Green meets food delivery services: consumers' intention to reuse food delivery containers in the post-pandemic era

Purpose: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has increased food delivery service demand, which generates massive amounts of solid waste, specifically plastic material. Therefore, this study aims to examine the determinants of consumers' intention to reuse food delivery containers (ITR) using the extended theory of planned behavior (TPB). Moral obligation was included as an antecedent, while behavioral expectation (BE) ahead of behavioral intention was an immediate predictor of consumers' pro-environmental behaviors. Design/methodology/approach: The hypotheses were tested on 348 food delivery service users in Malaysia and analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings: The findings indicated that consumers' ITR is directly influenced by perceived behavioral control and attitude. Perceived behavioral control and attitude had a positive partial indirect effect on ITR through BE. Meanwhile, subjective norms and moral obligation had a positive full indirect effect on ITR through BE. Research limitations/implications: The findings can be directly applied to practical situations of food delivery companies and environmental protection organizations managing solid waste among food delivery services. Practical implications: Understanding consumers' ITR could promote practical environmental sustainability. Practically, the study provides insights to the food delivery service industry, policymakers and relevant stakeholders to encourage consumer behavior change by reusing food delivery containers in line with Sustainable Development Goal 12. Originality/value: The study enhances the existing literature by extending TPB with two psychological variables: moral obligation (independent variable) and BE (mediating variable). To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first attempt to empirically investigate BE in consumers' pro-environmental behavioral intention in a high-context culture and developing economy. This study could benefit food and beverage merchants, food delivery companies, governments, non-governmental organizations and pro-environmental behavior researchers in this industry. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

COVID-19 and sustainable environment: understanding higher education students' willingness to pay more for food delivery containers

Purpose: The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has increased the use of food delivery containers in the food and beverage industry. Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the aim of this paper is twofold: Firstly, it examines the influence of three elements of TPB (attitude, perceived behavioral control and subjective norm) and time pressure on the intention to reuse reusable food delivery containers (ITR). Secondly, it examines ITR as an antecedent to the willingness to pay more for reusable food delivery containers (WTPM). Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 401 higher education institution (HEI) students and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Findings: The study found that the three elements of TPB influenced ITR. Furthermore, the results revealed that ITR directly influenced WTPM. Surprisingly, time pressure did not influence ITR. Originality/value: The research is one of the earliest studies to investigate HEI students' intention to reuse food delivery containers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study contributes to TPB by presenting a novel, integrated model to explain the independent roles of time pressure and ITR on ITR and WTPM, respectively. Finally, it contributes to the existing body of knowledge on pro-environmental behavior among HEI students and advances methodologically by establishing the PLS-SEM approach. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.