A case study of factors influencing natural resource practitioners' intent to incorporate social science

The goal of natural resource management is to maintain or promote the ability of ecosystems to sustain healthy biotic and physical resources within a framework that recognizes, integrates, and balances human needs. Effective natural resource management involves thoughtful consideration and analysis of the ecological, economic, and social dimensions of management issues, while recognizing that the mix and relative weight of those dimensions may vary depending upon the issue being addressed. The need for cross-disciplinary scientific inquiries that facilitate improved natural resource management outcomes through increased understanding of both the biophysical and human dimensions of management issues has been widely recognized. Despite this broad recognition, implementation of these approaches is still fraught with various challenges and barriers. Improving our understanding of these challenges and barriers will further enable our ability to address them and thereby foster appropriate and effective utilization of cross-disciplinary approaches to solve natural resource management challenges.;This research uses a case study analysis of the United States National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) to improve our understanding of the critical factors that influence practitioners' decisions related to incorporating social science into their natural resource management work. The case study research is analyzed and evaluated within a Theory of Planned Behavior framework to (a) determine and describe the factors that predict practitioners' intent to incorporate social science into their natural resource related activities and (b) recommend potential strategies for encouraging and enabling cross-disciplinary approaches to natural resource management. The results indicate that NERR practitioners' decisions related to incorporating social science are primarily influenced by two things: confidence in their own capability to incorporate social science into their work and beliefs about whether or not the outcomes of incorporating social science into their work would be valuable or beneficial. In addition, the results indicate that practitioners are more likely to incorporate social science into their work if they have received training in the social sciences.