A Configurational Analysis of Factors Affecting Low-Carbon Behavior of College Students Based on the Motivation-Opportunity-Ability Framework

Individual low-carbon behavior (LCB) plays an important role in reducing carbon emissions and achieving climate mitigation goals to build a low-carbon society. Based on data collected from college students in Xi’an City, this study proposes a Motivation-Opportunity-Ability (MOA) integrated framework that simultaneously considers eight elements and analyzes their combinatorial effects on the LCB of college students through the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis ( fsQCA) method. The analysis results show that: (1) low-carbon knowledge (LK) is a necessary condition for the implementation of LCB among college students and, along with behavioral intention (BI), plays universal and important roles in LCB implementation. (2) the combination of MOA conditions can be summarized into four different paths affecting LCB implementation among college students: 1) publicity and education (PE)-driven under the motivation-dominant mode; 2) the opportunity-pull mode; 3) enjoyment perception (EP)-driven under the motivation-dominant mode; and 4) the abilitypush mode. (3) Each mode represents different characteristics and coupling paths to achieve LCB implementation among college students. This study enriches the literature on LCB and provides potential implications for guiding college students’ LCB and improving low-carbon management.