All About Attitude : The Theory of Planned Behavior and Small Business Disaster Response

Small business operators are increasingly faced with difficult decisions in the face of complex and often uncertain disasters aggravated by climate change. In coastal regions of the SE USA, the COVID-19 pandemic and a recent history of hurricanes provided an opportunity to study the relationships between the three components of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) -- operator's attitudes, subjective social norms, and perceived behavioral control -- and their actualized behaviors in relation to hurricane preparation and COVID-19 response. In a study of 168 small business operators, we find that previously experienced and anticipated event (hurricane) components are reliable measures of both taking protective action for hurricanes (AUC = 0:74) and for the COVID-19 pandemic (MCC = 0:87) in binary logistic regression models. This study advances the fields of disaster resilience planning and behavioral economics by extending the TPB from intended to actualized disaster-related behaviors. We demonstrate that with positive attitudes towards preparation for anticipated events, small businesses are predisposed to take protective actions to respond to unanticipated events. As climate change is likely to increase complex disasters, understanding the components of small business operators' actualized preparedness behaviors highlights an avenue for supporting both business and community resilience