Food Safety Trust, Risk Perception, and Consumers' Response to Company Trust Repair Actions in Food Recall Crises.

Food recalls have severe impacts on the operation, reputation, and even the survival of a recalling company involved in a crisis, with consumer trust violation being the immediate threat to the recalling firm. The involved firms adopt trust repair strategies and release messages relevant to these actions to the public. In this research, we developed a conceptual model to analyze consumers' general responses to the food recall, and we then compared the effect of two types of consumer trust repair strategies, i.e., self-sanction and information-sharing. The results show that consumer food safety trust has negative impacts on consumers' protective behavioral intention during a food recall crisis. In the scientific-evidence sharing group, consumers have a higher risk perception, coping appraisal efficacy, information-seeking tendency, and protection behavioral intention. However, consumers' food safety trust fails to predict protection behavioral intention because scientific-evidence actions can either be regarded as an explanation and self-serving, or as useful facts and solutions. Self-sanction actions overcome the disadvantages of information-sharing actions, but consumers still require information on facts of and solutions to the crisis. Therefore, it is recommended that recalling firms combine these two strategies in the case of consumer trust repair in food recall crises. Furthermore, the involved firms are encouraged to employ a third party to release the scientific evidence.

Environmental Education, Knowledge, and High School Students' Intention toward Separation of Solid Waste on Campus.

To achieve substantial and sustainable levels of separation of municipal solid waste (MSW), it is essential to engage young people as they are important drivers of change and will have a major influence on the future of the world. This study aimed to understand Chinese high school students' intention toward the separation of solid waste on campus (SSWC). The study has used the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as its theoretical framework, and further incorporates two additional constructs (environmental education and environmental knowledge) to explain the separation of solid waste (SSW) behavior of 562 high school students. The results indicate that environmental education is essential to ensure that students have required knowledge and positive attitudes toward SSWC. Knowledge was the best predictor of high school students' separation behavior. Moreover, a lack of subjective norm from the important people could prevent students from participating in this process, regardless of their positive attitudes. The implications for policy and scope for further research are discussed.

Understanding corporate surplus food donation in China: testing the roles of environmental concern, altruism, past experience, and perceived risk.

This paper investigates the motives behind corporate giving and determines whether perceived risk plays a major role in corporate surplus food donation intention. A conceptual model is developed from the perspectives of perceived risk, economic concern, past behavior, and moral motives. A questionnaire survey is conducted among food manufacturers and retailers in the Sichuan Province in China. A total of 143 valid observations are used to conduct structural equation modeling analysis. The results show that corporate reputation, legislation, and business risks are the main sub dimensions of risks that corporations perceive. Perceived risk, past behavior, environmental concern, and altruism affect corporate donation intention significantly. Implications of the findings for promoting surplus food donation are also discussed.

An Augmented Risk Information Seeking Model: Perceived Food Safety Risk Related to Food Recalls.

Food safety is of worldwide concern. As an effective mechanism governing food safety, food recalls are widely applied around the world. Though it is well known that food recalls can have substantial, negative impacts on corporate reputation and marketing, we know relatively little related to what factors motivate people to seek related information after the recall announcement. This study attempts to elucidate the determinants of information-seeking intention in the context of food safety in food recalls by using an augmented risk information-seeking model. A survey of 631 Chinese residents was used to explore the proposed framework. The results show that current knowledge, risk perception, perceived channel beliefs, and perceived information-gathering capacity (PIGC) are all significant predictors of information need and information-seeking intention. It was also confirmed that risk perception has a positive correlation with seeking need. These findings are important for policymakers, recalling manufacturers, and retailers to develop strategies for better risk communication in food recall announcements.

Determinants and the Moderating Effect of Perceived Policy Effectiveness on Residents' Separation Intention for Rural Household Solid Waste.

Currently, villages "besieged with garbage" have become a serious problem in rural areas of China. Separation of rural residential solid waste (RRSW) is one of the main strategies for waste reduction. Although previous studies have analyzed the social and psychological motivations of residents' separation intention for municipal solid waste (MSW), little attention has been paid to the situation in rural areas. This paper investigates key factors influencing rural residents' separation intention, as well as analyzing the moderating effects of perceived policy effectiveness on the relationship between the determinants and the intention, using survey data of 538 rural residents in the province of Sichuan in China. The results show that all the proposed key factors influence the separation intention significantly. Furthermore, the policies were divided into two types and the moderating effects were tested for each type. The results show that the perceived effectiveness of both the inducement policy and the capacity building policy moderated the relationship between attitude and separation intention positively, while the perceived effectiveness of the inducement policy moderated the relationship between subjective norms and intention negatively. The findings provide insightful information for policymakers to design effective RRSW separation policies.

Confucian Culture as Determinants of Consumers' Food Leftover Generation: Evidence from Chengdu, China.

Food waste is a worldwide problem due to its effects on carbon emission, water pollution, and arable lands. Previous studies of food waste generation and reduction focus on demographic, psychological, and situational factors, whereas the effects of culture in different countries have been ignored. This paper investigates the influence of Confucian culture on behaviors that waste food, considering additional factors of face saving and group conformity. We used an integrated behavioral intention model combining the TPB model and Lee's modified Fishbein model. The results show that including the constructors of Confucian culture increases the predictive power of the model. Face saving and group conformity are found to significantly influence attitude toward food waste reduction. Face saving can greatly reduce the intention to pack leftovers, and group conformity has a significant effect on the ordering of small portion sizes. Based on these results, we give a discussion and put forward with suggestions to the government and the catering industry. Limitations and implications for future research are provided accordingly.