A multi actor systematic review of the theory of planned behavior in sustainable cultural heritage

Sustaining cultural heritage requires understanding the behavioral drivers of key stakeholder groups, yet existing applications of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in cultural heritage research remain unevenly distributed across actors and contexts. Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, this study systematically reviewed 23 peer-reviewed articles. Twenty-two articles were identified through database searching in Web of Science and Scopus, and one additional article was identified through backward snowballing of the reference lists of included studies; the publication-year window was 2010–2026. The review identifies a pronounced actor imbalance: tourist-focused studies dominate the corpus ( n = 18), compared with three resident-focused studies, one multi-actor study involving tourists and residents, and one youth-focused study. Consequently, youth-related findings are treated as provisional rather than generalizable. Across the available evidence, attitudes generally show positive associations with behavioral intentions, while the relative roles of subjective norms and perceived behavioral control vary by actor group and behavior type. Theoretical extensions cluster around identity, emotion, normative, experiential, and destination or management dimensions. Drawing on these patterns, the review proposes three actor-specific extended TPB frameworks for future empirical validation: a motivational model for youth cultural heritage participation, a place attachment-mediated model for community residents’ conservation behavior, and a sustainable consumption decision-making model for heritage tourists. The review contributes to SDG 11.4-oriented heritage governance by clarifying what current TPB evidence can support and where further actor-sensitive empirical research is required.