Managing Sustainable Household Water Consumption by Adopting Water Conservation Information

In this study, a conceptual model integrating the Information Adoption Model (IAM) with the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) was developed to investigate household sustainable water use. The study examined how argument quality and source credibility influence the perceived usefulness of information adoption on water conservation. Furthermore, it investigated how perceived usefulness affects perceived behavioural control and the subsequent adoption of water conservation information, ultimately leading to sustainable household use. Data was collected from 408 usable data from South African households using a random sampling technique and an online self-administered survey. The data collected was analysed using SmartPLS version 4 software. The findings confirmed the significant and positive relationship on four proposed relationships, except for source credibility’s negative and insignificant effect on the perceived usefulness of water conservation information. One of the most impactful findings was the positive effect of perceived usefulness on perceived behavioural control, which had no prior support from the literature. This is a significant contribution of the study to the existing literature. The study’s findings offer practical insights into managing sustainable household water consumption by emphasizing the importance of perceived usefulness and behavioural control in promoting effective information adoption. The implications, limitations and recommendations for future studies based on our findings are provided.