The role of psychological ownership in community-based piped water supply infrastructure in Nepal and India

Ambühl, Benjamin

doi:10.48549/3748

Publication type:	Doctoral thesis
Title:	The role of psychological ownership in community-based piped water supply infrastructure in Nepal and India
Authors:	Ambühl, Benjamin
Advisors / Reviewers:	Innauen, Jennifer Mosler, Hans-Joachim
DOI:	10.48549/3748
Extent:	380
Issue Date:	2022
Publisher / Ed. Institution:	Universität Bern
Publisher / Ed. Institution:	Bern
Language:	English
Subject (DDC):	150: Psychology 363: Environmental and security problems
Abstract:	Psychological ownership, the feeling that something is mine, is a diverse social construct on the individual level with a measurable core dimension of possessiveness. It can be fostered through participative elements in combination with behaviour change interventions. The concept originally stems from the organizational context, where antecedents leading to, and consequences of psychological ownership were vastly researched. Initial evidence of the application of the construct to shared targets such as the environment or common-pool resources, for instance community-based water infrastructure, yielded promising results. However, causal evidence is scarce and a holistic adaptation of the construct, tests of theory-based interventions concerning the routes, validation of the measurement scale, and a systematic investigation of the consequences of psychological ownership are lacking. This dissertation presents findings from two community development programmes in Nepal and India, where psychological ownership for community-based water infrastructure was the subject of the research. Our results are in-line with existing evidence from the organizational context and applications in other domains. First, we found qualitative evidence for the importance of the construct in the specific context of Nepal and India, and we validated the measurement for individual psychological ownership. Second, we found that interventions should be targeting the three routes substantially, e.g. by participatory activities. Community participation can be seen as a means of implementation and therefore needs to be combined with individual-level behaviour change and embedded in institutional interventions to cause greater psychological ownership. Third, the results show that psychological ownership fosters behavioural determinants and organizational citizenship behaviour, but not the functionality of safe water supply infrastructure. This body of work provides various connecting factors for future research. Apart from changes towards an enabling environment, it is important to disentangle complex interaction of stakeholders. There is a need for experts to take care of key infrastructure. In turn, psychological ownership plays an important role in the acceptance, use and sustainability of community-based safe water supply.
URI:	https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/28942
License (according to publishing contract):	CC BY-NC 4.0: Attribution - Non commercial 4.0 International
Departement:	School of Management and Law
Organisational Unit:	Institute of Business Information Technology (IWI)
Appears in collections:	Publikationen School of Management and Law

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Ambühl, B. (2022). The role of psychological ownership in community-based piped water supply infrastructure in Nepal and India [Doctoral dissertation, Universität Bern]. https://doi.org/10.48549/3748

Ambühl, B. (2022) The role of psychological ownership in community-based piped water supply infrastructure in Nepal and India. Doctoral dissertation. Universität Bern. Available at: https://doi.org/10.48549/3748.

B. Ambühl, “The role of psychological ownership in community-based piped water supply infrastructure in Nepal and India,” Doctoral dissertation, Universität Bern, Bern, 2022. doi: 10.48549/3748.

AMBÜHL, Benjamin, 2022. The role of psychological ownership in community-based piped water supply infrastructure in Nepal and India. Doctoral dissertation. Bern: Universität Bern

Ambühl, Benjamin. 2022. “The Role of Psychological Ownership in Community-Based Piped Water Supply Infrastructure in Nepal and India.” Doctoral dissertation, Bern: Universität Bern. https://doi.org/10.48549/3748.

Ambühl, Benjamin. The Role of Psychological Ownership in Community-Based Piped Water Supply Infrastructure in Nepal and India. Universität Bern, 2022, https://doi.org/10.48549/3748.