The relationship between attitude and behavior: an empirical study in China

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of attitude towards behavior, subjectnorm and perceived behavioral control (PBC) on a Chinese subject’s evaluation of a tertiary educationprogram.Design/methodology/approach – This study adopts a 3 (country-of-origin) by 2 (location) betweengroupfactorial design. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is used as a framework to understandthe intentions of the Chinese subjects concerning their enrollment in an offshore program.Findings – Results show that a subject’s attitude towards behavior, subject norm and PBC had asignificantly positive relationship with the subjects’ enrollment intentions irrespective of the country-oforigin(COO) of an education program. However, results also indicate that the significance of the threecomponents on enrollment intention is contingent on which country the offshore program is from.Practical implications – The findings of this study can help foreign education institutions develop agood understanding of the education market in China.Originality/value – This study is one of the few studies that have adopted the TPB, the widely usedpsychology theory, in the Chinese context.