Do culture and consciousness matter? A study on motivational drivers of household food waste reduction in Turkey

Abstract

Food waste reduction has taken a remarkable place in the objectives of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals and it has been considered a relevant topic by scholars, companies, and governmental organizations. This study aims to design and compare two competing models describing the influence of personally (consciousness) and socially (culture) determined factors on consumers' intention to reduce household food waste in Turkey. To do so, a cross-sectional study was conducted in three metropolitan cities of Turkey: Ankara, Izmir, and Adana. The primary data were collected from 710 individuals via face–to–face interviews and analyzed through two Structural Equation Models (SEM) based on the Motivation-Opportunity-Ability theoretical framework. Results from the SEM model investigating the role of cultural factors identify motivation as a significant driver of food waste reduction, which is directly influenced by religiosity, media effects, and good provider identity. Results from the SEM model related to consumer consciousness also show that motivation is a significant and robust driver of intention and that economic consciousness has a strong effect on motivation, while environmental consciousness has a weak influence on intention to reduce food waste. Findings of this study increase the knowledge of consumers' drivers to reduce food waste in an emerging country as Turkey and provide policymakers and practitioners insights to elaborate interventions to reduce household food waste tailored on consumers' cultural and consciousness factors.