COVID-19 and sustainable environment: understanding higher education students' willingness to pay more for food delivery containers
ISSN: 0368-492X
Article publication date: 3 March 2023
Issue publication date: 7 July 2023
Abstract
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.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: The work was supported by Strategic Research Incentive (SRI) Funded Grant Scheme, Curtin University Malaysia.
Citation
Sia, J.K.-M., Hii, I.S.H. and Ho, J.M. (2023), "COVID-19 and sustainable environment: understanding higher education students' willingness to pay more for food delivery containers", Kybernetes, Vol. 52 No. 7, pp. 2488-2506. https://doi.org/10.1108/K-07-2022-1061
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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