be restricted by many factors, e.g. shortage of funding, insuf-
as determinants of the likelihood of performing a specific behavior ficient financial returns and low public participation (Wang et al.,
(Bigerna et al., 2016; Chang, 1998). In addition, based on the 2017). To overcome these problems, Chinese Central Government
theoretical framework of TPB, the stated preferences methods have provided seed funding and encouraged public participation and
been widely employed in previous studies on behavioral intentions. PPP model as key for implementation of SCP (Jiang et al., 2018).
These include: behavior of vehicle maintenance pay (Hendratmoko Thus, it is necessary to establish a clear and definite PPP business
et al., 2016), payment decisions for governance of green tide (Shan model when government funding finishes.
et al., 2019), behavioral determinants of preferences for environ- While public behaviors can greatly challenge sponge city
mental goods (Carfora et al., 2017). implementation in practice (Wang et al., 2017). First of all, large
Moreover, by providing certain additional predictors towards scale of construction activities are highly connected to people’ daily
certain situations, TPB model could be extended to improve pre- lives, which is deeply depended on public perception (Li et al.,
diction of behavior (Ajzen and Driver, 1991; Tonglet et al., 2004; 2017). In addition, public opinion and acceptance can easily
Wang, S.Y. et al., 2016). With additional predictors, TPB model has obstacle to its success. Meanwhile, the performance of urban
been employed in several contexts in form of empirical studies. infrastructure systems in SCP, e.g. urban drainage system, road
These include the role of human values (Zhou et al., 2013), sub- infrastructure and pumps are directly related to public willingness
jective norms (Karppinen and Berghall, 2015), self-identity (Carfora and perception. In particular, financial support from the public is
et al., 2017; Hegner et al., 2017), as well as the role of information extremely needed in SCP by using PPP model. Therefore, it is
(Polinori et al., 2018) and ethical obligation (Shaw and Shiu, 2002). imperative to investigate the public willingness to invest on SCP.
In particular, stated preferences reveal behavioral intention which While WTP, defined as the maximum price at or below which an
can be captured through stated WTP, and TPB has been used to individual will definitely pay for a product (Knetsch and Sinden,
explain such kind of behavioral intention in situations such as air 1984), is widely used to evaluate the overall economic efficiency
purification (Ru et al., 2019), household energy conservation (Prete of human activities or production. It reflects the market demand
et al., 2017) and suburban park protection (Lopez-Mosquera and and customers’ attitude and perception, as well as a guide for
Sanchez, 2012). These studies focused more on public perception, project decision-making and maximizing the value of limited
awareness and knowledge, while perceived value (PV), the resource (Fu et al., 2019; Zahedi et al., 2019). What is received, what
powerful predictor in payment decisions (Li et al., 2012; Ng et al., is given (Zeithaml, 1988). WTP plays a critical role in assessing the
2018), has rarely been integrated into the framework of the TPB value, attitude and perception on sponge city development, so that
dealing with storm water management program. In order to fill the alternatives for project operation in PPP model can be achieved.
above knowledge gap, this research addresses the following ques-
tions: (1) what is public WTP toward sponge city program under 2.2. Theory of planned behavior
the framework of TPB? (2) how PV affects WTP decisions using
structural equation model? and (3) how to improve public WTP in TPB is widely utilized conceptual frameworks to explore factors
SCP implemented in China? Findings will help local governments to affecting human actions and intentions (Ajzen, 1991; Doll and
understand public perception behind payments for green initia- Ajzen, 1992). WTP is based on the assumption that intention to
tives, and decision makers to deal with the number of highly buy a product or pay for an activity is determined by the value of
complicated but interrelated issues surrounding financing such that product (Roe et al., 2001), people’s perception and social sit-
public project. uations. Thus, it is appropriate to use TPB to explore the factors
The paper is organized as follows: literature review is illustrated influencing public WTP. In fact, WTP has been used via TPB for pro-
in section 2; conceptual framework and hypotheses are developed environment products (Moser Andrea, 2015), renewable energy
in section 3; method and data collection are introduced in section (Litvine and Wustenhagen, 2011), conservation of the urban park
4; WTP estimation, measurement and structural equation model (Lopez-Mosquera et al., 2014) and so on.
are described in section 5. Section 6 illustrates the discussion and Previous studies highlighted that additional variables could be
section 7 presents conclusions and policy recommendations. included in the TPB model to make remarkable contributions for
the explanation power (Tonglet et al., 2004). Public environmental
2. Literature review awareness and concern were included to improve the predictive
utility of the TPB model in determining WTP for cleaning air
2.1. Sponge city program and willingness to pay pollution (Fu et al., 2019; Zahedi et al., 2019). Moral norm had
manifested its role of mediation in WTP for park conservation
Several well-known storm water management strategies, e.g. (Lopez-Mosquera et al., 2014). Perceived benefits and risks were
low-impact development and sustainable urban drainage systems, integrated into the TPB model, indicating they influenced the
were developed to address run-off and pollution of storm water at adoption of internet banking significantly (Lee, 2009). In addition,
the source (Damodaram et al., 2010; Hoang and Fenner, 2016). the influence of individuals’ PV on an activity or project has been
Considering the actual situation in China, sponge city is seen as a investigated extensively across literature within the TPB framework
 Y. Wang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 256 (2020) 120479 3

(Chen, 2016b; Ghazali et al., 2017; Seol et al., 2016). Therefore, PV is subjective assessment, rather than an observed evaluation, while
a powerful predictor of WTP as public will compromise on the this is usually associated with the opinions of local government,
tradeoff between costs and benefits. media and people surrounding. In their payment action for SCP,
individuals tend to express a predisposition for beliefs about
3. Conceptual framework and hypotheses development whether others consider they should pay. The stronger subjective
norm individuals perceived from their knowledge of values or
Fig. 1 illustrated the proposed conceptual framework for WTP norms from the neighborhood or through propaganda, it is more
likely they are willing to pay (Wang, 2018). Identified as an
based on the literature review. In addition to the general frame-
work of TPB, the proposed model also accounts for PV. The hy- important predictor, it was found to influence WTP for green good
and service, e.g. air quality improvement and use of green hotels
potheses developed among the variables are discussed below.
(Fu et al., 2019; Wang, 2018).
Perceived behavioral control means degree of difficulty that an
3.1. General framework of TPB model individual can perceive in performing the behavior (Ajzen, 1991). It
is well recognized that perceived behavioral control is determined
The TPB model includes three main constructs: attitude, sub- via control beliefs as well as perception and therefore both internal
jective norm and perceived behavior control (Ajzen and Madden, and external factors can characterize the control. Yazdanpanah
1986; Li et al., 2016). et al. (2015) investigated the effect of stakeholders’ perceived
Attitude refers to the degree to individual’s favorable or unfa- behavioral control on willingness to use green good in Iran, and
vorable evaluation of the behavior (Ajzen and Driver, 1992). Public claimed that perceived difficulty (or ease) of using renewable en-
attitudes toward the behavioral intention of payment for the public ergy sources will have an influence on the likelihood of carrying out
good may contribute to the decision to pay (Zhou et al., 2009). such behavior. In addition, Tanellari et al. (2015) conducted a survey
Jorgensen and Syme (2000) studied the WTP for storm water on WTP for improved drinking water quality and infrastructure,
pollution abatement from an attitude perspective, and illustrated and indicated that WTP for such program is negatively associated
that residents who refused to pay since they objected to the act with its cost, and residents’ social and economic abilities, e.g. in-
itself held a negative attitude toward paying. Tanellari et al. (2015) come, time and knowledge, have positive impact on behavior
examined the consumer’s attitudes toward drinking water quality intention of paying.
and WTP, and indicated that attitude is a predisposition to respond Thus, the following three hypotheses are proposed:
to an object based on experience, which influences behavior for
paying. In this research, attitude in the framework is regarded as a H1. Attitude positively affects WTP for SCP
settled way of individual’s thinking or feeling about SCP. As the H2. Subjective norm positively affects WTP for SCP
practice (e.g. the improvement of urban water quality and reno-
vation of the drainage system) is closely associated with people’s H3. Perceived behavioral control positively affects WTP for SCP
daily lives and experience, public attitude may significantly affect
the implementation of SCP and directly influence public WTP.
Subjective norm refers to individual’s perceived social pressure 3.2. Perceived value
to participate in a human activity (Ajzen and Madden, 1986). It is
regarded as personal normative consciousness and motivation that PV is considered as the comprehensive evaluation of a product
are influenced by other people’s values and behavior habits. Zhang or service after comparing the benefits and costs in the process of
et al. (2018) discussed the interrelationship between housing purchasing it (Zeithaml, 1988). It is widely used as an important
values and WTP on sponge city construction, and pointed out that factor in the field of business management that affects customers’
WTP for flood risk reduction is greatly affected by residents’ purchase decisions. From the perspective of utility theory,

Attitude

H5 H1

Perceived Willingness
H4
Value to Pay

H6 H2
Subjective
Norms
H7 H3

Perceived
Behavioral
Control

Fig. 1. Conceptual framework reflecting the WTP for SCP.

4 Y. Wang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 256 (2020) 120479

0.23

1 2 3 4

y1 y2 y3 y4
1 2 3 4
1
0.43
ATT ( 1)
1 x1
11 41 4 y15 15
1
2 x2 15
2
16
y16 16
0.26 3 x3 3 PV ( 1) 41 WTP ( 4)
17
4 y17 17
4 x4 18
5
31 43
y18 18
5 x5
PBC ( 3) 3

21 12 13 14 42
y12 y13 y14

12 13 14

SN ( 2) 2
5 6 7 9 10 11
8
y5 y6 y7 y8 y9 y10 y11

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

0.35 0.25 0.36

0.21

Note: Latent variables Observed variables Error variables

Acceptable interrelationships Unacceptable interrelationships

Fig. 2. Revised structural equation model of WTP for SCP.

individuals expect to make full use of their limited resources to outcome of their behavior on things they value. Given this
achieve maximum utility by evaluation on tradeoff between costs perspective, PV on SCP in this research can be viewed from multiple
and benefits, and this often contains the interaction of several in- dimensions, e.g. functional value means how well SCP improves the
dependent dimensions, including quality, performance, function, as quality of drinking water and urban water environment, and eco-
well as economic, social and emotions (Koller et al., 2011; Sweeney nomic value refers to the difference between potential financial
and Soutar, 2001). When making the purchase decision for green revenue and expenditure on SCP for individuals, e.g. increase of
products or services, individuals may be reluctant to lose their property value, and social value is described as the utility derived
limited resources in something only has greenness rather than from SCP’s ability to enhance social self-concept, while emotional
utility (Chen and Chang, 2012; Yadav and Pathak, 2017). value is the impact assessment of SCP on public mood and other
de Medeiros et al. (2016) reported that PV of green products has psychological activities. Hence, all above factors are integrated in
positive impact on WTP in the purchasing decision directly, indi- the next hypothesis as follows.
cating that respondents were willing to pay about 10% premium on
H4. Perceived value positively affects WTP for SCP
average for green products based on the survey in Brazil. In
particular, the attributes price, ecology and performance increase Finally, PV could precede attitude, subjective norm and
the purchase intention. While Obeng and Aguilar (2018) examined perceived behavior control manifested by people who are associ-
whether the three distinct value orientations posited under the ated with green products or services. This relationship between
Value-Belief-Norm (VBN) model determine WTP for ecosystem value and other components of TPB have been shown in many
services, and illustrated awareness of detrimental and biospheric research fields. Sweeney and Soutar (2001) used exploratory and
value orientation were directly associated with WTP, while egoistic confirmatory analyses from four value dimensions to explore the
(beneficial) value orientation had negative effects on WTP. Thus, independent and negligible effect in explaining attitudes toward
each value orientation promotes people to be concerned about purchase behavior and verified the validity of conceptual
 Y. Wang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 256 (2020) 120479 5

framework of value-attitude-behavior (VAB) raised by Homer and 56.10%, respectively; and participants aged 25e35 accounted for
Kahle (1988). Yu and Lee (2019) identified PV of upcycled 36.43%, which was the main group with consuming ability. In the
products as six values, examined the moderating role of distribution of educational level, the proportion of samples with
purchase experience in the relationship between PV and product junior college or undergraduate education was more than half. Due
attitude, and found green and functional values are positively to the survey area involved Guyuan government and some enter-
related to product attitude, which in turn influences the purchase prises, respondent’s education levels and per capita family income
intention. monthly were higher than the average. Based on 2017 Statistics
Meanwhile, as individuals in groups, there are norms, rules or Bulletin of the National Economic and Social Development of
certain beliefs regarding proper payment behavior, and PV is Guyuan (GYSTAT, 2017), the male-to-female ratio was 1.1:1 and
referred to relatively stable beliefs about certain behavior and 27.9% of residents aged 18 to 35. In general, the sample of this study
modes of existence (Vermeir and Verbeke, 2008). In addition, covered various socio-demographic characteristics and could be
perceived behavioral control, reflecting internal and external con- regarded as representative of the total Guyuan population.
straints, is associated with the value people perceive and the
intention to pay. For instance, a study showed that perceived green 4.2. Measurement
value is positively associated with perceived behavioral control on
green products (Chen, 2016b). The interactions between PV and the The questionnaire comprised four parts: (1) research back-
other three predictors are also critical for a systematic and ground; (2) demographic characteristics, e.g. gender, age, education
comprehensive study, which could deliver value to public WTP for and occupation; (3) items measuring controlling factors, including
large-scale public projects. Consequently, the associations among attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and PV; (4)
the dimensions are proposed in the following hypotheses. WTP (willingness and payment amount). The items measuring
controlling and dependent variables, treated as ordinal categorical
H5. Perceived value positively affects attitude towards WTP;
variables, are shown in Table 2. The investigation had a substan-
H6. Perceived value positively affects subjective norm towards tially larger sample size and the questionnaire data basically fitted
WTP; the normal distribution (Fu et al., 2019).
Attitude was measured by asking respondents to express their
H7. Perceived value positively affects perceived behavioral control
opinions about paying for SCP based on four items according to
towards WTP.
Ajzen (1991). These items were “I think the idea of paying for SCP is
very positive/responsible/intelligent/useful”. And they were
measured via an ordinal five-point scale from 1 (strongly disagree)
4. Methodology to 5 (strongly agree).
Subjective norm was measured based on Han et al. (2010), and
4.1. Study area and participants the evaluation consists of seven statements. Among them, the
common questions were “people who are important to me would
Guyuan city in Ningxia Province, one of 30 pilot cities, was like to pay/think that citizens should pay/expect that I will pay for
selected as the case study due to its long-term water chal- SCP”. However, other external factors that may generate social
lenges. On the one hand, water shortage caused by climatic pressure and interfere with affected people’s behavioral intentions
drought has limited the process of urbanization and industri- were also taken into account, such as local government and media.
alization. On the other hand, it faced water logging due to All items were graded via an ordinal five-point scale from 1
inadequacy and damage to existing drainage networks as a less (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
developed city in China. PPP model was adopted in SCP, while Perceived behavioral control was measured by adopting three
there are certain challenges that both local government and items from Ajzen (2002) and Pouta and Rekola (2001) to evaluate
private enterprises would be facing, such as uncertainty of perceived obstacles and perceived controllability toward the
financing and revenue planning (Zevenbergen et al., 2018). In behavior of paying. The statements were “I have economic ability/
order to illustrate public perception on benefits and impacts resources, time and opportunities to pay for SCP”, and “I consider
and their willingness to pay for the program once the seed that my payment would improve the current situation of the
funding was running out, the questionnaire survey was development”. The items ware scored on an ordinal five-point scale
administered to investigate public WTP. from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
The direct impacts are considered to occur within the program As a large-scale public project, SCP contains multiple values,
scope and affect certain groups of the community. The affected such as property value increase due to SCP (Zhang et al., 2018), and
groups are: (1) residents affected in their daily life, for example, due emotional value such as promoting affected groups’ well-being
to the transformation of their neighborhood, and (2) residents (Zevenbergen et al., 2018). In line with target effects and poten-
affected in their work activities, e.g. due to their workplace located tial benefits as mentioned earlier (Al-Debei et al., 2013; Chen,
beside a road under reconstruction. The survey was administered 2016a; Yadav and Pathak, 2017), overall PV was measured via
through a face-to-face interview in October and November 2018. investigating respondents’ perception on economic, social,
Considering requirements of actual research, respondents aged 18 emotional and functional value (Jia et al., 2017). For example, the
years old and above with financially self-sustaining were chosen statement about functional value was “Considering functional value
randomly via assistance of related community and unit directors. of SCP, I agree that SCP could improve my drinking water condi-
To guarantee the authenticity, the investigators were forbidden to tion”. The answer was measured via an ordinal five-point scale
express their views on SCP to respondents during the interviews. from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
High completion rate and validity for the questionnaires was ach- According to the contingent valuation (CV) method, measure-
ieved. Of the 739 questionnaires administered, a total of 656 valid ment of WTP consisted of two components (Shah et al., 2016; Wang
questionnaires were obtained. Thus, the effective response rate was and Mullahy, 2006). In first component, four basic goals were
88.77%. adopted to measure whether residents were willing to pay for SCP,
Table 1 shows the demographic characteristics of the re- e.g. “I would be willing to pay the extra percentage of water tariff on
spondents. Male and female participants accounted for 43.90% and SCP to prevent urban water logging or shortage/for stable water
6 Y. Wang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 256 (2020) 120479

Table 1 household water tariff you could pay for SCP”. The willing payment
Socio-demographic characteristics of participants. percentage was elicited using payment card (PC) format, the
Variables Percentage Frequency choices of extra water tariff for SCP in PC include 5 intervals, less
(%) (N ¼ 656) than 10%, 10%e15%, 15%e20%, 20%e25% and 25% or above of
Gender household monthly water tariff based on a consideration of other
Male 43.90 288 valuations previously made in similar contexts (Peng et al., 2018; Yu
Female 56.10 368 et al., 2014) and pre-tested in study area. In addition, a control
Age
question was added to identify the reason for unwillingness and
<25 26.83 176
25-35 36.43 239 further categorize the responses into protest responses or true zero
36-45 21.49 141 responses (Reiser and Shechter, 1999). Among the following op-
46-55 11.14 73 tions, “financial support for SCP is government’s responsibility” and
>55 4.11 27
“considering it has no benefit for public” were seen as protest re-
Education
Primary school and below 3.35 22
sponses, while “individual economic condition”, “believing that
Junior high school 8.08 53 they cannot enjoy benefits in their regions” and “other reasons”
Senior high school/middle special 22.71 149 were regarded as true zero responses (del Saz-Salazar and Guaita-
school Pradas, 2013).
Junior college and undergraduate 64.02 420
Postgraduate and above 1.84 12
Household size
2 6.40 42 4.3. Structural equation modeling
3 23.93 157
4 36.16 237 As an efficient method to explore the correlation between
5 20.71 136
various factors, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) uses observ-
6 12.80 84
Per capita family income monthly (CNY) able variables to measure the unobservable variables (Fornell and
<1500 10.52 69 Larcker, 1981; Rahman et al., 2016), and it is widely used to
1501-1900 11.28 74 explore influencing factors of intentions and willingness based on
1901-2300 14.48 95 the TPB model (Han et al., 2010; Ru et al., 2019). Concretely, the
2301-2700 16.62 109
>2701 47.10 309
responses of five-point scale are discrete variables, and the
maximum likelihood estimation was conducted in this research
(Svensson, 2000). Generally, SEM models are decomposed into two
sub models, the measurement model and structural model (Wang,
bodies in my city/for the usage of rainwater in my city/to improve
Y. et al., 2016). The measurement model shows connections be-
water quality and condition in my family”. The answer was
tween the observed items and underlying constructs as well as
measured via an ordinal five-point scale from 1 (strongly disagree)
evaluating fitness of internal structure of hypothetical model, while
to 5 (strongly agree).
the structural model clarifies relations between unobserved latent
In the second component, the payment amount was measured
variables. In this study, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was
by collecting extra water tariff, which is broadly used for financial
applied to estimate the overall fit of measurement model, and hy-
support on public projects (del Saz-Salazar et al., 2016; Tanellari
pothesized influencing relationships were considered as substitute
et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2017). If respondents have willingness, they
for correlations among latent variables to estimate structural
would be asked “What’s the maximum percentage of your
model. Data analysis were carried out using SPSS 20.0 and AMOS

Table 2
Measurement items and questions on controlling factors and WTP.

Construct Item Variables Questions

Perceived value PV1 x1 SCP could improve the quality of my drinking water condition.
PV2 x2 SCP could improve the ecological environment around me.
PV3 x3 SCP could improve my living environment.
PV4 x4 SCP could drive up house prices in my neighborhood.
PV5 x5 SCP is good for my physical and mental happiness.
Attitude ATT1 y1 I think the idea of paying for SCP is very positive.
ATT2 y2 I think the idea of paying for SCP is very responsible.
ATT3 y3 I think the idea of paying for SCP is very intelligent.
ATT4 y4 I think the idea of paying for SCP is very useful.
Subjective norm SN1 y5 The people who are important to me think that citizens should pay for SCP.
SN2 y6 Local government thinks that citizens should pay for SCP.
SN3 y7 Local media thinks that citizens should pay for SCP.
SN4 y8 The people whose opinions I value would like me to pay for SCP.
SN5 y9 The people who are important to me expect that I will pay for SCP.
SN6 y10 Local government expects that I will pay for SCP.
SN7 y11 Local media expects that I will pay for SCP.
Perceived behavioral control PBC1 y12 My family or I have economic ability to pay for SCP in the future.
PBC2 y13 I have the resources, time and opportunities to pay for SCP.
PBC3 y14 I consider that my payment would improve the current situation of SCP.
Willingness to pay WTP1 y15 I would be willing to pay the extra percentage of water tariff on SCP to prevent urban water logging
or shortage.
WTP2 y16 I would be willing to pay this extra percentage on SCP for stable water bodies in my city.
WTP3 y17 I would be willing to pay this extra percentage on SCP for the usage of rainwater in my city.
WTP4 y18 I would be willing to pay this extra percentage of water tariff on SCP to improve water quality and
condition in my family.
 Y. Wang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 256 (2020) 120479 7

21.0 statistical software. 7.56% 2.58%

Specifically, the measurement model was constructed with one
<10% (38) (13)
latent exogenous variable (PV) and four latent endogenous vari-
17.89%
ables (ATT, SN, PBC, WTP) in this research. Equations of exogenous 10%-15% (90)
and endogenous variable could be written as follows: 49.50%
15%-20%
(249)
x ¼ Lx x þ d (1) 20%-25%

y ¼ Ly h þ ε (2) >25%
22.47%
Where x indicates exogenous observed variables, y indicates
(N1=503) (113)
endogenous observed variables, while x indicates latent exogenous
Fig. 3. Respondents willing payment amount for SCP.
variables, and h indicates latent endogenous variables. Lx and Ly
are matrices of coefficients that reflect strength degree of the re-
lationships between x and x, y and h, which could be understood as and other reasons (8.50%). On balance, major barriers were per-
correlation coefficient or factor loading in factor analysis. d and ε sonal economic conditions and conventional thinking that public
indicate measurement errors of x and y. projects should be paid by the government.
According to relationships among latent variables, a structural
equation was written as Eq. (3).
5.2. Measurement model
h ¼ Bh þ Gx þ z (3)
CFA was conducted to determine whether the measurement
Where B indicates coefficient matrix reflecting the effect among model was described correctly via data according to testing reli-
endogenous latent variables, g is coefficient matrix reflecting the ability and validity. Reliability measures the degree of data con-
effect among exogenous latent variables. While z indicates the sistency or stability, and one of the most common evaluation
disturbances in structural model. The latent endogenous variables methods is Cronbach’s a. The overall coefficient is 0.949, and co-
and latent exogenous variables can be connected via the sum of efficients of five constructs are listed in Table 3 ranged between
coefficient matrixes and the errors (Rahman et al., 2016). 0.818 and 0.906, which represents good reliability of the scales
(Cronbach, 1951). Meanwhile, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) and
Bartlett’s test are used as the criteria of correlation and indepen-
5. Results
dence test between variables to evaluate data validity. As a result,
the value of KMO is 0.954 and the significant of Bartlett’s test is
5.1. Estimation of WTP for SCP
0.000, indicating independence of these factors. To demonstrate
convergent validity of the model, the average variance exacted
Results showed that most respondents (76.68%, N1 ¼ 503) were
(AVE) and individual factor loading were applied, as presented in
willing to pay a certain extra water tariff for SCP, while 23.32%
Table 3, the factor loadings were greater than 0.5 with high sig-
(N2 ¼ 153) opposed it, which fall within the range of relevant in-
nificance and the AVE values were higher than the suggested
ternational statistical results (20%e35%). Overall, largest number of
benchmark score of 0.50 (Fornell and Larcker, 1981).
participants (58.64%) agreed to reduce urban floods and water
The results of the CFA showed that observed variables in mea-
shortage via paying for SCP, followed by improving water quality in
surement model could adapt to the data well, which means that no
their households (49.32%) and water bodies of the city (46.70%),
correlation paths or associated variables need eliminated.
and finally for the usage of rainwater (45.00%). Among those with
Following that, maximum likelihood estimation was used in eval-
positive intentions, the distribution of respondents willing pay-
uating the structure of the extended TPB model to test causal re-
ment amount for SCP was shown in Fig. 3. A substantial proportion
lationships among various constructs. The following fitting indices
of the respondents hold relatively low WTP values, nearly a half of
were calculated to evaluate the model fit: Chi-square/degree of
the WTP value were less than 10% of monthly household water
freedom (CMIN/DF) should be within the interval of 1.0e3.0;
tariff, almost a quarter within the range of 10%e15%, and approxi-
comparative fit index (CFI) and goodness fit index (GFI) should be
mately one fifth within an extra water tariff of 15e20%, and only a
close to 1.0; and parsimony normed fit index (PNFI) should exceed;
negligible percentage of respondents above 25%.
robustness of mean squared error approximation (RMSEA) should
The amount respondents are willing to pay is discrete and the
be less than 0.08.
possibility that mean value could be easily impacted by extremes
(outliers) (Johannesson et al., 1991; Peng et al., 2018). Therefore,
mid-point approach is considered more appropriate to estimate the
value. Thus, the calculation with PC data could utilize such 8.50%
30.07% Individual economic
approach to estimate WTP value, the standard procedure is to as- (13)
13.73% (46) condition
sume that the true WTP is the mid-point of the interval (Cameron, (21)
1987; Ryan et al., 2004; Yu et al., 2014). Consequently, the calcu- No benefit for public
lation of expectation was performed and the mean value of WTP for
SCP is an extra 10.83% of monthly household water tariff. When It is government's
considering respondents who had no intention to pay, the overall responsibility
expected value of WTP is reduced to 8.30%. Cannot enjoy the
For the control question in Fig. 4, protest responses were: 29.41% benefit in their regions
financial support for SCP is government’s responsibility (29.41%); (45) 18.30% Others
considering it has no benefit for public (18.30%). The true zero- (28) (N2=153)
response group were: individual economic condition (30.07%),
believing that they cannot enjoy benefits in their regions (13.73%) Fig. 4. Reason for unwilling to pay for SCP.
8 Y. Wang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 256 (2020) 120479

Table 3
Measurement items and testing coefficients of the extended TPB model.

Construct Items Observed variables Mean (S.D.) Factor loading Weights Cronbach’s a; AVE

Perceived value (x1 ) PV1 x1 2.89 (0.93) a1 0.586*** 0.882 0.622

PV2 x2 3.27 (1.01) a2 0.831***
PV3 x3 3.30 (0.97) a3 0.860***
PV4 x4 3.18 (0.96) a4 0.847***
PV5 x5 3.16 (1.06) a5 0.776***
Attitude (h1 Þ ATT1 y1 3.00 (1.09) l1 0.767*** 0.864 0.629
ATT2 y2 2.89 (1.07) l2 0.795***
ATT3 y3 3.15 (1.07) l3 0.768***
ATT4 y4 3.02 (1.06) l4 0.828***
Subjective norm (h2 ) SN1 y5 2.69 (1.02) l5 0.716*** 0.906 0.555
SN2 y6 2.89 (1.09) l6 0.650***
SN3 y7 2.86 (1.04) l7 0.702***
SN4 y8 2.61 (1.01) l8 0.753***
SN5 y9 2.60 (1.00) l9 0.821***
SN6 y10 2.77 (1.07) l10 0.766***
SN7 y11 2.71 (1.05) l11 0.788***
Perceived behavioral control (h3 ) PBC1 y12 2.61 (1.03) l12 0.819*** 0.818 0.611
PBC2 y13 2.68 (1.02) l13 0.807***
PBC3 y14 2.96 (1.03) l14 0.707***
Willingness to pay (h4 ) WTP1 y15 2.80 (1.10) l15 0.945*** 0.902 0.780
WTP2 y16 2.77 (1.12) l16 0.868***
WTP3 y17 2.73 (1.08) l17 0.872***
WTP4 y18 2.89 (1.09) l18 0.842***

***p < 0.001 (two-tailed test), AVE: Average variance extracted.

As shown in Table 4, after normal modification, the structure 5.4. Indirect influences
model exhibited good properties in terms of the maximum likeli-
hood indices (CMIN/DF ¼ 2.069, CFI ¼ 0.978, PNFI ¼ 0.958, Fig. 2 showed that ATT and PBC played the mediating roles. For
GFI ¼ 0.945, RMSEA ¼ 0.040). What’s more, a bootstrapping pro- the latent factors, the indirect influence existed positively (0.385,
cedure (with n ¼ 2000 bootstrap resamples) was applied to esti- p < 0.01) via two controlling factors, including ATT (b41 
mate indirect influence in the structural model and efficiently g11 ¼ 0.121, p < 0.01) and PBC (b43  g31 ¼ 0.234, p < 0.01). The
handle absence of multivariate normality (Bollen and Stine, 1992; results of indirect relationships were listed in Table 6. ATT4 was
Preacher and Hayes, 2008). Then a two-tailed test was generated greatly influenced by PV (0.462, p < 0.001), illustrating PV could
to evaluate the validity of indirect correlation coefficient. Finally, positively affect public consideration of usefulness of paying for
the revised SEM model of WTP for SCP is concluded in Fig. 2. SCP. Similarly, SN5 was greatly influenced by PV (0.361, p < 0.001),
indicating respondents with higher PV toward SCP were more
likely to be influenced by the expectation of people who were
5.3. Structural model
important to them, and it was easier to conclude that their financial
situation is able to bear this additional cost, as PBC1 greatly affected
Table 5 and Fig. 2 showed the results for the hypothesis testing.
by PV (0.373, p < 0.001). As to the classic TPB model, ATT and PBC
The extended TPB model explained 58.9% of variance in WTP for
sponge city program (R2WTP ¼0.589). The structural model that
estimated the relationships among PV, ATT, SN, PBC and WTP had
an adequate fit. In particular, ATT exerted a significant effect on Table 5
Results of structural equation model.
WTP and H1 was supported (b41 ¼ 0.217, p < 0.001). However, the
influence of SN was not significant, therefore, H2 was rejected. Hypothesis Relationships Correlations Weights Result
Meanwhile, the strongest positively significant direct influence was among latent
variables
exerted by the determinant PBC (b43 ¼ 0.515, p < 0.001), which
supported hypothesis H3. In addition, PV had no significant effect, H1 WTP ) ATT b41 0.217*** Supported
H2 WTP ) SN b42 0.067 Not supported
and H4 is not supported. However, it still exhibited remarkable
H3 WTP ) PBC b43 0.515*** Supported
influences on components of the classic TPB model. The positive H4 WTP ) PV g41 0.018 Not supported
effect that PV had on attitude was verified (g11 ¼ 0.557, p < 0.001) as H5 ATT ) PV g11 0.557*** Supported
well as subjective norm (g21 ¼ 0.443, p < 0.001) and perceived H6 SN ) PV g21 0.443*** Supported
behavioral control (g31 ¼ 0.455, p < 0.001). This implied the H7 PBC ) PV g31 0.455*** Supported

acceptance of hypothesis H5, H6 and H7. ***p < 0.001 (two-tailed test).

Table 4
Goodness of fit indexes.

Goodness of fit index Reference Initial model Revised model

CMIN/DF 1.00 CMIN/DF3.00 optimal (Bortoleto et al., 2012) 3.923 2.069

CFI 0.90 (Bentler, 1990) 0.869 0.978
PNFI 0.50 (Bagozzi et al., 1991) 0.750 0.799
GFI 0.90 (Bentler, 1990) 0.818 0.945
RMSEA RMSEA0.08 acceptable (Browne and Cudeck, 1992) 0.095 0.040
 Y. Wang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 256 (2020) 120479 9

Table 6 on WTP, which is consistent with previous studies (Hasan-Basri

Standardized indirect effects between observations and latent variables. et al., 2015; Pouta and Rekola, 2001; Tanellari et al., 2015). Since
Variables PV ATT SN PBC WTP is a concrete representation of the intention to pay, the result
WTP1 .381*** .205** .063 .487***
confirmed the consistency of attitude-intention relationship (Shi
WTP2 .350*** .189** .058 .447*** et al., 2013; Voon et al., 2011). This effect reveals that emotion
WTP3 .352*** .190** .058 .449*** and cognition were inherent impetus for the attitude-intention
WTP4 .340*** .183** .056 .434*** consistency (Zhou et al., 2009). Past studies used the connections
ATT1 .427***
among individuals’ past experiences, risk perceptions, attitudes,
ATT2 .443***
ATT3 .428*** and behavioral intentions towards flood-risk were assessed to
ATT4 .462*** develop this framework (De Dominicis et al., 2014). In this research,
SN1 .317*** affected groups who had favorable evaluations of paying tend to
SN2 .288***
view this behavior more positively, and intended to participate in
SN3 .311***
SN4 .334***
the payment scheme.
SN5 .361*** Thirdly, the results demonstrated that subjective norm failed to
SN6 .340*** influence WTP, which indicated it is not the mediating factor in a
SN7 .349*** chain of causal effect between PV and WTP. It was argued that SN
PBC1 .373***
had limited direct effect on behavioral intention in the extended
PBC2 .367***
PBC3 .322*** TPB models, e.g. the research on WTP for abatement of forest
regeneration (Pouta and Rekola, 2001), intention to purchase
**p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 (two-tailed test).
organic personal care products (Ghazali et al., 2017) and reducing
air pollution (Zahedi et al., 2019). Most of these studies investigated
also had significantly indirect effects on observations of WTP, while and predicted stakeholders’ purchase intentions for non-essentials
the indirect coefficient of SN was weak. In addition, PV showed a or their intention to pay for public projects on energy-saving or
positive indirect effect, especially for preventing urban water log- environmental protection, in which SN was ineffective. It illustrates
ging or shortage (0.381, p < 0.001). The results explored that the that SN, originated from social pressure, may not be working
paths between PV and WTP are achieved mainly through ATT and directly in TPB model as it was shared by a group and did not
PBC indirectly. necessarily reflect an individual’s intention (Arvola et al., 2008).
Meanwhile, behaviors caused by these types of intentions had low
visibility, rather more closely related to an individual’s living con-
6. Discussion dition. As a typical large-scale public project, SCP financed by public
coffers may not quickly translate into visible economic benefits. The
The aim of this study was to investigate public WTP toward the social pressure could not be generated to affect individuals; thus
sponge city program, under the framework of TPB and what are the the results are not fully consistent with the TPB model, as SN seems
role of PV towards WTP, and the results pointed to several key to play a lesser role in the payment behavior regarding SCP.
findings. Finally, results showed that PV was an antecedent to predict
Firstly, not all the predictor constructs were associated with WTP for SCP as it had an indirect effect on WTP via attitude. This
public WTP in SCP. Perceived behavioral control had the strongest finding is inconsistent with previous literatures (de Medeiros et al.,
effect on WTP, and among the loading factors, the obstacles and 2016; Yadav and Pathak, 2017), which indicated that perceived
difficulties caused by economic capacity that respondents value can affect WTP directly. Meanwhile, with the virtue of a high
perceived (PBC1) was the most significant. That meant, when the correlation between WTP and payment behavior, this finding
individual perceived that it is not difficult to pay for SCP based on verified the classic framework of value-attitude-behavior (VAB)
their own economic capacity, their WTP increased. Some re- (Homer and Kahle, 1988). The theory of VAB was confirmed by an
searchers identified perceived behavioral control as one of the investigation that looked at the effect of customers’ environmental
determinants of public WTP for green goods and services, e.g. values and attitude on their WTP for organic menus in restaurants
suburban park (Lopez-Mosquera and Sanchez, 2012), reduction of (Shin et al., 2017). The same theory was utilized to examine con-
noise pollution in road transportation (Yadav and Pathak, 2017) as sumers’ purchase intentions when dining at luxurious restaurants
well as consumer’s green purchase behavior in a developing nation while traveling (Chen and Peng, 2018). In this event, people would
(Sanchez et al., 2018), while others claimed that there was no sig- give priority to perceived benefits and costs underlying various
nificant link (Liu et al., 2019; Lopez-Mosquera et al., 2014). Lopez- dimensions, higher PV could enhance their enthusiasm and thus
Mosquera and Sanchez (2012) argued that the influence of improve their intention on payment.
perceived behavioral control properly depends on the nature of Remarkably, PBC also played a key mediating role in predicting
WTP in term of cost, effort, resource accessibility and personal PV and WTP, indicating a newly-found framework of value-control-
expenditure. This study established that the value of WTP in behavior (VCB), which was reflected through the most significant
Guyuan city was 8.30% extra on water tariff per month. It is much indirect influence in this research. In former studies, VBN model
lower than that in Zibo and Dongying in Eastern China (Wang et al., conceived values play a key role in the cognitive cost-benefit
2017). In comparison, Guyuan is regarded as a less developed city in analysis (Payne et al., 1992), while the VCB framework was often
Western China, however, the cost of SCP reached about 3 billion neglected (Ghazali et al., 2017; Yadav and Pathak, 2017). In general
CNY. In 2018, its GDP was 30.31 billion CNY, while that of Zibo was it is hard for respondents to pay for SCP, e.g. due to the vast project
506.84 billion CNY and Dongying was 415.25 billion CNY. Moreover, cost and individual economic condition etc. If they consider SCP is
the average per-capita income is 26709 CNY compared to Zibo’s valuable and worthwhile, they would seriously consider adopting
34730 CNY and Dongying’s 37586 CNY (SBN, 2018; SBS, 2018). It this payment behavior. This is especially the case when these were
indicates residents’ daily activities and consumption were con- considered to improve their daily lives (e.g. water security and
strained by their economic condition greatly, and poor economic quality), environmental conditions of the neighborhood (e.g. pre-
capacity led to a lower WTP. vent water logging and shortage), and potential for economic
Secondly, attitude is found to have a significantly positive effect benefits (e.g. appreciation of their property values). Hence, PV
10 Y. Wang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 256 (2020) 120479

could weaken the influence of perceived difficulty on individuals as recurrent expenditure.

well as improve their ability to control behavior, and ultimately Some future research opportunities exist. Firstly, although in-
promote behavior intentions to acquire this green service. Both tentions are highly correlated with actual behavior, they are not
frameworks, value-attitude-behavior and value-control-behavior, equivalent. It will be interesting to explore the difference of the
indicated PV as the main determinant of the payment decision predictors on actual and intended WTP. Secondly, this paper mainly
for SCP, and clearly showed that what is received, what is given. emphasized the effects of PV and classical predictors of TPB on
public WTP. Further research can explore the interactions among
7. Conclusions and implications the predictors in order to identify potential impact paths. Thirdly,
future work could include other external factors, such as public
Large-scale construction activities are closely related to people’s perception and awareness.
willingness, and public financial support is deeply needed in SCP by
using PPP model. This research attempted to understand what Declaration of competing interest
public WTP toward SCP is and how perceived value affected WTP
decisions using structural equation model. An extended TPB model The authors declare that they have no known competing
with additional predictor PV was utilized to explore the critical financial interests or personal relationships that could have
factors that promote residents’ WTP for SCP. Guyuan city in the appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Ningxia Province of China, one of the pilot cities of SCP, was selected
as case. Data were collected through a survey involving face-to-face Acknowledgement
interviews with 656 respondents. The direct and indirect effects
were examined to illustrate the pathway to payment intention. This research is sponsored by National Natural Science Foun-
Results indicated that perceived behavioral control had the stron- dation of China (Grant No. 71874127) and Research Program for Key
gest effect on WTP, particularly difficulties induced by perceived Technologies of Sponge City Construction and Management in
economic capacity was highlighted. Meanwhile, the consistency of Guyuan City (Grant No. SCHM-2018).
attitude-intention relationship was identified, while subjective
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