Article
Willing But Constrained: A Barrier–Solution Framework for Addressing the Sustainability Intention–Action Gap in Indian Higher Education Institutions
Despite broadly positive environmental attitudes, university students consistently fail to translate intentions into sustainable behavior — a persistent challenge known as intention-action gap. In India, this gap is highlighted by structural conditions largely absent from Western research: inadequate infrastructure, unaffordable sustainable products, weak institutional regulation, and culturally specific social norms. Drawing on 16 structured interviews across Indian higher education institutions (HEIs), analysed through cross-case thematic analysis in NVivo and theorised using the Theory of Planned Behavior and behavioral economics, this study examines why students fail to act sustainably and what interventions consistently resolve those failures. Four barrier types are identified — infrastructure, economic, cultural resistance, and institutional policy contradictions — and paired with evidence-based institutional and governmental responses. The mandate-to-habit pathway, confirmed across four independent cases, emerges as the strongest policy mechanism. The study proposes a barrier-solution framework as a practical diagnostic tool for HEI sustainability practitioners and policymakers in emerging economy contexts.