Habit—Does It Matter? Bringing Habit and Emotion into the Development of Consumer’s Food Waste Reduction Behavior with the Lens of the Theory of Interpersonal Behavior

Abstract

The immense food waste, generated by restaurants is not only a serious burden for the foodservice business but also a cause of anguish for the emerging nations in which eating out is becoming increasingly trendy. Consumers’ food wastes account for a significant portion of restaurant food waste, indicating the need for a change in consumers’ behavior to minimize food waste. To examine this problem, our study sought to identify the elements that influence restaurant consumers’ behaviors on food waste reduction, reuse, and recycling. The influence of anticipated positive emotions, awareness of consequences, environmental knowledge, and social norms on waste reduction intentions were examined by using a quantitative technique in the investigation. Furthermore, the influence of habits, waste reduction intentions, and facilitating conditions on food waste reduction, reuse, and recycling behaviors have also been investigated. The study collected 1063 responses and employed the PLS-SEM approach to verify the hypotheses. The results suggested that anticipated positive emotions, awareness of consequences, environmental knowledge, and social norms all have substantial impacts on waste reduction intentions. In addition, habits, waste reduction intentions, and facilitating conditions have noteworthy influences on consumers’ behaviors towards food waste reduction, reuse, and recycling in restaurants. Understanding these elements could help in correcting customers’ waste behaviors in restaurants. The findings in this study are useful for managers, policymakers, and researchers who want to solve the problems of food waste. The implications, limits, and suggestions for further studies have also been discussed in our study.