Identification and Analysis of Factors Affecting Social Marketing in the Field of Water and Wastewater Industry

Drought, population growth, industrialization of society, and expansion of urbanization are the factors that have led to the crisis of water resources in the country, In this regard, social marketing has an effective role in improving the pattern of water consumption. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify and analyze the factors affecting social marketing in the field of water and wastewater industry. This research was applied in terms of purpose and since the implementation method was a descriptive survey with a mixed exploratory. approach. In the qualitative stage, the research team consisted of 16 academic and organizational experts who were selected by the targeted method and snowball technique. In the quantitative stage of the statistical population, there were 3500 water and sewage experts in the country. The sample size was determined to be 346 according to Krejcie and Morgan’s table and a simple random sampling method was used. The content analysis method was used to identify the factors and the method of the structural equation was used to analyze the relationships of variables with Smart PLS software. The results showed that the effective factors of social marketing include 20 components in the form of 6 dimensions (self-concept-perceived behavioral control-religiosity-mental norms-attitude-moral norms). Also, the results of structural equations showed that attitude factors with a coefficient (0.436) have the most and religiosity with a coefficient (0.310) has the least effect on social marketing.