Compliance to building thermal envelope insulation requirements based on theory of planned behavior (TPB) and procedural justice theory (PJT)

The construction industry plays a crucial role in achieving sustainable development, particularly in the context of energy conservation. addressing the building's optimized energy efficiency is essential, as it accounts for a significant portion of global energy consumption. While many countries have implemented policies related to building energy conservation, the lack of compliance with relevant regulations remains a challenge. However, voluntary self-regulated compliance can be encouraged through flexible approaches that leverage normative influence and equitable governance attributes within the regulatory system. This study evaluates the building contractors' intention to comply with the Building Thermal Envelope Insulation Requirements (BTE-IR), a critical energy conservation measure for buildings. An integrative model combining the Procedural Justice Theory (PJT) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was developed to quantitatively investigate individual and social factors influencing compliance with BTE-IR. The study analyzed a sample of 214 Iranian building contractors using Partial Least Squares Structural Equations Modeling (PLS-SEM). The core findings revealed that subjective norms (beta = 0.330, p < 0.01) and perceived behavioral control (beta = 0.337, p < 0.01) significantly influence intention to comply with BTE-IR. Additionally, the study explored the moderating effects of job satisfaction, job commitment, years of experience, project experience and marital status on the relationships between variables in the research model. These findings can inform construction industry policymakers in developing optimized strategies for self-regulated compliance with BTE-IR and legitimizing the regulatory system for enforcing sustainable practices.