Attitude: An individual's positive or negative feeling associated with performing a specific behavior. According to Ajzen and Fishbein(1975), in general, an individual will hold a favorable attitude toward a given behavior if he/she believes that the performance of the
behavior will lead to mostly positive outcomes; on the other hand, if the individual believes that mostly negative outcome will result from the behavior, he/she will hold a negative attitude toward it(Mykytyn and Harrison 1993).
Subjective Norm: It is determined by an individual's normative beliefs that significant others think he/she should or should not perform the behavior, coupled with motivation to comply with its referents. Significant others are individuals whose preferences about a
person's behavior in this domain are important to him/her(Eagly and Chaiken 1993).
Intention: Likelihood of doing something, like buying a brand. Thus, an intention is a type of judgment about how, in the present context, an individual will behave toward a particular brand.
Intention is the best predictor of behavior and attitude and subjective norms influence the intention. Fishbein and Ajzen(1975,1980) have claimed that variables not explicitly included in the Theory of Reasoned Action(e.g., demographic variables, attitudes toward target and
personality traits) can affect intention and behavior only if they influence the attitudinal or normative considerations or their relative weights. For instance, an individual's prior experience of using coupons affects intention but not directly on future behavior(Bagozzi, Baumgartner and Yi 1992).
The importance of attitude and subjective norm of an individual to predict behavior vary by situation. According to Bagozzi, Baumgartner and Yi, state versus action orientation affects the relative importance of attitudes and subjective norms in the formation of intentions. Specifically, as individual becomes more action oriented, attitudes are more important than subjective norms as a basis in intention forming. On the other hand, as individual becomes more state oriented, the relative importance of subjective norms in the formation of intentions increases.
In Theory of Reasoned Action, there are three conditions in which intention of an individual can accurately predict the behavior. First, the intention and behavior measures correspond in specificity of action, target, context, and time frame. Second, intention and behavior do not
change in the interval between assessment of intention and assessment of behavior. Finally, the behavior in question is under the individual's volitional control, i.e., he/she can decide at will to perform or not perform the behavior.(Ajzen and Fishbein 1980)
The validity of the Theory of Reasoned Action is extensive within these condition, however, under circumstances where internal and external factors might hinder the volitional control of the behavior, the Theory of Reasoned Action is a relatively poor predictor of these types of behaviors. Thus, the Theory of Planned Behavior which is an extension of the Theory of Reasoned Action was developed incorporating behavioral control factors in predicting behavior. It posits that most intended behaviors are subject to some uncertainty and that the success in performing a behavior depends not only on intention but also on factors that may interfere with behavior control. For example, external factors such as money, opportunity, and the cooperation of others and internal factors such as skills and self-control may influence a behavior.(Netemeyer, Burton and Johnston 1991)
The Theory of Reasoned Action has been applied to strategy choices in Prisoner's Dilemma games, blood donation, voting, church attendance, family planning, smoking marijuana, mothers' infant feeing practices, dental hygiene behaviors, having an abortion, purchasing various consumer products, attendance at employee training, seatbelt use, and AIDS research.(Eagly and Chaiken 1993)
