A Review of the Stimulus–Organism–Response Paradigm and Environmental Education for Cruise Tourism: A Proposed Framework

Chun-Hua Hsiao; Kai-Yu Tang

doi:10.46604/aiti.2025.14698

Authors

Chun-Hua Hsiao School of Business, Kainan University, Taoyuan, Taiwan, ROC
Kai-Yu Tang Graduate Institute of Library & Information Science; Innovation and Development Center of Sustainable Agriculture, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan, ROC

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46604/aiti.2025.14698

Keywords:

environmental education, sustainable cruise tourism, stimulus‒organism‒response, external stimulus, internal organism

Abstract

With the rapid growth of the global cruise tourism industry and its increasing environmental impact, there is an urgent need to address sustainability challenges in line with the SDGs, especially in Taiwan. Despite the growing research on environmental education, there is a lack of a theoretical framework from the perspective of the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) paradigm that examines the relationships between external stimuli, internal organisms, and individual responses to environmental education in the context of cruise tourism. The proposed framework includes attention to environmental issues and awareness of consequences as external stimuli. These stimuli influence affective and cognitive processes, which are internal states of the organism. In turn, the affective and cognitive states drive pro-environmental behavioral responses. Additionally, the proposed framework incorporates two potential moderating factors: cultural differences and environmental education with emerging technologies. Implications for environmental education in cruise tourism are provided.

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