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Multi Stakeholders’ Attitudes toward Bt rice in Southwest, Iran: Application of TPB and Multi Attribute Models

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Abstract

Organisms that have been genetically engineered and modified (GM) are referred to as genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Bt crops are plants that have been genetically modified to produce certain proteins from the soil bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which makes these plants resistant to certain lepidopteran and coleopteran species. Genetically Modified (GM) rice was produced in 2006 by Iranian researchers from Tarom Mowla’ii and has since been called ‘Bt rice’. As rice is an important source of food for over 3 billion inhabitants on Earth, this study aims to use a correlational survey in order to shed light on the predicting factors relating to the extent of stakeholders’ behavioral intentions towards Bt rice. It is assumed and the results confirm that “attitudes toward GM crops” can be used as a bridge in the Attitude Model and the Behavioral Intention Model in order to establish an integrated model. To this end, a case study was made of the Southwest part of Iran in order to verify this research model. This study also revealed that as a part of the integrated research framework in the Behavior Intention Model both constructs of attitude and the subjective norm of the respondents serve as the predicting factors of stakeholders’ intentions of working with Bt rice. In addition, the Attitude Model, as the other part of the integrated research framework, showed that the stakeholders’ attitudes toward Bt rice can only be determined by the perceived benefits (e.g. positive outcomes) of Bt rice.

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Notes

  1. Tarom Mowla’ii is an Iranian rice varieties.

  2. The authors are aware of focusing on the “stakeholders” for this study. However given to this fact that most of available published literature on attitude and behavioral intention studies toward GM crops/food has focused on the public and consumers rather than stakeholders, the authors discuss consumers’ perception.

  3. Comparative Fit Index.

  4. Incremental Fit Index.

  5. Tucker-Lewis Index.

  6. Root Mean Square Error of Approximation.

  7. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

  8. World Health Organization.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr. Miranda Kitterlin from the Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Florida International University for her comments. Also the authors wish to thank Ms. Bethany Gardner from the Department of Linguistics, the State University of New York at Binghamton, for her kind help in improving the English of this text.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, Ramin Agricultural and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan, Ahvaz, Iran

    Omid M. Ghoochani, Mansour Ghanian & Masoud Baradaran

  2. Centre for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium

    Hossein Azadi

  3. Economics and Rural Development, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech (ULg), Gembloux, Belgium

    Hossein Azadi

  4. Department of Geography, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Hossein Azadi

Authors
  1. Omid M. Ghoochani
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  2. Mansour Ghanian
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  3. Masoud Baradaran
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Correspondence to Omid M. Ghoochani or Mansour Ghanian.

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This study was funded by Ramin Agricultural and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Ghoochani, O.M., Ghanian, M., Baradaran, M. et al. Multi Stakeholders’ Attitudes toward Bt rice in Southwest, Iran: Application of TPB and Multi Attribute Models. Integr. psych. behav. 51, 141–163 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-016-9358-2

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