Intention to reduce food waste: A study among Malaysians

Understanding driving forces of food waste separation intention to enhance regional and local solid waste planning: application of PLS-SEM and multi-group analysis

This study extended the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and applied it to analyse influencing factors of food waste separation intention (FSI) among households in central Vietnam. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to analyse the data. The heterogeneity of factors contributing to FSI in cities of three levels was examined using multi-group analysis (MGA). The results indicate that attitudes, subjective norms (SN), perceived behavioural control (PBC), awareness of benefit (AB), information publicity (IP), facility availability (FA), and trust significantly affected FSI of households. MGA results indicated the heterogeneity of impacts of PBC and attitude on FSI of households among three municipal levels. The results will serve as basic data for waste officers, solid-waste management project leaders, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and other related stakeholders to lay the foundation of food waste management planning in terms of regional scale and local scale. This study will also aid the creation of a circular economy by providing a scientific base for enhancing food waste separation at source in central Vietnam.

Consumer intentions to reduce food waste in all-you-can-eat restaurants based on personal norm activation

Norm activation theory (NAT) is a theoretical foundation often used by academics to explain behavioral intention in the context of pro-environmental consumer behavior. This research aimed to analyze the essential role of NAT in ascertaining consumer intentions to reduce food waste based on social marketing. The unit of analysis was an individual, namely consumers who have visited an "all-you-can-eat" restaurant in the last month during the research time and intend to visit again in the future. Primary data was collected using a questionnaire instrument which was created and distributed online. Furthermore, the Likert scaling technique with five answer options was used to measure each item of the latent variable measurement. This research used purposive sampling with a size of 500 respondents, and the quality of the measurement was tested using confirmatory factor analysis. The covariance-based structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was used to test the hypotheses. The results showed that personal norm as the core of NAT can be active when consumers feel they are responsible for the negative impacts of food waste. Active personal norm has a significant effect on behavioral intentions and the formation of consumer intentions to reduce food waste. Contextually, the implementation of NAT to reduce food waste with a focus on the social marketing approach is the essential originality of this research. Further research will be more comprehensive if it involves actual behavioral factors as a translation of intentions.

Consumer-Related Antecedents of Waste Behavior in Online Food Ordering: A Study among Young Adults in China

Food waste in the catering industry currently accounts for almost half of the total food waste in China and entails a large amount of land, water, and labor costs, in addition to the carbon footprint's impacts on climate change. Under the background of increasing food consumption and waste from online catering, this study investigates the factors influencing the food waste behaviors (FW) of online food ordering in China and provides policy recommendations for food waste reduction. Using survey data from 482 consumers, we constructed a theoretical framework and examined the influence path of each factor using structural equation modeling (SEM) and a bootstrap test. The results showed that young consumers without farming experience and females wasted more on ordering food online. The more frequently the consumer ordered, the more they wasted. The level of consumers' perceived behavioral control (PBC) was found to be lower than other factors, indicating that it was difficult for consumers to reduce food waste. Attitudes toward behavior (ATT), subjective norm (SN), PBC, and price consciousness (PC) were all positively related to behavioral intention to reduce food waste (BI). PBC and BI were negatively related to FW, and over-consumption behavior (OC) was positively related to FW. BI had a mediating effect on the paths of ATT, PBC, and PC to FW, but the pathway through which PC influenced FW was primarily through BI or PBC, not OC. In our research, BI had no mediating effect between SN and FW. Ultimately, our findings inform some policy recommendations to help nations, restaurants, food-ordering platforms, and consumers reduce waste.