ABSTRACT Understanding the factors that influence public participation is crucial for improving plastic waste management (PWM) in rapidly urbanizing cities of developing countries. Using data from 400 households collected through a validated questionnaire, this study examines the factors influencing residents’ willingness to participate (WTP) in PWM in Da Nang, Vietnam, by integrating behavioral and institutional perspectives within a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework. Six key constructs were examined: environmental awareness, infrastructure, laws and regulations, social norms, trust, and personal values and environmental concerns. The SEM results show that the combined effects of individual cognition, social influence, and institutional factors shape residents’ WTP in PWM. Environmental awareness, and personal values and environmental concerns emerge as the most influential drivers, followed by perceived infrastructure adequacy and regulatory frameworks. Social norms and trust also exert statistically significant, though relatively weaker, effects. Multi‐group SEM analysis further reveals structural invariance across demographic groups, suggesting that the underlying determinants of participation are consistent across gender, age, education, income, occupation, marital status, and residential location. These findings imply that effective PWM strategies should simultaneously strengthen public awareness, improve waste management infrastructure, and enhance regulatory clarity and institutional credibility. The absence of demographic heterogeneity supports the feasibility of implementing city‐wide, inclusive policy interventions rather than segmented approaches. The study contributes theoretically by extending the Theory of Planned Behavior through the integration of institutional factors. It demonstrates the value of SEM to assess the robustness of participation models in environmental management contexts.
Phan et al. (2026) studied this question.