This research tests the roles of vertical versus horizontal collectivism in affecting the relationships between place attachment, perceived environmental responsibility and pro-environmental behaviour. In doing so, the research addresses the boundary conditions for the attachment-behaviour link and provides guidance for implementing environmental policies using place attachment as the policy tool.

Place attachment is the bonding based on positive affection in the interactions between people and a place that significant for the harmonious relationship between people and the environment. Scannel and Gilford (2010) considered the dimensions of place attachment and proposed the theoretical framework of Place, Person, and Process (PPP), which should be systematically studied from the perspective of person, place, and psychological processes. The purpose of this study is to investigate and analyze the theory of place attachment and put forward the hypothesis for the structural model. The potential variables of the model were analyzed, and the correlation coefficients were obtained. In view of the results of the structural model analysis, relevant policy proposals were put forward. After the questionnaire investigation on the Haneul Park in Daejeon city, the data were analyzed using the structural equation modeling (SEM) method, and the model with 19 measurement items was established. The results showed that the hypothesis model was suitable for the data because the 𝒳² test of the model fitting was not significant (p=0.349), and it had a better model fitting index. The results demonstrated that the place, cognition, affection, and behavior have significant effects on place attachment (p<0.05).They play the most important role, considering that the relationships between the variables, correlation coefficients between cognition and affection, cognition and behavior, and behavior and affection were significant (p<0.01). This showed that the place attachment process for the park visitors involved the psychological emotional cycle of cognition, affection, and behavior. To increase the interest of visitors and the rate of revisit, it was suggested to increase the diversity of the park facilities and to meet the needs of local residents when the construction and renovation of neighborhood parks is undertaken. In internal aspects, the paper studied in detail the psychology or expectations of park visitors and showed the importance of the analysis of their emotion, cognition, and behavior. This analysis can be a starting point for the design and renovation of the neighborhood parks. It should improve visitor satisfaction and strengthen the attachment of visitors to the neighborhood parks.

Level of urbanization in China has reached 53.73% in 2013, indicating a tremendous progress on the urbanization of China. On the other hand, the number of villages in China reduces by around one million from 3.6 million in 2000 to 2.7 million in 2010 (Zhang, 2014). Issues in both urban and rural areas of China appear, including the imbalance between increased population and limited resources in urban region, and more significantly, the increasing disparity between rural and urban areas. Chinese researchers interpret and analyse these matters from different perspectives. For instance, Zheng (2006) and Ma (2006) suggest the importance of the infrastructure construction and public service. Wu (2006) advises that the government should pay attention to the development of the secondary and tertiary industry. Wen (2005) proposes that the improvement of social institution and the recovery of social cultural environment are required to achieve sustainability in the urbanization process in China. Previous studies in environmental psychology put quality of life, attachment to place, and residence satisfaction at the center to understand the relationship between inhabitants and their neighborhood of residence. However, there are gaps in this research realm in both practice and theories. Firstly, very limited research studies this environmental psychology issue in China (e.g. Mao, Fornara, Manca, Bonnes, & Bonaiuto, 2015). Secondly, there are different opinions on the causal order between quality, attachment, and satisfaction. Research on the relationship between perceived residential environment quality (PREQ), place attachment, and environmental satisfaction has not reached a consensus. The debate on the direction of the causal relationship between perceived quality and satisfaction has been summarized by Bradya and Robertson (2001). They conclude that the quality to satisfaction causal order holds up well across diverse cultures. However, relevant debate is still ongoing. A number of research articles place satisfaction as an antecedent to attachment, e.g. Chen, Dwyer, and Firth (2014); Lee, Kyle, and Scott (2012); Ramkissoon and Mavondo (2015); etc. Some argue that place attachment is an indicator of satisfaction. Kyle et al. (2004) investigate the effect of place attachment on the perceived values of tourists and find that place attachment is an important factor explaining the variance of perceived values. This is supported by research e.g. Hwang, Lee, and Chen (2005); Prayag and Ryan (2012); Yuksel, Yuksel, Biljm (2010); etc. As to the relationship between perceived quality and attachment, the debate has not stopped. Through comparisons, Mesch and Manor (1996) conclude that the residents who give a higher evaluation of the social and natural environment may have greater place attachment. Brown, Perkins, and Brown (2003) also suggest that the residents who agree that the street environment is better would attach to this place. Sam, Bayram, and Bilgel (2012) have certified the relationship between residential environment quality and place attachment. Furthermore, Borrie and Roggenbuck (2001) and Walker and Ryan (2008) find that the connection between human beings and the nature environment would affect their affection toward the environment. It means that the closer the relationship with the nature environment is, the stronger the attachment would be, which in turn, enhances the intentions to protect the environment. This quality to satisfaction relationship is supported by other research such as Bonaiuto, Aiello, Perugini, Bonnes, and Ercolani (1999); Grisaffe and Nguyen (2011); Yu, Chen, and Chen (2015); etc. Nevertheless, a different opinion arguing that attachment to a place may affect one’s perception on the quality related to a place is emerging in tourism research (e.g. Neuvonen, Pouta, & Sievänen, 2010). This paper takes the credit of quality → attachment → satisfaction causal order as the initial model and proposes three hypotheses as follows. H1a: One’s PREQ has a positive impact on his/her attachment to this place; H2a: One’s attachment to a place has a positive impact on his/her satisfaction to the environmental settings in this place; H3a: Place attachment in addition performs as a mediating role between PREQ and environment satisfaction.To be noted, the initial model has its theoretical basis as discussed above but is not necessarily the absolute optimal model. Relatively, this model provides more theoretical interpretation and practical implications in the specific research context: residential psychology in urban and rural areas of China. On this basis, this article further examines a competing model illustrating an alternative theoretical framework on the relationships between these three constructs (satisfaction → attachment → quality). Relatively, another group of hypotheses in this competing model is listed as follows. H1b: One’s attachment to a place has a positive impact on his/her PREQ; H2b: One’s satisfaction to the environmental settings in this place has a positive impact on his/her attachment to this place; H3b: Place attachment in addition performs as a mediating role between environment satisfaction and PREQ. A survey approach is employed and data are collected from several backgrounds. Dataset A (rural) is collected from three villages from Heilongjiang Province and two villages from Shandong Province in China from July to August 2014. The choices of the provinces, rural areas, and the sampling process are random. 490 valid questionnaires are included in the data analysis. Dataset B (urban) is collected via an online survey portal, which allows a nationwide sampling reach. In total 1368 online survey entries are recorded and 420 valid questionnaires are included, resulting in a valid rate of 30.7%. The measures for each construct are based on an extensive literature review. The measurement of perceived residential environment quality is from Sam, Bayram, & Bilgel’s (2012) development on the perception of residential environment. The measurement of place attachment in this study is adopted from Kyle, Graefe, and Manning’s (2005) and Chen, Dwyer, and Firth’s (2014) evaluation based place attachment dimensionality and scales. As for the scale of environmental satisfaction, Pelletier, Legault, and Tuson’s (1996) measure was applied. All the entire variables adopted multiple-item, 5-point Likert scales were adopted, where “1” indicated “strongly disagree” and “5” indicated “strongly agree”. After pre-testing the preliminary version of the survey instrument, a revised version was developed. This study adopts structural equation modeling (SEM) based on partial least squares (PLS) modeling given the small sample size and the explorative purpose of this study (Dijkstra & Henseler, 2015a). The software used was Smart PLS 3.0. The reliability and validity of the constructs were assessed. Cronbach’s alpha and the value of CR of each construct were found to exceed the cut-off value of 0.70 (Fornell & Larcker, 1981), except for adequacy of education which is close to 0.70 (only for Cronbach’s alpha but not for CR). Furthermore, the AVE of each construct exceeded the variance attributable to its measurement error cut-off value of 0.50 (Chin, 1998; Fornell & Larcker, 1981). In addition, heterotrait-monotrait ratio (HTMT) is recommended as a better method to test discriminant validity (Henseler, Dijkstra, Sarstedt, Ringle, Diamantopoulos, Straub, Ketchen, Hair, Hult, & Calantone, 2014). The result shows that there is neither value of the HTMT higher than the threshold of 0.85 nor confidence interval containing the value one, indicating that all the constructs exhibit satisfactory discriminant validity. The hypothesized effects in the theoretical model were tested by structural equation modeling (SEM). The first group of models tested the effect of perceived environmental quality on environmental satisfaction through place attachment i.e. initial model (Model A, Model B, Model C), while the second group of models tested the reverse effect of environmental satisfaction on perceived environmental quality through place attachment (Model D, Model E, Model F). Both the full model and the multi-group model were tested. The value of SRMR of the full model that tests either the effect of perceived environmental quality on environmental satisfaction (SRMR = 0.104, t = 41.826, p < 0.001) or the reversed effect (SRMR = 0.106, t = 37.736, p < 0.001) shows that the models fit the data quite well (Dijkstra & Henseler, 2015b). However, the former is little bit more significant. In this study, PREQI is found different impacts on place attachment and environmental satisfaction. This provides evidence to support a similar mechanism of studying residents’ psychology with SERVEQUAL model. However, the model testing is found significantly different between rural and urban samples, indicating a systematic difference in the psychology of rural and urban populations. Quality  attachment  satisfaction causal order is found significant and supported by both samples in this study. However, a reversed causal order model (satisfaction  attachment  quality) is also supported by the samples. Although the results may not be able to end the debate on alternative models between PREQ, place attachment, and environmental satisfaction, this paper provides empirical evidence from a specific context (urban and rural China) for further research. Specifically, PREQ has a significant impact on place attachment in both urban and rural areas in China. As for the impact of place attachment on environmental satisfaction as well as the indirect impact of PREQ on environmental satisfaction, the influence is more significant in cities of China compared to rural areas. This suggests in the urban areas in China, affective and emotional responses to their lives play an important role to residents. Local government in cities should balance between improving and maintaining quality of the environment and strengthening local residents’ psychological attachment to the place. Governments in rural areas, on the other hand, should lay great focus on the physical aspects of the environment including nature, health, education, commerce, and venture of the rural areas, to enhance residents’ living experience and satisfaction. Further, there are some limitations. Although this study attempts to clarify the framework of “perception-affection-attitude” in the field of environment management, considering the practical implications, the future study could bring the individuals’ behaviors or intentions into this model such as willingness-to-pay for environment-friendly products. It will also benefit from reviewing more literature on community-based social marketing.

This research was conducted in order to examine the reverse effect of brand loyalty on the emotional attachment to the place-of-origin. Results indicate that consumers that are highly loyal to a brand tend to be more emotionally attached to the place-of-origin; the effect is mediated by affective place image. Affective place image also partially mediates the brand loyalty–place attachment relationship in cases when the brand is authentic in the place. Human beings tend to extend their affect towards one object based on another object related to the first one. Building on this notion researchers have been trying to understand two related concepts—a place, and a brand originating from that place. In this endeavor, one literature stream has been focusing on place-based branding from the perspective of international marketing, including work on country-of-origin (COO) or product-country image (Baldauf et al., 2009; Hong & Wyer Jr, 1989). Another stream focusing on place branding adapts traditional marketing theory to market a place (Kotler 2002), and focuses on destination image (Bramwell & Rawding, 1996; Lee & Lockshin, 2012; Qu, Kim & Im, 2011), and place attachment (Gross & Brown 2006). Notwithstanding the above, there is a dearth of research combining these two aforementioned streams. One of few exceptions is Lee and Lockshin (2014), who explored the reverse COO effect of product perceptions on destination image. However, they focused on consumers’ cognitive beliefs and, thus, the underlying mechanism of the relationship is yet to be examined. Hence, the current research aims to answer the following questions: can brand loyalty be leveraged to consumers’ relationship with the place-of-origin as a tourism destination? And, if so, what is the mechanism underlying the effect? We present a global survey with consumers of place-based wine brands as a means to understand whether consumers’ loyalty to a brand will influence their emotional attachment to the place where the wine brand origins. A moderated mediation model is proposed. Affective destination image mediates the positive effect of brand loyalty on place attachment, which is positively moderated by authenticity of the brand-place associations. The study contributes to the tourisms marketing field by identifying the emotional linkage between brand loyalty and place attachment. It serves as a starting point for further investigation of how company or product branding could benefit place marketing and branding theory. Affective components are suggested to play a vital role in the relationships between a place and a brand. It further enriches understanding of the role of brand authenticity. Place marketers need to understand the role of brand loyalty in the decision-making process of tourism consumption.

The study evaluates the influence of national culture on the relationships between tourist motivation, service interactions with hotel employees, and place attachment. These relationships are ascertained among four groups of visitors to the island of Mauritius. The overall structural model, tested on a sample of 545 visitors, indicates that motivation and service interactions are strong determinants of place attachment. Multi-group analysis shows there is no relationship between service interactions and place dependence for all four groups of visitors (German, South African, French and British). However, there are differences in the relationships between motivation, place identity and place dependence for all four groups. The findings have important implications for hotel managers, destination marketing and management, and employee training.

본 연구는 농촌관광마을의 브랜드 자산이 장소애착 및 친환경 행동의도와의 영향 관계를 검증하고자 하였다. 농촌관광마을의 브랜드자산은 브랜드인지도, 브랜드이미지, 지각된 품질, 지각된 가치로 분류되었으며, 장소애착은 장소의존성, 장소정체성, 사회적 유대감으로 구분되었다. 친환경 행동의도는 단일차원으로 도출되었다. 가설검증 결과, 첫째, 농촌관광마을의 브랜드자산인 브랜드인지도, 브랜드이미지, 지각된 품질, 지각된 가치가 장소의존성에 모두 유의한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났으며, 둘째, 장소정체성은 친환경 행동의도에 유의한 영향을 미치는 것으로 분석되었으며, 장소의존성 또한 친환경 행동의도에 유의한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 셋째, 농촌관광마을의 브랜드자산 중 브랜드이미지와 지각된 가치가 친환경 행동의도에 유의한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다.

본 논문은 경주국립공원 내 사찰숲길 이용자의 장소애착이 환경요인에 대한 인식과는 어떠한 구조적 관계를 형성하고 있는 지를 구조방정식모형을 활용하여 탐색하며, 국립공원 관리에 있어서 경관선호 보다는 경관애착에 근거한 보전적 측면에서의 정책적 함의를 제공하는데 있다. 경주국립공원 내 대표적인 사찰인 불국사를 찾는 탐방객을 대상으로 설문조사를 실시한 후, 수집된 자료를 분석하여 구조방정식모형을 도출하였다. 연구 결과, 장소의존성은 장소애착에 대하여 유의하게 긍정적으로 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타난 반면, 장소정체성은 장소애착에 대하여 통계적으로 유의한 영향을 나타내지는 않는 것으로 나타났다. 장소의존성이 보다 장소애착에 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다(경로계수=0.55). 장소애착은 환경요인의 중요성에 대한 인식에 있어서 경관이용과 시설이용 모두 유의하게 정(+)의 방향으로 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 장소애착은 사찰숲길 이용의 중요성에 있어서 시설요인 보다는 경관요인에 대하여 보다 강한 영향력을 보이는 것으로 나타났다(경로계수=1.01). 이러한 결과는 국립공원의 경관자원의 중요성을 다시 확인시키며, 이로부터 사찰숲길 경관의 보전에 중점을 둔 관리방안이 마련되어야 할 것으로 판단된다.

본 연구는 장소애착이 자연지역 내 케이블카 설치에 대한 방문객의 태도에 미치는 영향을 조사하기 위해 시행되었다. 본 연구의 분석을 위해 2010년 9월 중 수집된 총 126명의 무등산도립공원 방문객에 의한 설문답변이 이용되었다. 분석결과, 장소애착은 케이블카 설치에 대한 방문객의 태도에 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 장소애착이 낮은 응답자는 높은 응답자에 비해 케이블카 개발을 지지하는 경향이 있었다. 전반적으로 장소애착은 케이블카 설치로 인한 잠재적 영향에 대한 신념(beliefs about the potential impacts of cable car: BICC)과 통계적 관련이 없었다. 장소정체성은 BICC와 관련이 있었지만 장소의존성은 BICC와 관련이 없는 것으로 조사되었다. 연령, 거주지, 거주기간, 무등산도립공원 방문경험수준이 장소애착과 관련이 있었다. PA는 사람들의 친환경 행동을 이끌 수 있는 선행인자로서의 역할 가능성을 보유하고 있다. 자연공원을 보다 바람직한 방향으로 관리하기 위해서 PA를 높일 수 있는 영향인자의 규명과 이러한 영향인자의 조절 및 활용을 위한 방법 모색이 필요하다.