Journal of Cleaner Production 126 (2016) 428e439

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Journal of Cleaner Production

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

Using Theory of Planned Behaviour to explore oil palm smallholder

planters' intention to supply oil palm residues
Hon-Choong Chin a, Weng-Wai Choong a, *, Sharifah Radah Wan Alwi b, c,
Abdul Hakim Mohammed a
a
Department of Real Estate, Faculty of Geoinformation and Real Estate, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
b
Process Systems Engineering Centre (PROSPECT), Research Institute of Sustainable Environment (RISE), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor
Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
c
Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

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

Article history: Smallholder planters manage almost 40% of Malaysia's oil palm plantations, indicating that their
Received 9 October 2015 perception is signicant to the success of biofuel produced from palm biomass. The success development
Received in revised form of the second generation biofuel can be hampered due to lack of understanding on planter's motive to
4 March 2016
supply oil palm biomass, which in turn will lead to disruption in continuous supply of feedstock. This
Accepted 25 March 2016
study was conducted to examine the smallholder planters' intention to supply oil palm residues available
Available online 7 April 2016
at their plantations. The Theory of Planned Behaviour is used in this study with three additional atti-
tudinal belief variables, namely, perceived production benet, perceived environmental benet and
Keywords:
Biofuel
perceived ecological impact. A total of 327 valid questionnaires were obtained via a face-to-face survey
Oil palm residue conducted at oil palm fresh fruit bunches collection centres. Structural equation modelling was con-
Smallholder planters ducted using smartPLS version 3.0 software. The results indicate that smallholder planters' intention can
Theory of Planned Behaviour be predicted by attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, perceived production benet
Structural Equation Modelling and perceived environmental benet. In advance, this study conrms that attitude and subjective norm
can be determined by all three attitudinal beliefs whereas perceived environmental benet has an
insignicant inuence on perceived behavioural control. Our result suggests that the policy makers and
biofuel producers shall assure planters that their current harvest practice and income will be maintained
as and at the level of business as usual when promoting their involvement in supplying oil palm biomass.
A precautious step is needed to prevent additional fertilizer usage by planters to trade-off potential
ecological impact (e.g. nutrient loss) caused by oil palm biomass removal from their plantation. As this
study is conducted prior to an established palm based biomass market, the researcher may want to
compare our result with the established market in the future.
2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The depleted nature and adverse environmental impact asso-
ciated with fossil fuel usage has urged society as a whole to search
for clean and renewable energy alternatives (Ong et al., 2012). As
the world's second largest producer of palm oil, Malaysia is abun-
dant with oil palm harvest. In 2014, there was a total of 5.39 million
hectares of oil palm planted area in Malaysia (MPOB, 2014). These
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 60 7 5530874; fax: 60 7 5566163/5530536.
E-mail addresses: honchoong915@gmail.com (H.-C. Chin), cwengwai@utm.my
(W.-W. Choong), shasha@fkkksa.utm.my (S.R.W. Alwi), abdhakim@utm.my
(A.H. Mohammed).
plantation areas provided an average fresh fruit bunches yield per
hectare of 18.63 t in 2014 (MPOB, 2014). This abundance has led to
various efforts to position Malaysia as the world's leading palm-
based biofuel country (Lim and Teong, 2010). Since 1982,
Malaysia has achieved a signicant milestone in its palm-based
biodiesel development with the invention of winter-grade, palm-
based biodiesel (Lim and Teong, 2010) and launching of B5 bio-
diesel (recently, the blending percentage has increased to 7% under
the B7 biodiesel program) for the local market e road transport and
sheries sector (MPIC, 2015). To date, biodiesel produced in
Malaysia is rst-generation biofuel, which uses edible oildpalm
oildas feedstock for biofuel production.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.03.042
0959-6526/ 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 H.-C. Chin et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 126 (2016) 428e439
Although biofuel produced from an edible oil is an initiative to
mitigate greenhouse gases emitted from fossil fuel usage and
strengthen energy security, there is increasing concern about bio-
fuel' adverse impact on food supply and the environment. Using
edible oil and converting agricultural land for energy purposes have
been claimed to disrupt the food supply (Rajagopal et al., 2007),
which will lead to increase in food prices (Naylor et al., 2007).
Moreover, converting land use for planting energy crops can in-
crease greenhouse gases emissions (Searchinger et al., 2008). Loss
of the carbon sink is expected if deforestation is conducted to clear
land for energy crop plantations (Fargione et al., 2008). Other
ecological impacts associated with rst-generation biofuel include
loss of biodiversity, loss of water catchment area and intense fer-
tilizer usage (Mohr and Raman, 2013; Pimentel et al., 2009; Popp
et al., 2014). To address these adverse impacts associated with
the use of rst-generation biofuel, studies are focused on non-
edible oil and lignocellulosic biomass, which consist of agricul-
tural waste that is left behind after harvest. Biofuel derived from
this feedstock is known as the second-generation biofuel. It is
argued that using agricultural waste and lignocellulosic biomass
can prevent direct competition between food and fuel production
(Tilman et al., 2009; Valentine et al., 2012). Thus, mitigating food
price increases and concern for land conversion. In term of energy
utilisation, the second generation biofuel is more preferable than
the rst generation technology (Mizsey and Ray, 2010). Moreover, a
biorenery concept using waste as feedstock for value-added
products has been suggested as a sustainable strategy (e.g. Ali
et al., 2015) in reducing negative environmental impact caused by
agriculture wastes while reducing the production cost since
biomass can be a relatively low cost feedstock (e.g. Zahari et al.,
2015).
In awareness of the potential drawback of rst generation bio-
fuel and the opportunity for lignocellulosic biomass as the feed-
stock for biofuel production, the Malaysian government has
formulated the National Biomass Strategy that aims to fully capture
the potential of 83 million dry tonnes of oil palm residue (MIA,
2013) that is produced as by product of the oil palm industry.
Approximately 75% of this residue (oil palm frond and oil palm
trunk) is available at plantation site, with the remaining 25%d
consisting of empty fruit bunches, palm kernel shell and mesocarp
bredobtained at the oil palm mill after palm oil is extracted. This
study will focus on the oil palm frond and oil palm trunk because oil
palm residue produced at the oil palm mill has been used for steam
production at the mill or further processed as pellet for power
generation. The potential of the oil palm frond and oil palm trunk
has not been fully utilised. From a technical view point, both the oil
palm frond and the oil palm trunk have been proven to be viable
options for bioethanol production (Yamada et al., 2010;
Prawitwong et al., 2012; Zahari et al., 2014; Ofori-Boateng and
Lee, 2014). The oil palm frond and trunk are being estimated to have
17.5 MJ/kg and 15.7 MJ/kg of energy content, respectively (Chow
et al., 2008). In addition to supportive policy and technological
feasibility, securing the supply of oil palm residue is a prerequisite,
and this requires an understanding of oil palm planters' motivation
to supply oil palm residue from their plantations. It has been sug-
gested that the involvement of various actors (from feedstock
producer to biofuel consumer) is essential to a successful bioenergy
development (Pehlken et al., 2016). Being the biomass supplier,
farmers' involvement in biomass supply chain is necessary to
reduce biomass supply uncertainty, in particularly remote areas
(Bot et al., 2015). Furthermore, as local residents, their participation
in bioenergy system is also being claimed as an important social
sustainability criterion for bioenergy system (Buchholz et al., 2009).
Martin et al. (2009) pointed out that farmers should be given
incentive to involve in biofuel development as feedstock provider.
429
However, without an understanding of the farmer's motive to
involve in biofuel development, poor engagement of farmer is ex-
pected, even though incentives are provided. This may result in
disruption of continuous feedstock supply for biofuel production
(Chin et al., 2014)
In general, oil palm plantations in Malaysia can be divided into
two types based on the plantation's scale. A large-scale plantation is
owned and managed by oil palm corporations that have signicant
dominance of the oil palm industry with control over the produc-
tion chain. These companies have a considerable capacity to run
their businesses from the oil palm plantation, mill and renery.
These companies are also involved in downstream activities (such
as oil and fats production and the oleochemical product production
using palm oil as feedstock) and research and development activ-
ities related to oil palm. In contrast, small-scale plantation sites are
managed by smallholders who have limited resources and are
generally lacking information (Nagiah and Azmi, 2012). Their role is
limited as a planter at the plantation site. In terms of biomass
supply, while some of the oil palm companies have agreed to
supply their oil palm residue for bioenergy production (Daily
Express, 2013), the smallholders' motivation remains unknown.
Although smallholders have an insignicant part of the oil palm
plantation individually (in general, smallholders manage oil palm
plantations that are less than 10 ha each), together they are
responsible for 40% of total plantations in Malaysia (von Geibler,
2013). This amount of feedstock cannot be neglected and is
essential for biofuel production. Furthermore, the inclusion of
smallholder planters in biofuel supply chain is essential to prevent
jeopardising the local social-economic development (Hall et al.,
2009) and to promote biofuel as an eco-social efciency fuel
(Schaffel and La Rovere, 2010). Thus, this study will focus on oil
palm smallholder planters' intention to supply oil palm residue.
A review of the existing literature, which was conducted to
provide an understanding of the farmers' involvement in bioenergy
development, reveals that the existing literature is not compre-
hensive enough to explain farmers' involvement in bioenergy
development across different countries and feedstock contexts. The
majority of studies focus on developed countries, with biomass
predominantly derived from the forest (R amo et al., 2009; Joshi and
Mehmood, 2011; Gruchy et al., 2012; GC and Mehmood, 2012;
Markowski-Lindsay et al., 2012; Becker et al., 2013; Brough et al.,
2013; Joshi et al., 2013; Leitch et al., 2013; Aguilar et al., 2014;
Halder et al., 2014; Timmons, 2014). In terms of agriculture crop
waste, annual crops, like corn stover (Tyndall et al., 2011; Bergtold
et al., 2014; Caldas et al., 2014; Mooney et al., 2014; Skevas et al.,
2014) and cereal straw (Altman and Sanders, 2012; Glithero et al.,
2013; Wilson et al., 2014; Altman et al., 2015), are examined. In
contrast, limited studies have been conducted to investigate the
farmers' motivation when planting perennial crops, such as oil
palm. There may have been differences between farmers' motiva-
tion in supplying biomass, as it is case specic (Joshi et al., 2013).
Among the relevant studies conducted in Malaysia, only one study
aimed to explore the stakeholders' view regarding palm-based
biofuel and the use of oil palm biomass for future second-
generation biofuel production. This study, conducted by Darshini
et al. (2013), reveals that using palm biomass for second-
generation biofuel production is supported by government
agencies, industry players and non-government agencies. In spite
of this, different stakeholders hold different opinions regarding the
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and treats associated with
using palm-based biomass for biofuel production. This implies that
smallholder planters who were not included in the study may also
have diverse opinions. Thus, a study is required to ll these gaps
while providing an understanding of oil palm smallholder planters'
motivation to supply oil palm residue.
430 H.-C. Chin et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 126 (2016) 428e439
This study's main objective is to examine oil palm smallholder
planters' intention to supply oil palm residue from their planta-
tions. This study used the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) for its
theoretical backbone. The TPB is extended with three additional
attitudinal belief constructsdperceived production benet,
perceived environmental benet and perceived ecological
impactdto address the poor understanding between TPB core
variables and attitudinal belief variables (further explanation in
Section 2.1). Compared to the previous studies in which regression
analysis was conducted to disclose the direct relationship between
the dependent and independent variables (Becker et al., 2013;
Brough et al., 2013; Leitch et al., 2013), data analysis for this
study was conducted using the Structural Equation Modelling
(SEM). By doing so, inter-relationship among constructs is
explored, and this allows us to explore the relationship between
attitudinal belief variables and TPB core constructs. To prevent any
misconception between the word farmer(s) and planter(s), we
use the word farmer(s) as a general term to refer to those
involved in agriculture sector. Meanwhile planter(s) is specic to
oil palm planter(s) throughout this article.
As 75% of oil palm biomass in Malaysia is available at the
plantation site, it is essential to conduct this study to inform the
policy makers and biofuel producers about the motive of planters to
supply oil palm residue from their plantation. By identifying the
inuence of perceived production benets, perceived environ-
mental benets and perceived ecological benets on attitude,
subjective norm and perceived behavioural control, which in turn
will lead to a positive planter's intention in supplying oil palm
residue, this study is expected to provide a better understanding
about the interventions to foster planter's involvement in bio-
energy development. Better strategy and program that aim to foster
planter's involvement in bioenergy development can be formulated
with an effective intervention. By doing so, a continuous feedstock
can be secured while rural development and positioning Malaysia
as the world leading palm based biofuel producer can be achieved.
Moreover, this study will contribute to current literature that aims
to foster farmers involvement in bioenergy development. As
abovementioned, the motive of farmers to supply forestry biomass
and annual crops has been examined by researchers in the devel-
oped country context. By conducting this study, it is expected that
current literature can be enriched with input from the developing
country (the Malaysia context) using residue from perennial crop
(oil palm residue) as feedstock to produce biofuel. Finally, this study
is contributing to the TPB literature by exploring the relationship
between belief about outcome evaluation of supplying oil palm
residue and the three core TPB constructs, namely attitude, sub-
jective norm, and perceived behavioural control. The result sug-
gests that not all outcome evaluation of a performed behaviour will
signicantly inuence all the three TPB core constructs.
The remainder of this article is structured in sections. Section 2
outlines the theoretical framework, the survey design and the
analysis method used to examine the oil palm smallholder planters'
intention to supply oil palm residue. Results are then presented in
Section 3. In Section 4, the results are discussed and compared to
previous studies followed by the theoretical contribution and study
implication. An overall conclusion, the limitations of this study and
the recommendations for future work are provided in Section 5.
2. Research materials and methods
2.1. Theoretical framework and related literature
It is important to acknowledge that collecting oil palm residue
for biofuel production is not yet an established practice in Malaysia.
This makes the actual behaviour of supplying oil palm residue from
smallholder planters impossible to be observed. An alternative
approach to determine the smallholder planters' motivation to
supply oil palm residue is via examining the individual's behaviour
intention (Ajzen, 1991), whereby intention has a strong relationship
with the actual behaviour (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). The most
suitable theoretical framework to predict behaviour via intention is
the famous socio-psychology theory, the Theory of Planned
Behaviour (TPB) which is an evolved version of the Theory of
Reasoned Action (Ajzen, 1991). Thus, this study will focus on the
socio-psychological factors that will inuence planter's motive to
supply oil palm residue. A detailed explanation as to how these
socio-psychological factors were derived is provided in Section 2.3.
According to the TPB, an intention as the antecedent for actual
behaviour is determined by the inuence of attitude, subjective
norm and perceived behavioural control. In general, attitude to-
wards a behaviour is an evaluation of the favourability of a
behaviour. Subjective norm, on the other hand, refers to the social
pressures felt by an individual to perform or not to perform a
behaviour and the motivation to comply with it. Finally, a perceived
behavioural control refers to the difculty of performing a behav-
iour and how condently an individual can perform such behav-
iour. In our study, this means that smallholder planters' intention to
supply oil palm residue is inuenced by the smallholder planters'
perception towards supplying oil palm residue, social pressure that
affects smallholder planters to supply oil palm residue and small-
holder planters' ability to supply oil palm residue.
The TPB has been applied in the previous studies (Becker et al.,
2013; Brough et al., 2013; Leitch et al., 2013) when researchers used
it to predict the forest farmers' willingness to supply forest residue.
However, there are differences regarding the extent of how TPB was
being applied in those studies. Only Brough et al. (2013) reported
that they have conducted an elicitation study. However, not all of
the attitudinal belief on the outcome evaluation is included in their
analysis due to an incomplete response. Brough et al. (2013) con-
ducted a factor analysis to reduce the dimensionality of the attitude
variable by grouping 25 attitude items into seven factors whereby
four attitude factors have been subjected to a logistic regression
analysis and nine subjective norm-related items were grouped into
two factors. Their study illustrates that intention is positively
inuenced by an attitudinal belief about the benets of removing
residue for forestry production, forestry income, forestry manage-
ment and operation and personal-related subjective norm.
Conversely, the belief about the negative impact of residue removal
on the environment and ecologically has been reported to hinder
private forest owners' intention to supply residue. The
professional-related subjective norm and perceived behavioural
control are proven to be insignicant in their study.
In a study focused on private forest owners in Kentucky, Leitch
et al. (2013) grouped all the items into the respective TPB con-
structs. Two regression analysis models conducted with one linear
regression analysis using intention as a continuous level variable
and one logistic regression analysis using intention as a dichoto-
mous variable. An interesting result observed from their logistic
model is that while the overall attitude variable positively inu-
enced the intention, the attitudinal belief composite variable re-
ported an insignicant effect. This implies that a gap exists between
general attitude and attitudinal belief. In another study conducted
in the United Sates, Becker et al. (2013) investigated TPB constructs
separately with individual items that represent respective con-
structs and they named these items behavioural intent factors. In
terms of attitude items, concern about soil erosion and forest aes-
thetics are reported to have a negative inuence, while the belief on
energy independence benet positively affected the forest land-
owners' intention. For subjective norms, the neighbour has a
negative inuence on forest landowners' willingness to harvest
 H.-C. Chin et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 126 (2016) 428e439
forest residue. Lastly, the perceived behavioural control items show
that for landowners who have the contact of persons who collect
forest residue will likely to harvest, landowners are unlikely to
harvest the residue if they claim to have considerable knowledge
about harvesting.
The successful application of TPB in these studies proves the
appropriateness of the TPB to be applied in this study. However,
there is a limitation of the previous studies that can be addressed to
improve the theoretical framework of the TPB. According to the
TPB, attitude is determined by attitudinal belief about an underly-
ing outcome evaluation of a performed behaviour (Ajzen, 1991).
The relationship between attitudinal belief and attitude received
little attention and is poorly understood (Ajzen, 1991). This is due to
the fact that attitudinal belief is distinctive and specic to the
empirical content of a particular study (Taylor and Todd, 1995). We
noticed that the previous studies (Becker et al., 2013; Brough et al.,
2013; Leitch et al., 2013) focused on the direct relationship between
intention and attitudinal belief and overlooked the relationship
between attitudinal belief and attitude. We addressed this limita-
tion of TPB application with three additional attitudinal belief
variables. These variables have been identied via an elicitation
study, which was conducted prior to the questionnaire designation.
These three attitudinal belief variables are perceived production
benet, perceived environmental benet and perceived ecological
impact. It is important that these attitudinal beliefs are determined
from an elicitation study due to the idiosyncratic feature associated
with attitudinal belief, as mentioned by Taylor and Todd (1995).
In addition to attitude construct, this study also examines the
relationship between the three attitudinal belief constructs and the
subjective norm construct and the perceived behavioural construct,
respectively. These relationships are not being investigated in
studies that employed TPB as the theoretical framework (Becker
et al., 2013; Brough et al., 2013; Leitch et al., 2013). Nevertheless,
subjective norm and perceived behavioural control can be affected
by attitudinal belief. According to Ajzen and Fishbein (2005), a
favourable outcome evaluation of a performed behaviour can infer
a strong social pressure and enhance the condence to perform
such behaviour. Following their illustration, we hypothesised that
perceived production benets, perceived environmental benets
and perceived ecological benets will inuence subjective norm
and perceived behavioural control, respectively. Thus, compared to
Becker et al. (2013), Brough et al. (2013) and Leitch et al. (2013), our
study contributes to this literature gap by exploring the relation-
ship between these attitudinal beliefs and the three core TPB
variables.
2.2. Additional attitudinal belief constructs
2.2.1. Perceived production benet
Perceived production benet reects the contribution of
removing agriculture residue towards existing farming practices.
Limited studies have reported the potential benets that can
contribute to existing farming practices following the removal of
agricultural wastes. Removing forest residue, for instance, is
believed to contribute to forest productivity and makes the tree-
planting task become easier (Brough et al., 2013). As supplying oil
palm residue can be regarded as a new farming practice for
smallholder planters, the contradiction with current farming
practices may hamper the effort to supply biomass (Qualls et al.,
2012). Moreover, Joshi and Mehmood (2011) reported that for-
esters whose forest management plans include timber production
as their management objective are less likely to supply woody
biomass due to concern about the effect of wood biomass removal
on timber production. This implies that farmers are concerned
about the effect of removing agricultural residue in their existing
431
harvests. In our study, removing oil palm residue will benet the
smallholder planters in terms of an increase in accessibility within
the plantation site, securing labour safety, and enhancing the ef-
ciency of the FFB harvest as potential obstacles (oil palm residue)
are removed. In contrast, negative impacts will be discussed in
Section 2.2.3. Thus, as long as smallholder planters perceive that
removing oil palm residue will not affect their plantation harvest
but, in fact, will contribute to it, planters will likely supply oil palm
residue.
2.2.2. Perceived environmental benet
Biofuel produced from biomass is claimed to be an environ-
mentally friendly product compared to fossil fuel. Brough et al.
(2013) suggested that farmers will likely supply forest residue if it
contributes to the environment, provides a green image, and is
perceived as a sustainable product. Farmers and landowners who
value aesthetics in their cultivation areas are unlikely to supply
residue due to the concern that removing residue will negatively
affect the aesthetics of the cultivation area (Gruchy et al., 2012;
Becker et al., 2013; Timmons, 2014). In contrast to forest manage-
ment, oil palm residue that is left behind at the plantation will
negatively affect the aesthetics of the oil palm plantation. Without
proper waste management, the plantation site can be cluttered
with oil palm fronds and trunks. Therefore, the smallholder
planters are hypothesised to have the intention of supplying oil
palm residue if such an action is an environmentally friendly way to
dispose of residue, will strengthen the green image for the oil palm
plantation sector and will enhance aesthetic value for the oil palm
plantation.
2.2.3. Perceived ecological impact
Ecological impact can be observed via loss of nutrients, soil
erosion, loss of moisture, decrease in water quality and others
factors which negatively affect the health of the farmland. Negative
ecological impact as perceived by farmers will prevent them from
removing their agricultural waste. In the study of Tyndall et al.
(2011), farmers acknowledged that they will keep their corn sto-
ver on their land if the removal will affect soil nutrients, water
quality, moisture content and the wildlife habitat. This study as-
sumes that 50% of the corn stover will be removed from the
farmers' farms if they agreed to supply the stover. Similar results
were reported in Becker et al. (2013) and Brough et al. (2013).
Hence, negative ecological impacts will negatively inuence
smallholder planters intention to supply oil palm residue.
Based on the above-mentioned literature, the following hy-
potheses have been formed:
Hypothesis (H1): Attitude is positively related to smallholder
planters' intention to supply oil palm residue.
Hypothesis (H2): Subjective norm is positively related to
smallholder planters' intention to supply oil palm residue.
Hypothesis (H3): Perceived behavioural control is positively
related to smallholder planters' intention to supply oil palm
residue.
Hypothesis (H4): Perceived production benet is positively
related to attitude (H4a), subjective norm (H4b), perceived
behavioural control (H4c) and intention (H4d).
Hypothesis (H5): Perceived environmental benet is positively
related to attitude (H5a), subjective norm (H5b), perceived
behavioural control (H5c) and intention (H5d).
Hypothesis (H6): Perceived ecological impact is negatively
related to attitude (H6a), subjective norm (H6b), perceived
behavioural control (H6c) and intention (H6d).
432 H.-C. Chin et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 126 (2016) 428e439
Hypotheses H1eH3 were formed based on the TPB framework.
Meanwhile hypotheses H4eH6 are used to examine the relation-
ship between attitudinal belief and TPB core constructs. A frame-
work showing this hypothesis-testing relationship is presented in
Fig. 1.
2.3. Survey development and administration
There is a best-practice guideline for constructing and admin-
istering the TPB questionnaire. We followed the procedure rec-
ommended by Ajzen (2006) and Francis et al. (2004) to develop and
administer the TPB questionnaire used for this study.
2.3.1. Elicitation study
Prior to the designation of questionnaire, a series of interviews
with smallholder planters were conducted to elicit their beliefs
about supplying oil palm residue for biofuel production. As
mentioned in Introduction section, the previous studies were
focused on annual crops biomass, in which biomass is collected
within the period of after harvesting and before replanting new
crops. On the other hand, collection of biomass from perennial crop
is conducted during the growth period. In this study, oil palm has
an economic lifespan for 25 years, and the replanting process is
conducted normally after 25 years where palm tree reached its
economic marginal production. This indicates that biomass
collection needed to be conducted during the growth period and
even the maturity period of oil palm tree. This difference may be
associated with the unique perspective and belief, compared to the
annual crops. Since biomass collection motive is case specic (Joshi
et al., 2013), a preliminary interview is conducted to reveal the
possible undiscovered belief among oil palm planters and to ensure
questions administered in this study is t to the study context.
Following the procedure as recommended by Ajzen (2006) and
Francis et al. (2004), 25 oil palm planters were interviewed. As
smallholder oil palm planters contact list is not made public by the
relevant authority, a snowball technique was used to recruit in-
terviewees. Interviewees were asked about potential benets,
negative impacts and potential barriers associated with oil palm
residue collection. Out of concern for the convenience of the re-
spondents, the interviews took place at either the respondent's
plantation or the respondent's house. The longest interview lasted
approximately 1 h and 45 min, whereas the shortest interview
lasted 30 min. According to Francis et al. (2004), the most frequent
mentioned belief will be used to construct the nal questionnaire.
Therefore, the interview was analysed using content analysis. The
analysis was carried out by two independent researchers with the
purpose of increasing the validity of the analysis (Krippendorff,
Attitude
(ATTD)
H1
H4a
Perceived
Production H4b
Subjective
Norm (SN)
Benefit (PPB) H4d
H4c
H5a H2
Perceived H5b
H5d
Environmental
Benefit (PEB) H5c
H6a
Intention
(INT)
Perceived
H6b
H6d
Ecological
Impact (PEI) H6c
H3
Perceived
Behavioural
Control (PBC)
Fig. 1. A conceptual framework showing the relationship between variables.
2004). The identied belief was then used in the subsequent
questionnaire construction.
The rst draft of the questionnaire was then pilot tested.
Following the suggestion by Francis et al. (2004), the purpose of
conducting such a pilot test is to ensure that the questionnaire was
not too long, to eliminate any repetitive items and to prevent
ambiguous items from being included in the questionnaire. The
pilot-tested questionnaires revealed several ambiguous phrases,
particularly related to jargon used among oil palm planters. For
instance, fresh fruit bunches is preferred rather than oil palm
harvest, and middleman is used rather than fresh fruit bunches
collector. After rephrasing the terms, the questionnaire is ready for
distribution.
2.3.2. Final questionnaire
The nal questionnaire consists of three sections, where the rst
and second sections aim to collect smallholder planters' socio de-
mographic backgrounds and farming characteristics. The third
section consists of statements regarding items related to the TPB's
core constructs and three additional variables. Items with respec-
tive latent variable are shown in Table 1. These items are derived
from the previous studies and elicitation interview conducted prior
to questionnaire designation. The respondents denote their
agreement of each statement with a Likert scaling ranging from 1
(strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The order of statements
within the third section was randomly arranged to avoid order ef-
fect when respondents answered the questions. Some statement's
scores and the statement itself are inversely presented as well.
In contrast to the previous studies where majorities used a mail
survey, we collected the data at the Fresh Fruit Brunches (FFB)
collection centres. Collecting data at the FFB collection centre
provides several benets to our study. First, it is a convenient
method to collect data from oil palm planters as the contact list of
smallholder planters is not made public by the relevant agency due
to concerns about privacy and security of personal information.
Without the contact list, it is impossible for us to use mail survey to
collect data for this study. Second, we can ensure that respondents
to this study are active in the oil palm plantation and able to make
decisions related to their plantations. In Malaysia, smallholder
planters will send their FFB harvest to the FFB collector before it is
transported to the renery factory and oil palm mill. There are two
reasons to do so. First, by sending FFB harvest to the FFB collector,
oil palm planters can minimise their logistic cost as distance to the
renery factory is far beyond that to the FFB collection centre.
Second, the renery factory is reluctant to accept FFB harvest in
small quantities. By sending their harvest to an FFB collector, they
are able to deliver their harvest jointly in a considerable amount
that is preferred by the renery factory. Thus, collecting data from
smallholder planters at FFB collection centre can ensure that only
those who are active and able to make decision are answering to
our questionnaire. It is important that only those active planters are
answering the questionnaire as result from this study can be used
by policy makers and biofuel producers to develop an effective
strategy aimed to promote oil palm residue collection among
planters. In contrast, mail survey does not provide these benets as
respondents who answered the survey are beyond the researcher's
control. There is a possibility that a family member will answer the
questionnaire on behalf of the farmer, which may in turn provide
less reliable result. Lastly, collecting data face-to-face with a
smallholder at the FFB collection centre enabled us to request that
respondents complete the questionnaire without any missing data.
This reduced potential statistical bias due to inappropriate treat-
ment of missing data at the data analysis stage.
A total of 327 questionnaires were collected and subjected to
data analysis, and 94.8% of the respondents were male. We
 H.-C. Chin et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 126 (2016) 428e439 433

Table 1
Latent variable and its corresponding items.

Latent variable Item Explanation Sources

Perceived Production ppb_1 Collecting oil palm residue from my plantation can Brough et al. (2013)
Benet (PPB) contribute to efcient fresh fruit bunches harvest.
ppb_2 Collecting oil palm residue from my plantation can Elicitation interview
secure labour safety.
ppb_3 Collecting oil palm residue from my plantation can Elicitation interview
increase accessibility within my plantation.
Perceived Environment peb_1 Collecting oil palm residue from my plantation site Brough et al. (2013)
Benet(PEB) for biofuel production is an environmentally
friendly way to dispose of waste.
peb_2 Collecting oil palm residue from my plantation will Gruchy et al. (2012), Becker et al. (2013),
make my plantation tidy and clean. Timmons (2014)
peb_3 Collecting oil palm residue for biofuel production can Brough et al. (2013)
provide a green image to the oil palm plantation.
Perceived Ecological pei_1 Moving oil palm residue away from my Tyndall et al. (2011), Becker et al. (2013),
Impact (PEI) plantation will reduce soil fertility. Bergtold et al. (2014)
pei_2 Moving oil palm residue away from my plantation will Tyndall et al. (2011)
negatively affect humidity at my plantation.
pei_3 Removing oil palm residue away from my Tyndall et al. (2011), Qualls et al. (2012),
plantation will increase the danger of soil erosion. Caldas et al. (2014)
Attitude (ATTD) attd_1 Overall I think that collecting oil palm residue Elicitation interview
from my plantation is a good idea.
attd_2 Overall I think that collecting oil palm residue Elicitation interview
from my plantation is the right thing to do.
attd_3 Overall I feel good about collecting oil palm Elicitation interview
residue from my plantation.
attd_4 Overall I think that collecting oil palm residue from Elicitation interview
my plantation is troublesome (reverse scoring).
Subjective Norm (SN) sn_1 Logistic providers think that I should collect oil Elicitation interview
palm residue from my plantation.
sn_2 Other smallholder planters will collect oil palm Elicitation interview
residue from their plantation sites for biofuel production.
sn_3 Government agencies and bodies will approve Elicitation interview
my collection of oil palm residue.
sn_4 Other oil palm companies will collect oil palm Elicitation interview
residues from their plantation site for biofuel production.
Perceived Behavioural pbc_1 I am condent in collecting oil palm residue if I want to do so. Elicitation interview
Control (PBC) pbc_2 Collecting oil palm residue is a complex task for Elicitation interview
me. (reverse scoring).
pbc_3 Collecting oil palm residue requires preparation Elicitation interview
of specic storage for oil palm residue at my
plantation (reverse scoring).
Intention (INT) int_1 I intend to collect oil palm residue from my Ajzen (2006), Francis et al. (2004)
plantation for biofuel production.
int_2 I want to collect oil palm residue from my Ajzen (2006), Francis et al. (2004)
plantation for biofuel production.
int_3 I am interested in collecting oil palm residue Ajzen (2006), Francis et al. (2004)
from my plantation for biofuel production.

observed that men are dominant in oil palm plantations in
Malaysia. The majority are aged between 41 and 60 (69.7%), fol-
lowed by those older than 60 (15.9%). This shows that young
Malaysians are reluctant to get involved in oil palm plantation.
Almost half of the respondents (50.2%) completed secondary
school, 19% furthered their studies to tertiary education, and 12.80%
left school after they nished primary school. In terms of income,
the majority is a low income group that earns at least and less than
RM3000/USD725 (74.3%), followed by a medium income group that
earns up to RM5000/USD1,208 (18.4%) and 7.3% with a monthly
income more than RM5000/USD1,280. On average, smallholder
planters who answered to this survey earned RM2840/USD686 per
month. In terms of farming characteristics, 83.2% claimed they are
the landowners, while 11% shared land ownership with other
interested parties and 5.8% leased their plantation from a landlord.
In general, 62.1% are planting oil palm with a land area at least or
less than 10 acres and the remaining individuals have a plantation
size larger than 10 acres. Additionally, 72.2% of respondents have
more than 10 years of experience. This implies that our result is
reliable, as respondents have substantial experience in oil palm
plantations.
2.4. Data analysis
For data analysis, the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was
conducted. SEM is a holistic second generation multivariate anal-
ysis that offers greater exibility to researchers in examining the
causal relationship model (Chin, 1998b). Compared to the rst
generation analysis techniques as employed in the previous studies
(principal component analysis, factor analysis and regression
analysis), SEM is suitable to be employed in this study for two main
reasons. First, SEM is a method used to measure a latent variable
(Chin, 1998a). A latent variable is an unobserved variable that can
be measured with multiple indicators or items. In our study, each
variable is measured with at least three items corresponding to the
variable (as shown in Table 1). In contrast, the rst generation
regression analysis technique is limited to examine the relationship
between variables that involved multi-indicators or latent variable.
434 H.-C. Chin et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 126 (2016) 428e439

This is due to the fact that the rst generation technique is dealing
with observed variable, it does not provide any validity and reli-
ability test for multi-indicators or latent variable (Lehman, 1991).
Second, SEM provides the benet of examining interrelationships
between variables (Hair et al., 2010). This allows us to compre-
hensively examine the proposed relationships. In this study,
interrelationship can be observed via the proposed relationships
between the attitudinal constructs and the three core TPB con-
structs. On contrast, the rst generation techniques are limited to
analyse only one relationship between dependent and independent
variables, simultaneously. A separate regression analysis is needed
to examine the interrelationship if the rst generation technique is
used. Thus, it is not surprising that the previous studies which
employed rst generation analysis technique do not attempt to
examine the interrelationship between variables that may exist, as
proposed in this study. Due to these reasons, conducting SEM is
claimed to benet this study.
In term of analytic software, the Partial Least Square (PLS)
approach using SmartPLS 3 software (Ringle et al., 2014) is used in
this study. PLS is a widely used variance-based SEM technique that
estimates relationships among latent variables in a structural
equation model (Hair et al., 2011, 2012a, 2012b). Compared to
covariance-based techniques, PLS is more suitable for our study
because it is intended for predictive analysis (Reinartz et al., 2009),
where the nature of our study is to predict smallholder planters'
intention to supply oil palm residue. Additionally, we explore the
relationship between attitudinal belief variables and TPB core
constructs rather than testing the original TPB theory (Hair et al.,
2011, 2012a, 2012b). Moreover, the PLS method is less stringent
because it does not make a data distribution assumption and
because it works efciently with a small sample size (Hair et al.,
2011, 2012a, 2012b).
examine the measurement model as it is a prerequisite for a valid
result of the structural model.
3.1. Measurement model
The validity and reliability of measurement models are evalu-
ated with composite reliability, convergent validity and discrimi-
nant validity. The value of composite reliability varies between
0 and 1. It reects the internal consistency reliability in which a
value between 0.7 and 0.9 can be regarded as satisfactory (Nunally
and Bernstein, 1994). In terms of convergent validity, it is assessed
with indicator reliability and Average Variance Extracted (AVE). The
indicator reliability can be determined by the loading of a predictor
to its respective construct. The rule of thumb is that a latent vari-
able should be able to capture at least 50% of each indicator's
variance. The loading of the respective item should be higher than
0.708 to reect that the predictor is associated with the corre-
sponding construct (Hair et al., 2014). Conversely, AVE indicates the
variance of a construct's measurement items that are captured by
the respective construct. The threshold value for AVE is that it
should exceed 0.5 (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). The last criterion
used to determine the validity of the measurement model is the
discriminant analysis. The discriminant analysis conrms a
construct is distinctly different from other constructs. In this study,
the FornelleLacker's criterion is used for discriminant analysis. The
square root of AVE for a construct should be higher than the cor-
relation with other constructs in order to achieve discriminant
validity (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). The validity and reliability re-
sults of the measurement models have been computed using the
PLS Algorithm implemented in SmartPLS 3 software (Ringle et al.,
2014) and are presented in Table 2, except the FornelleLacker's
criterion is presented in Table 3. The results show that the mea-
surement models in this study are valid and reliable.

3. Results 3.2. Structural model

There are two types of models involved in PLS. The rst is known
as the measurement model, which reects the relationship of a
latent variable and its corresponding indicators. The second type of
model is known as structural model, where the relationship be-
tween different variables is shown. In the following section, we
The structural model is evaluated by collinearity assessment,
path signicance, coefcient of determination (R2 value) and
construct cross-validated redundancy (Q2). The collinearity issue is
assessed with the Variance Ination Factor (VIF). A VIF value of 5 or
more than 5 implies a potential collinearity issue (Hair et al., 2011).

Table 2
Validity and reliability results of measurement models.

Latent variable Items Loadings Indicator reliability Composite reliability AVE

Perceived production benet ppb_1 0.863 0.745 0.913 0.778

ppb_2 0.867 0.752
ppb_3 0.915 0.837
Perceived environmental benet peb_1 0.802 0.643 0.841 0.638
peb_2 0.776 0.602
peb_3 0.817 0.667
Perceived ecological impact pei_1 0.903 0.815 0.892 0.734
pei_2 0.888 0.789
pei_3 0.772 0.596
Attitude att_1 0.866 0.750 0.931 0.772
att_2 0.917 0.841
att_3 0.913 0.834
att_4 0.815 0.664
Subjective norm sn_1 0.748 0.560 0.883 0.654
sn_2 0.821 0.674
sn_3 0.828 0.686
sn_4 0.835 0.697
Perceived behavioural control pbc_1 0.887 0.787 0.858 0.670
pbc_2 0.824 0.679
pbc_3 0.738 0.545
Intention int_1 0.840 0.706 0.924 0.801
int_2 0.915 0.837
int_3 0.928 0.861
 H.-C. Chin et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 126 (2016) 428e439 435

Table 3 Table 5
FornelleLacker's criterion. Signicance testing results of the structural model path coefcient.

Latent variable PPB PEB PEI ATTD SN PBC INT Path Path coefcient (b) t Value f2 effect size q2 effect size

PPB 0.882 TPB core constructs

PEB 0.730 0.799 ATTD / INT 0.128 2.616* 0.026 0.010
PEI "0.550 "0.446 0.857 SN / INT 0.293 6.782* 0.150 0.069
ATTD 0.740 0.688 "0.571 0.879 PBC / INT 0.087 3.169* 0.017 0.005
SN 0.713 0.730 "0.490 0.695 0.809 Additional attitudinal belief
PBC 0.549 0.417 "0.676 0.587 0.453 0.819 PPB / ATTD 0.406 6.087* 0.178 0.095
INT 0.809 0.782 "0.507 0.750 0.793 0.534 0.895 PPB / SN 0.330 4.659* 0.110 0.042
PPB / PBC 0.265 4.232* 0.057 0.026
Figures in bold are the square root of AVE.
PPB / INT 0.308 5.935* 0.143 0.063
PEB / ATTD 0.296 4.398* 0.109 0.055
PEB / SN 0.436 7.555* 0.230 0.096
The results of the VIF presented in Table 4 show that there is no PEB / PBC "0.016 0.209 0.000 "0.003
multicollinearity issue. PEB / INT 0.238 5.035* 0.096 0.042
The bootstrapping procedure with 327 cases and 5000 sub- PEI / ATTD "0.216 4.572* 0.087 0.047
PEI / SN "0.113 2.505** 0.023 0.009
samples has been conducted to determine path signicance. The
PEI / PBC "0.538 11.701* 0.402 0.199
path signicance is used to test the hypotheses formulated in this PEI / INT 0.044 1.240 0.004 0.000
study. The results of the path coefcient, path signicance (t-value),
Note: *P < 0.01, **P < 0.05.
effect size (f2 effect) and predictive relevance (q2 effect) are pre-
sented in Table 5. The result shows that the three core constructs of
TPBdattitude (H1), subjective norm (H2) and perceived behav- t 7.555, P < 0.01, f2 0.230, q2 0.096) and PEB / INT (H5d:
ioural control (H3)dare positive and signicantly related to the b 0.238, t 5.035, P < 0.01, f2 0.096, q2 0.042). However, these
smallholder planters' intention to supply oil palm residue. The results fail to conrm H5c, which is path PEB / PBC. A relatively
smallholder planters' intention to supply oil palm residues are large effect size is observed for path PEB / SN compared to other
positively inuenced by their attitude towards the collection of oil paths. This conrms that an environment benet is a social welfare
palm residue. This path (ATTD / INT) coefcient is signicant in which the whole community enjoys it. Thus, planters will feel
(b 0.128, t 2.616, P < 0.01) with a low effect size (f2 0.026) and social pressure if they value the importance of the environment.
low predictive relevance (q2 0.010). Thus, this nding conrms In terms of ecological impact, signicant negative effects are
H1. The positive effect of subjective norm is also supported observed for path PEI / ATTD (H6a: b "0.216, t 4.572, P < 0.01,
(b 0.293, t 6.782, P < 0.01) and conrms H2. The effect of path f2 0.087, q2 0.047), PEI / SN (H6b: b "0.113, t 2.505,
SN / INT is moderate (f2 0.150) with relatively high, albeit low P < 0.05, f2 0.023, q2 0.009) and PEI / PBC (H6c: b "0.538,
predictive relevance (q2 0.069). For perceived behavioural con- t 11.701, P < 0.01, f2 0.402, q2 0.199). However, there is no
trol, this variable also reports a positive inuence with a signicant signicant result reported for path PEI / INT. Among the signi-
level, P < 0.01 (b 0.087, t 3.169) with a relatively low effect cant relationship, there is an interesting result observed for path
(f2 0.017) and a small predictive relevance (q2 0.005). This PEI / PBC. This path exhibits a strong effect size and a relatively
supports H3. high but medium predictive relevance. One explanation is that
With regard to the proposed three additional attitudinal belief because removing oil palm residue is causing soil erosion, loss of
latent variables, the hypothesis proposed for perceived production nutrients and decreased moisture, smallholder planters can trade
benet is supported (H4aeH4d). In general, perceived production off these negative impacts by increasing fertilizer usage and addi-
benet positively inuences attitude (b 0.406, t 6.087, P < 0.01), tional irrigation, which, in turn, will increase the burden on
subjective norm (b 0.330, t 4.659, P < 0.01), perceived behav- smallholder planters. However, it should be interpreted carefully
ioural control (b 0.265, t 4.232, P < 0.01) and the intention to because this variable does not signicantly inuence smallholder
supply oil palm residue (b 0.308, t 5.935, P < 0.01). There is a planters' intention. Smallholder planters who are aware of these
medium effect size for all the paths (PPB / ATTD, f2 0.178; ecological impacts may supply oil palm residue as long as they are
PPB / SN, f2 0.110; PPB / INT, f2 0.143), except there are albeit capable of performing additional tasks, or are able to minimize
low effects for path PPB / PBC (f2 0.057). The predictive rele- these impacts by leaving substantial amounts of oil palm residue at
vance for all paths is low. plantation and supplying extra.
The fth hypothesis (H5aeH5d) stated that planters who value The R2 and Q2 results of endogenous variables are shown in
an environmental benet are likely to have a positive attitude, be Table 6. Hair et al. (2011) suggested that R2 values of 0.25, 0.50 and
motivated by social pressure, be capable of collecting residue and, 0.70 can be interpreted as weak, moderate and substantial. Overall,
thus, have the intention to supply oil palm residue for biofuel the R2 value of 0.788 indicates that a substantial amount of variance
production. The results presented in Table 5 support the positive in smallholder planters' intention to supply oil palm residue can be
relationship for path PEB / ATTD (H5a: b 0.296, t 4.398, explained by attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural
P < 0.01, f2 0.109, q2 0.055), PEB / SN (H5b: b 0.436, control and the additional attitudinal belief variables: perceived
production benet, perceived environmental benet and perceived

Table 4
Collinearity assessment for the structural model.
Table 6
First Set Second set Results of R2 of endogenous variable and cross-validated redundancy measures, Q2.
PPB 2.480 PPB 3.134
Latent variable R2 Q2
PEB 2.157 PEB 2.780
PEI 1.443 PEI 2.075 Attitude 0.627 0.478
ATTD 2.959 Subjective norm 0.611 0.390
SN 2.704 Perceived behavioural control 0.502 0.329
PBC 2.112 Intention 0.788 0.623
436 H.-C. Chin et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 126 (2016) 428e439
ecological impact. Other values indicate that a moderate amount of
variance is explained by perceived production benet, perceived
environmental benet and perceived ecological impact. The
construct cross-validity redundancy is estimated using blindfolding
procedure with an omission distance of 7. The results of Q2 values
above zero support the model's predictive relevance regarding to
the endogenous latent variables (Chin, 1998a).
4. Discussion and results implication
From a theoretical perspective, this study demonstrates that TPB
can be a useful framework for explaining smallholder planters'
intention to supply oil palm residue. It conrms that attitude,
subjective norm and perceived behavioural control are indicators of
intention, as postulated in the TPB. The signicant inuence of
attitude on intention aligns with (Leitch et al., 2013) and thus, with
willingness to supply biomass (Aguilar et al., 2014; Timmons, 2014).
In general, the smallholder planters who have a favourable attitude
towards oil palm residue collection are likely to have the intention
to collect.
The signicant result for subjective norm on intention in this
study partially conrms the result of previous study. Brough et al.
(2013) showed that personally-related subjective norm is posi-
tively associated with intention, while professionally-related norm
is insignicant. The details of the compared items included in this
study show that the government agency is substantially associated
with subjective norm used in our study; however, such an item is
included in professionally-related subjective norm, which shows an
insignicant relationship in Brough et al. (2013). In addition to a
difference in terms of a methodological approach, the signicant
result can be attributed to the fact that the Malaysia government
has substantial inuence in the oil palm industry. The Malaysian
Palm Oil Board is a government agency active in oil palm related
activities, from enforcing rules and regulation, to ensuring sus-
tainable oil palm plantation management and conducting research
and development activities. Moreover, leading oil palm consor-
tiums, such as Sime Darby and FELDA, are government-led com-
panies, indicating a considerable inuence of government in the oil
palm industry. While the extent of this inuence is beyond the
scope of this study, the results suggest that gaining support from
industry players and government agencies will benet the oil palm
residue supplies from smallholder planters.
In terms of perceived behavioural control, the study of Leitch
et al. (2013) reveals a signicant result in their linear regression
model, and our result conrms it. Smallholder planters who
perceive oil palm residue collection as simple and have the con-
dence to perform this task will likely have the intention to supply
oil palm residue. These planters have the opinion that preparing a
specic storage for oil palm residue is unnecessary. Given small-
holder planters' nature of supplying the traditional FFB harvest to
the FFB collection centre, it is reasonable to infer that smallholder
planters are likely to send their collected oil palm residue to the FFB
centre, rather than preparing a specic storage at their plantation
sites.
In addition to the original core constructs of the TPB, three
attitudinal belief variables are added to the TPB in our study,
namely perceived production benet, perceived environmental
benet and perceived ecological impact. The signicant relation-
ship between these three attitudinal belief variables and attitude
conrm that attitude can be determined by attitudinal belief
(Ajzen, 1991). This contributes to the gap in which this relationship
is underestimated by the previous studies (Becker et al., 2013;
Brough et al., 2013; Leitch et al., 2013). In addition to attitude, we
explore the relationship of the additional attitudinal belief variable
and subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, and, nally,
intention.
Among the additional variables, PPB is the only variable that is
signicant to all TPB constructs. In general, the smallholder
planters expect that removing oil palm residue can enhance
accessibility within their plantation, secure labour safety and thus,
increase the efciency of the FFB harvest. This, in turn, will lead to a
favourable perception about supplying oil palm residue, gaining
expectations from stakeholders to increase the FFB harvest and
increasing condence to perform oil palm residue collection, as this
will contribute to a reduced workload for the FFB harvest. Finally,
these benets will foster the smallholder planters' intention to
supply oil palm residue. This result agrees with the previous studies
that the involvement of farmers in bioenergy development shall be
consistent with their current farming practices (Mattison and
Norris, 2007) and contribute to it (Brough et al., 2013) without
contradiction (Qualls et al., 2012).
Furthermore, this result provides a new facet for explaining
economic attraction in farmers' decision making. While previous
studies tend to agree that additional income (higher than the
existing farming practices) and price incentive are attracting
farmers to become involved in bioenergy development (Tyndall
et al., 2011; Markowski-Lindsay et al., 2012; Qualls et al., 2012;
Becker et al., 2013; Aguilar et al., 2014; Bergtold et al., 2014; Halder
et al., 2014; Mooney et al., 2014; Timmons, 2014), this study sug-
gests that farmers are looking for income security rather than an
increase in income when deciding whether to adopt the innovative
technology or novel farming practices. The reason is that the biofuel
market is new to oil palm planters and the planters are uncertain
about the prot margin. Providing oil palm residue and maintain-
ing the existing FFB harvest at the same time is a low-risk strategy
for oil palm planters to secure their income while diversifying their
source of income. This result further conrms that contract farmers
whose income is secured by the contract term are more willing to
supply their agricultural waste and convert their marginal land for
energy crops plantation (Tyndall et al., 2011). Conversely, farmers
are reluctant to accept a contract that offers a lower prot margin
than that of their current farming practice or alternative crops
(Sherrington et al., 2008).
Two additional variables, PEB and PEI, show a signicant rela-
tionship with subjective norm as hypothesised. The inuence of
PEB and PEI on subjective norm can be explained from social
welfare perspective. Although the plantation is an individual re-
sponsibility, environmental effects associated with oil palm residue
removal can be accounted for in the local community, yet global
community. Thus, an adverse ecological impact will negatively
affect social pressure and lead to less motivation to supply oil palm
residue. Meanwhile, environmental benets will further induce
smallholder planters to comply with social expectations as
perceived from different social groups. In terms of the relationship
with perceived behavioural control, the insignicant relationship
observed from the PEB / PBC path implies that although the
environmental benet is important to society, this benet has a
limited inuence on planters' perception about the difculties of oil
palm residue collection and their condence to conduct this task.
The signicant inuence of perceived environmental benets on
smallholder planters supports previous studies that concluded that
farmers will likely provide biomass if the removal of the biomass is
environmentally friendly and strengthens the industry green im-
age (Brough et al., 2013) while also enhancing the aesthetic value of
the plantation site (Gruchy et al., 2012; Becker et al., 2013;
Timmons, 2014).
Our results reveal that the perceived negative ecological impact
will negatively affect smallholder planters' condence to carry out
oil palm residue collection, as an additional workload is expected in
 H.-C. Chin et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 126 (2016) 428e439
order to mitigate the negative ecological impact. For instance,
nutrient loss is expected, as previous oil palm residue is left at the
plantation for mulching purposes. To compensate for nutrient loss,
additional fertilizer usage is expected. Moreover, additional erosion
control practices are expected if smallholder planters perceive soil
erosion to be a result of removing oil palm residue. Therefore, the
increase in burden and workload may hinder smallholder planters'
condence to collect oil palm residue and supply it for biofuel
production. However, this variable is insignicant to intention and
fails to support results found in previous studies (Tyndall et al.,
2011; Becker et al., 2013; Brough et al., 2013), as well as our hy-
pothesis. Yet, this result is similar to results found by Markowski-
Lindsay et al. (2012).
Although PEI is insignicant to intention, it should, be carefully
interpreted because perceived ecological impact may indirectly
affect intention via its negative inuence on subjective norm and
perceived behavioural control, which are predictors to intention.
For instance, a signicant negative relationship that PEI has with
attitude can hamper the effort to foster positive attitude of oil palm
residue removal, which in turn may negatively affect smallholder
planters' intention to supply oil palm residue. There are two
possible explanations for insignicant PEI / INT. First, the
ecological impact is preventable. Oil palm planters may leave suf-
cient amounts of oil palm residue at their plantations for mulch-
ing purposes and to cover up the exposed soil. They only provide
unneeded oil palm residue. Another explanation is that an
ecological impact such as loss of nutrients, can be compensated by
fertilizers, and it is not a surprise to know that farmers are willing
to supply biomass if soil nutrients are compensated by fertilizers
provided by biofuel producers (Bergtold et al., 2014). If doing so,
removing oil palm residue may cause a signicant increase in fer-
tiliser usage, whereby pollution substances, particularly nitrogen,
may increase. This could trade-off the effort of using crop residue to
mitigate GHG emissions in which the pollutant associated with
fossil fuel is reduced in the transportation sector, while there is an
increase in nitrogen usage in the agricultural sector. This trade-off
effect shall be prohibited as GHG mitigation shall be absolute
instead of shifted from one sector to another.
4.1. Theoretical contributions and implications
This piece of work is claimed to have several contributions and
implications. We claim that this study will enrich the existing
literature as we successfully extended the application of TPB theory
in predicting smallholder planters' intention to supply oil palm
residue, from a developing country context. This study contributes
in lling the existing theoretical gap by responding to the call of
research to examine relationship between attitudinal belief and
attitude (Ajzen, 1991) which is overlooked by the previous studies
(Becker et al., 2013; Brough et al., 2013; Leitch et al., 2013). In
addition to that, this study advances the understanding of the
relationship between attitudinal belief and other TPB core con-
structs by conrming that attitudinal belief will inuence subjec-
tive norm, perceived behavioural control and nally, intention of
smallholder planters to supply oil palm residue. The use of partial
least square structural equation modelling is an important strength
of this study that not only extend the application of this holistic
technique in predicting the smallholder planters' intention to
supply oil palm residue but also to enable us to draw a compre-
hensive causal model from the analysis. The interrelationships
examined using this analysis technique provide insight under-
standing about relationship between attitudinal belief constructs
and the TPB core constructs. This is an important contribution as
this study demonstrates not only how smallholder planters'
intention is inuenced by attitude, subjective norm and perceived
437
behavioural control but also to explain how attitudinal belief will
inuence these TPB core constructs. Theoretically, it is important
because it allows the researcher to understand clearly why the
smallholder planters are involved in the bioenergy development as
a feedstock supplier and it provides useful information for the
policy makers and biofuel producers to engage the smallholder
planters to supply their residue.
This study has some implications in fostering the smallholder
planters' involvement in bioenergy development. Policy makers
and biofuel producers shall consider the inuence of perceived
production benet and subjective norm on the smallholder
planters' intention to supply oil palm residue. The contribution to
the existing FFB harvest should be emphasized during communi-
cation and awareness campaigns. Policy makers and biofuel pro-
ducers shall reassure smallholder planters that their existing
income is secure, in which the existing FFB harvest will be
improved as removing oil palm residue from oil palm plantations
can secure labour safety and increase accessibility within the
plantation site. It is also possible that this information can be
delivered via government agencies, oil palm companies and other
smallholder planters in order to create the motivation to comply, as
our results suggest that the intention to supply oil palm residue is
supported by these inuential stakeholders.
In addition to protecting income from the existing harvest, po-
tential income generated from oil palm residue collection also
needs to be secured. Previous studies suggest that a proper
contractual arrangement (Sherrington et al., 2008; Tyndall et al.,
2011) is essential in this circumstance. In addition to a contrac-
tual arrangement, the signicant inuence of subjective norm is
essential to aid in securing smallholder planters' income. To pro-
vide condence to smallholder planters, a collection program
should be initiated by a government agency and spearhead by the
oil palm companies and large plantation estates. The FFB collector
can contribute to securing smallholder planters' income by arran-
ging routine oil palm residue collection and providing constant
income to smallholder planters. Meanwhile, logistic providers
should be ready to assist the smallholder planters in transporting
their residue to the FFB collection centre and biofuel renery plant.
Altogether, these efforts will encourage the smallholder planters to
supply their residue.
Although it is assumed that the perceived ecological impact can
be compensated and prevented, compensation should be per-
formed in such a way that additional fertilizer usage is prohibited as
fertilizer usage has been recognized as one of the contributor to
environmental impact caused by the palm plantation (Saswattecha
et al., 2015). This implies that while policy makers and biofuel
producers are looking forward to involve smallholder planters in
the biofuel supply chain, they must ensure that the planters
conduct a sustainable practice while providing oil palm residue.
Sustainable oil palm plantation management shall extend its
coverage to oil palm residue harvest in order to prevent ecological
deterioration as a result of removing oil palm residue. A sufcient
amount of oil palm residue should be left at the plantation site,
with only extra provided for biofuel production. This further sug-
gests that a precise calculation of available oil palm residue needs to
take into consideration the amount that should be left at the
plantation.
5. Conclusion limitation and further developments
This study contributes to the existing literature by extending
the application of the TPB in the oil palm domain within an
emerging market: Malaysia. In general, smallholder planters'
intention to supply oil palm residue is determined by attitude,
subjective norm and perceived behavioural control. In advance of
438 H.-C. Chin et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 126 (2016) 428e439
previous studies (Becker et al., 2013; Brough et al., 2013; Leitch
et al., 2013), this study conrms there is a relationship between
attitudinal belief and TPB core constructs. In addition, attitudinal
belief is associated with other TPB constructs with perceived
production benets showing a signicant positive inuence on all
TPB constructs; perceived ecological impact and perceived envi-
ronmental benet, however, have failed to predict intention and
perceived behavioural control, respectively. This study enhances
the understanding towards the smallholder planters' intention to
supply oil palm residue. However, there are several limitations
worth mentioning.
First, the data collection method used is a convenient sampling
method. The results may not be representative to the whole pop-
ulation of Malaysian smallholder oil palm planters. However, given
that we have limited access to smallholder oil palm planters
themselves, this seems to be the best way to collect data for our
study. It should be restated that our study is an exploratory one that
explores the smallholder oil palm planters' intention to supply oil
palm residue. Future studies can be conducted to provide a more
representative result using a suitable sampling method. Second, the
sample of respondent is the smallholder oil palm planters from the
southern region of Peninsular Malaysia. As highlighted in previous
studies, farmers' attitudes can differ across regions (Qualls et al.,
2012; Bergtold et al., 2014; Halder et al., 2014), thus our re-
spondents' perception may differ compared to planters from other
parts of Malaysia. For instance, oil palm planters from the east coast
region of Peninsular Malaysia may be more concerned with the
environmental and ecological impacts because this region is
vulnerable to ooding. In 2014, it is estimated that ooding is
responsible for a 28% decrease in oil palm production (Pakiam,
2015). Future studies may look into this aspect. Third, this study
was conducted prior to an established oil palm residue market. As
uncertainty about a reasonable price and market prospect is con-
cerned, our results suggest that smallholder planters shall be
assured that their existing income level is maintained while they
are supplying oil palm residue. Thus, current implications of results
from this study that focus on promoting production benet may be
limited to a future market when an established biomass market is
formed. Other incentives, especially market incentive may become
the main motivators when there is an established market. Yet, it is
worth restating that over promoting economic benets during the
early stage of biomass supply may result in scepticism (Rossi and
Hinrichs, 2011) and loss of condence among farmers
(Hunsberger, 2010). This, in turn, will affect farmers' willingness to
continue supplying biomass. Future studies may consider this effect
and compare to our results for a comprehensive understanding
about farmers' intention to supply agricultural residue.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge that this work is sup-
ported by the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme with Cost
Center No.R.J130000.7827.4F217 provided by the Ministry of
Higher Education, Malaysia. The authors also appreciate the Min-
istry of Higher Education, Malaysia for its kindness in sponsoring
the rst author's PhD study through the MyPhD scholarship under
the Program of MyBrain 15.
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