Abstract
Research focusing on diners' intentions towards leftovers, which are considered one of the main sources of consumer food waste in restaurants, is still at a nascent stage and requires further investigation. The present study attempts to address this gap by investigating the antecedents of diners' intentions to take away leftovers and thereby mitigate food waste in an out-of-home setting. Towards this end, we examined the role of personal and social norms as antecedents of the facilitators, inhibitors, and intentions of taking away leftovers. Using the theoretical lens of the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) paradigm, we tested the proposed hypotheses by analysing data collected from 281 diners residing in the United States through a cross-sectional survey on Prolific Academic. The findings indicate that personal norms are positively associated with facilitators and intentions. In comparison, social norms are positively associated with facilitators but negatively associated with inhibitors. The results also confirmed the mediation effect of facilitators and inhibitors and the moderation effect of planning routine to provide valuable insights into the drivers of pro-environmental/eco-friendly behaviour in out-of-home dining to thus aid strategy formulation and future research.
Highlights
Food waste is a major concern for economic sustainability, the environment, and society at the global level (Dhir et al, 2020; Papar gyrupoulou et al, 2016)
We analysed the content of the interview responses and substanti ated the same with a comprehensive review of the literature to identify personal and social norms as the antecedents associated with positive and negative evaluations that facilitate or inhibit the intentions of diners to take away leftovers
Since taking away leftovers would reduce the food waste generated by restaurants and save the cost of a meal when consumed at home, our study reveals the drivers of diners’ eco-friendly behaviours that advance the global sustain ability agenda
Summary
Food waste is a major concern for economic sustainability, the environment, and society at the global level (Dhir et al, 2020; Papar gyrupoulou et al, 2016). We followed a mixed-method approach to identify the relevant stimuli, facilitators, and inhibitors that may drive diners’ intentions to take away leftovers after dining out To this end, we first conducted a qualitative study through in-depth telephonic interviews to understand why diners feel that they should or should not take away leftovers after eating out. We analysed the content of the interview responses and substanti ated the same with a comprehensive review of the literature to identify personal and social norms as the antecedents associated with positive and negative evaluations that facilitate or inhibit the intentions of diners to take away leftovers. The theory has been especially lauded for its versatility in providing the necessary framework for explicating complex human decision-making processes
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