Food for thought: motives across cultures

Culture and motivation play important roles in the customer’s food waste journey.While frugality and guilt explain intentions to avoid food waste, it is not clear when such motives are aroused during the customer’s food waste journey, and whether cultural values, such as collectivism and individualism, influence the pattern of motivations. This study investigates the impact of guilt and a price-conscious mindset on two stages of the customer’s food waste journey, using a large cross-cultural sample (n=1004). Data analysis consists of partial least squares structural equation modeling. Overall, the findings show that guilt is aroused during the shopping stage, and a price-conscious mindset is aroused during the planning stage. In a collectivist culture such as Singapore, a price-conscious mindset is aroused during the shopping stage (as well as the planning stage), but this is not the case in individualistic cultures such as the UK and Australia. The findings imply that while motivations for avoiding food waste are universal, motives interact with culture and influence the customer’s food waste journey in diverse ways. Theoretically, the work contributes to the literature by augmenting the customer food waste journey framework with motives and testing it in a cross-cultural context.

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