ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the readers to the subject matter of the book, highlighting the importance of compliance within the public sector and other domains. It provides a discussion of the complexities underlying the meaning of compliance and presents a framework for studying compliance, based on theories and analyses of compliance that appear in a variety of academic disciplines. In describing this framework, the authors discuss how various contextual factors interact to inform compliance outcomes. More specifically, the authors consider how features of broader biophysical and social contexts influence specific compliance contexts to inform individual and collective compliance. Included within the specific compliance context are features relating to the behavioral directives against which compliance is assessed; for example, their design and mechanisms for monitoring and enforcement. Also included within the specific context are features of those compelled to comply with behavioral directives; for example, their individual psychological characteristics. The framework further shows how compliance decisions can occur and be analyzed at micro, meso, and macro levels. The aim of the framework is to guide researchers, policymakers, and students in analyzing whether, to what degree, and why compliance occurs.
