Sustainability-intentions of Dutch equine entrepreneurs and the theory of planned behaviour

Abstract

The Dutch horse industry is a very active industry, with a 2 billion euro annual revenue, 10,000 businesses, 450,000 horses and 400,000 active equestrians (Jansen, 2019). To prevent this industry and the equestrian sport from disappearing in the future, action is needed to improve sustainability regarding animal welfare because of increasing criticism on equestrian sports. Dutch equine entrepreneurs do not seem very open to making their businesses more sustainable. The current study researched if the behavioural intention of Dutch equine entrepreneurs in the decision-making to become more sustainable in terms of animal welfare can be explained through an extended Theory of planned behaviour, focussing on attitudes, self-efficacy, social norms, and traditional values. In total, 50 participants were included. The participants in the sample showed great interest in becoming more sustainable in the next 5 years. In contrast to my expectations, the scores of the participants in the sample were all moderately average on the questionnaires of attitudes, self-efficacy, social norms, and traditional values. According to the results of this study, there was a direct effect of social norms, but not for attitude and self-efficacy. Traditional values did not have a moderating effect on social norms. In conclusion, the results suggest that the behavioural intentions of the equine entrepreneurs could be more centred around values and norms than previously thought. There are several limitations of the current study that have to be taken into consideration, such as self-selection bias and a small sample size. Further research is necessary because the results of further research could add in the knowledge needed to prevent the Dutch horse industry and equestrian sport from disappearing in the future.