Intention to reduce food waste: A study among Malaysians

ABSTRACT

Malaysia, also known as a food haven, is currently facing an excessive food waste problem which poses a threat to the environment. The objective of this research is to study the factors that affect the behavioral intention of Malaysians to reduce food waste. This study employs the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Norm Activation Model (NAM) to better understand the behavioral intention of Malaysians toward reducing food waste. A cross-sectional study was conducted, using 352 self-administered survey questionnaires. Data collected were analyzed through PLS-SEM analysis. The results show that awareness of consequences (AC) and ascription of responsibility (AR) influence personal norms, while attitude, perceived behavioral control, and personal norms (PN) have significant effect on behavioral intention (BI) to reduce food waste. Furthermore, PN partially mediates the relationship between AC and BI as well as AR and BI. This study offers critical insights which will benefit the Malaysian Government, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and other related parties in recognizing factors influencing the intention to reduce food waste which can be adopted to develop practical solutions to curb food waste in Malaysia.

Implications: This study offers critical insights to the Malaysian Government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and other related parties in recognizing factors influencing the intention to reduce food waste which can be adopted to develop practical solutions to curb food waste in Malaysia.

Introduction

The term “food waste” is a combination of two significant words, which are food losses and food waste, and it has been widely recognized as a crucial barrier in attaining global sustainability (Wang et al. 2018a). Although food is one of the primary needs for humans, global food waste is estimated to reach 2.1 billion tons by 2030 (Rosane 2018). On the other hand, over the past few years the world hunger level has risen to the level of a decade ago (World Health Organization 2018). Based on the approximation by Earth Engineering Center (2005) that 15 billion tons of municipal solid waste (which includes food waste) were being disposed of in landfill globally, Themelis and Ulloa (2007) estimated the resultant emission of methane, an ozone-depleting gas, to be 45 million tonnes to the atmosphere. The global warming potential of methane is 23 times of carbon dioxide (CO₂) gas, which means global landfill emissions resemble about one billion tonnes of CO₂. As methane gas is produced when food waste decomposes, food waste that is disposed in the landfills contributes to the global air pollution (Themelis and Ulloa 2007). Reducing food waste could prove to be a continuous global challenge (Russell et al. 2017).

The United States is the global leader in food waste, with Americans discarding nearly 40 million tons of food every year which equates to more than 161 USD billion. Food waste is one of the biggest waste streams in Singapore and, moreover, the amount of food waste generated has grown around 20% over the last 10 years. In 2019, Singapore generated around 744 million kg of food waste. Every year, the UK produces almost 20 million tonnes of food waste. In 2018, approximately 446 thousand tons of waste was generated daily on average in South Korea.

Problem statement

Malaysia, known as a food paradise, is famous for its top cuisines and hawkers’ food. Regrettably, its exceptional food culture has likewise transformed into a culture of waste. According to the research done by Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation (SWCorp), it was estimated that an average Malaysian household uses more than a month’s income for unconsumed food every year (Albakri 2016). Food is wasted during consumption as well as during the preparation and production of food. Statistics provided by SWCorp revealed that in 2017, 16,688 tonnes of food were thrown away daily in Malaysia (Azurin 2018). The survey additionally discovered that the magnitude of food waste in Malaysia is sufficient to feed 12 million individuals three times each day for a year.

According to Suzanna (2018), social activist Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye stated that nearly half of Malaysia’s population could be fed for three times with the 20,087.5 tonnes of food that was squandered every day amid the month of Ramadan (the fasting month for Muslims). In 2018, for instance, the approximated food being squandered across the country was to 615,000 metric tons during Ramadan. More worryingly, SWCorp’s research demonstrated that amid Ramadan every year, Malaysians discard food somewhere in the range of 270,000 metric tonnes of untouched and fresh food that could nonetheless be consumed (Suzanna 2018). The awareness among Malaysians with regard to food waste is undeniably high but the food waste persists at a distressing degree (Jaswa 2017). Malaysians may not be conscious of the environmental impact of food waste due to lack of information and knowledge. If food waste persists, Malaysia would be the world’s third largest greenhouse gas emitter, behind US and China (“Food waste leads to climate change” 2018).

Deficiencies in past studies and research objective

Most of the existing empirical literature on food waste in Malaysia has only covered a small geographical area of Malaysia and may not be able to be applicable to the whole of Malaysia. For instance, the research by Fegalo and Ismail (2017) on household food waste only covered Sri Serdang and Taman Connaught of Cheras in Kuala Lumpur. The study undertaken by Fatoumata and Norshamliza (2017) focused on consumers’ awareness and knowledge toward food waste only in Selangor State while Amirudin and Gim (2019) concentrated on household food waste behaviors only in Klang Valley. Finally, Kasavan, Mohamed, and Halim (2019) studied the drivers of food waste generation in Langkawi Island.

Other studies on food waste in Malaysia have not adopted a psychological (qualitative) approach for addressing the long-term solutions as they focused on trends, comparison, and challenges such as the study by Yusof et al. (2016) which studied the food waste handling and its comparison with other Asian countries and Wahidah (2017) which examined the food waste trends, current practices and its key challenges. It is believed that behind every action there is an intention. Thus, the objective of this research is to study the factors that affect the behavioral intention of Malaysians to reduce food waste.

Literature review

Theory of planned behavior (TPB)

TPB was put forth by Icek Ajzen and it presents a theoretical framework to deal with complexities of human social conduct (Ajzen 1991). The variables include attitude (AT), subjective norm (SN), perceived behavioral control (PBC), behavioral intention (BI), and behavior as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Theory of planned behavior

Source: Ajzen (1991).

Norm activation model (NAM)

Shalom H. Schwartz introduced NAM in 1977 to describe altruistic and environmentally friendly behavior as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Norm activation model

Source: Schwartz (1977) as modified by Chaisamrej and Zimmerman (2014).

The NAM is widely used by researchers to determine pro-social behavior in various areas of studies. The variables include awareness of consequences attitude (AC), ascription of responsibility (AR), personal norms (PN), behavioral intention (BI), and behavior.

Combining NAM into TPB

The TPB is deemed to be easily adaptable and “open to the inclusion of additional predictors” (Ajzen 1991, 199). Collins and Mullan (2011) also posited that the TPB is evidenced to be flexible and could be adapted by adding other roles of concepts into the model.

Past researchers have combined the variables of TPB and NAM in their studies. Han and Hyun (2017) combined the two models to identify determinants of customers’ decision to visit an environmentally responsible museum. The results established that the prediction ability of the merged model was much enhanced and acknowledged that PN and AT played a significant role in generating pro-environmental intention. Park and Ha (2014) integrated TPB and NAM to test recycle intention. It was found that PN from NAM together with AT and PBC from TPB have significant impact on recycling intention. Macovei (2015) applied few variables from TPB and NAM which includes PBC and AC for the research on determinants of consumers’ pro-environmental behavior. Moreover, Wang et al. (2018a) applied both TPB and NAM to identify whether egoism or altruism affects the daily energy-saving behavior of residents in China.

Thus, past research has shown that the TPB and NAM can be combined to determine behavioral intention. Furthermore, in the context of food waste, Visschers, Wickli, and Siegrist (2016) expanded the TPB model to include PN, which is the main variable from NAM and found that PN has significant influence on both the intention and behavior of food waste. Therefore, this study applied the combination of these two theories to study the behavioral intention of Malaysians toward reducing food waste.

Behavioral intention (BI)

Past research has indicated that intention is a good determinant to predict an individual’s behavior (Huang and Ge 2019) as intention behind an act will lead to behavior (Ajzen 1991) and behavioral intention is a strong predictor of behavior (Ajzen 2015). In relation to food waste, Visschers, Wickli, and Siegrist (2016) stated that BI is referred to an individuals’ willingness to reduce food waste. In their study conducted in Switzerland through mail survey to determine the motive, source, and hindrances to household food waste, intention to reduce food waste was found to be a critical conjecture of the amount of food wasted.

Aktas et al. (2018) applied TPB to investigate household food waste reduction and found that higher intention to reduce waste leads to lower food waste. Intention significantly predicted household waste behaviors in Iran (Pakpour et al. 2014) and fruit and vegetable waste management behavior (Abadi, Mahdavian, and Fattahi 2020). Hence, BI to reduce food waste is the primary indicator of the amount of food wasted (Visschers, Wickli, and Siegrist 2016).

Awareness of consequences (AC)

According to Schwartz (1977), PN will only be initiated if the individual is aware of the consequences. AC refers to “a disposition to become aware of the potential consequences of one’s acts for the welfare of others during the decision-making process” (Schwartz 1974, 357). AC is personal values regarding the environment that prompts a person to be mindful of the negative consequences of his/her behavior on the environment (Bronfman et al. 2015). According to Bamberg, Hunecke, and Blöbaum (2007), AC alludes to whether an individual comprehends the negative ramifications when they act in a non-pro-social way.

AC is a key factor in reducing food waste (Irani et al. 2018). Schanes, Dobernig, and Gozet (2018) noted that absence of awareness regarding environmental and social consequences of food waste promotes the intention to waste food. The study of Park and Ha (2014) discovered that AC affects intention to recycle indirectly through PN. However, AC related to health concerns has contradictory effects. The practice of taking healthy diet and concerns about consuming expired food encourage consumers to discard food or waste food (Collart and Interis 2018; Conrad et al. 2018). Nevertheless, an individual’s norms toward food waste are attributed to his/her awareness of its consequences (Le Borgne, Sirieix, and Costa 2016). Therefore, the following hypothesis is developed:

H1:There is a positive relationship between awareness of consequences and personal norms.

Ascription of responsibility (AR)

AR is defined as the sentiment of obligation regarding the negative outcome or impact of not acting pro-socially (Schwartz 1977). According to Bronfman et al. (2015) personal values influence the development of general convictions related to environment and the beliefs cause individuals to accept some level of responsibility toward the environment.

When individuals realize consequences and form AR, they are likely to form PN (De Groot and Steg 2009; Zhang, Liu, and Zhao 2018). A research conducted by Wang et al. (2018b) through survey questionnaires in China to evaluate waste separation intention among respondents found that waste separation is significantly related to AR which is positively associated with PN. The study by Liobikiene and Juknys (2016) focusing on determinants of environmental-friendly behavior found that AR significantly affects PN. Likewise, Delley and Brunner (2017), highlighted that “eco-responsible” individuals are most likely to reduce food waste. However, Erich and Jacelyn (2018) argue that an exaggeration of the responsibility for food waste reduction is misleading, rather civic engagement and political intervention should be prioritized. Nevertheless, responsibility toward food waste is normally associated with responsibility toward money and time, thus, pushing individuals to reduce food waste (William et al. 2017). The discussion above prompts the development of the following hypothesis:

H2:There is a positive relationship between ascription of responsibility and personal norms.

Attitude (AT)

AT is regarded as a stance toward a behavior in which people generally hold a certain behavioral belief in relation to any given behavior, and it is assumed that this belief together with its outcome evaluation produce an overall positive or negative stance toward the conduct or behavior (Ajzen 2012). According to Sigurðardóttir (2017), AT toward food waste reduction is an individual’s own favorable or unfavorable evaluation to perform or not to perform food waste reduction.

AT positively affects the intentions to reduce food waste (Aktas et al. 2018). Mondéjar-Jiménez et al. (2016) found that moral AT has substantial effect on food waste intention, and Barone, Grappi, and Romani (2019) posited that attitude is one of the significant predictors of intention to reduce food waste. La Barbera, Riverso, and Verneau (2016) concluded that the drive on food waste reduction from the perspective of AT has economic advantages (saving money, buy less food, cost reduction); environmental concerns (less environmental pollution, overall reduction of food waste, less waste in the landfills) and moral aspects (reducing world hunger, respect for world hunger, and helping people in need). AT also has a positive effect on fruit and vegetable waste management behavioral intention (Abadi, Mahdavian, and Fattahi 2020).

Paul Van Der Werf, Seabrook, and Gilliland (2020) postulated that personal attitudes had a positive and significant effect on the intention to avoid waste in general. Lin et al. (2018) found AT significantly influences purchasing intention of young consumers on green housing in their study through survey questionnaires in China. Likewise, Liao, Zhao, and Zhang (2018) deduced that there is a definite association between AT and the separation intention of take-away waste. AT has a positive relationship with household waste reduction intention (Sigurðardóttir 2017) and AT positively affects and links to an individual’s intention to carry out an action (Rezaei et al. 2019). Abdelradi (2018) performed an in-depth analysis of consumers’ behavior regarding food waste in Egypt and found that waste minimization and recycling, food choice, and personality traits have a strong contribution, while food expenditures and reuse activities have a moderate contribution to respondents’ food waste behaviors and also suggested that since food loss and waste is an environmental issue, religious beliefs provide an ethical motive that strengthens the environmental attitude toward food waste avoidance.

Therefore, the accompanying hypothesis is proposed:

H3:There is a positive relationship between attitude and behavioral intention of Malaysians to reduce food waste.

Subjective norms (SN)

SN is an overall perceived social force resulting from the combined effect of the normative beliefs concerning various social referents (Ajzen 2012). With regards to food waste, Flowers, Freeman, and Gladwell (2017) defined SN as the perceived social pressure to carry out or not to carry out food waste. SN and BI have a noteworthy relationship (Strydom 2018).

In the research of La Barbera, Riverso, and Verneau (2016), the respondents located almost all people approving them about waste reduction in the family area. SN is one of the significant predictors of intention to reduce food waste (Barone, Grappi, and Romani 2019) and also has a positive effect on fruit and vegetable waste management behavioral intention (Abadi, Mahdavian, and Fattahi (2020). Soorani and Ahmadvand (2019) surveyed 405 Iranian citizens and found that SNs affect the intention to reduce household food waste.

In other environmental-friendly-related issues, SN is also used to predict BI. A study conducted by Hasan, Harun, and Hock (2015) to investigate the association between variables that influence BI among UPM students in lessening plastic consumption concluded that SN and BI are significantly and positively related. Yeon et al. (2017) examined consumers’ intention in selecting organic food items and found that SN directly affects BI.

On the other hand, the study of Stefan et al. (2013) and Visschers claimed that SN is not associated with the intention to avoid food waste. These past studies have indicated conflicting discoveries on the connection between SN and BI. The discussion above prompts the development of the following hypothesis:

H4:There is a positive relationship between subjective norm and behavioral intention of Malaysians to reduce food waste.

Perceived behavioral control (PBC)

PBC is the degree to which people accept that they are able to do or have power over performing a given behavior. The degree of an individual’s control and capability is based on the sources and opportunities that exist within the person (Ajzen 2012). Pertaining to food waste, Visschers, Wickli, and Siegrist (2016) defined PBC as an individual’s recognition that they have control over the amount of food waste. PBC has a significant positive relationship toward BI (Ayob and Sheau-Ting 2016; Maichum, Parichatnon, and Peng 2016).

Some of the previous studies have shown that there is a significant relation between PBC and the intention to reduce food waste (Paul Van Der Werf, Seabrook, and Gilliland 2020; Russell et al. 2017). PBC is one of the main components responsible for the intention to waste food (Mondéjar-Jiménez et al. 2016) and PBC is an underlying predictor of behavioral intentions to reduce household food waste (Graham-Rowe, Jessop, and Sparks 2015). PBC has a positive effect on fruit and vegetable waste management behavioral intention (Abadi, Mahdavian, and Fattahi 2020). According to Riverso, Amato, and Barbera (2017), PBC can be used to anticipate the future intention of participants to reduce food waste. Even in other areas, PBC also showed to have a significant positive impact on the intention for bicycle sharing commuting (Cai et al. 2018). Hence, the following hypothesis is developed:

H5:There is a positive relationship between perceived behavioral control and behavioral intention of Malaysians to reduce food waste.

Personal norms (PN)

Schwartz (1977) defined PN as the moral commitment to perform a specific conduct. According to Bamberg, Hunecke, and Blöbaum (2007), PN is an individual’s belief that behaving in a particular way is right or wrong. Therefore, individuals use their PN to even make simple decisions (Kiatkawsin and Han 2017). PN are comprehensively associated with AC and AR where it results in stronger BI to carry out a behavior (Olsson, Huck, and Friman 2017). Visschers, Wickli, and Siegrist (2016) found that PN has significant effect on food waste intention.

A study conducted via web questionnaire in 11 different workplaces in Sweden to examine variables that drive intention to reduce car use found that PN was a significant variable influencing intentions (Olsson, Huck, and Friman 2017). PN motivates the intention to perform an action and increase the clarified difference of such intentions altogether (Koklic et al. 2019). It is also the primary predictor and positively affects an individual’s intention (Hu et al. 2019). Thus, the following hypothesis is developed.

H6:There is a positive relationship between personal norms and behavioral intention of Malaysians to reduce food waste.

Research model

Figure 3 depicts the research model proposed and applied in this study.

Figure 3. Research model for the study

Source: Adopted from: Liu et al. (2017).

Research methodology

Primary data were collected via self-administered survey questionnaires using the measurement of 5-point Likert scale. There were 36 questions for the variables as detailed in the Appendix and all the questions were adapted from sources mentioned.

A pilot test of 36 samples were collected at Tesco Extra Bercham, Ipoh to inspect the reliability and validity of the questionnaire before distributing the survey questionnaires.

Sampling

Considering actual sampling frame is not accessible, non-probability sampling was used. This study, therefore, employed quota sampling technique wherein five states were selected based on the highest population in Malaysia as shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Top five highly populated states in Malaysia

State	Population
Selangor	6,472,400
Johor	3,742,200
Perak	2,504,900
Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur	1,795,200
Penang	1,766,800

Adapted from: Department of Statistics Malaysia (2018).

According to Ujang (2017), food waste happens more often in cities where there is a bigger population. Thus, samples were obtained from cities from the five states which have the largest population in Malaysia, which are Klang from Selangor (879,867 residents), Johor Baru from Johor (802,489 residents), Ipoh from Perak (673,318 residents), Kuala Lumpur (1,453,975 residents), and George Town from Penang (300,000 residents) (World Atlas 2015).

Basically, food waste at the consumption level is a direct effect of consumers’ purchase behavior (Talia, Simeone, and Scarpato 2018). Thus, hypermarkets and supermarkets involve majority of households who contribute to food waste (Schanes, Dobernig, and Gozet 2018).

Next, adults as young as the age of 18 were selected, as when it comes to food waste, apparently busier lifestyles and “live to eat” attitude are generally blamed (Steeden 2017). Moreover, this is also because they are a big source of food waste and they lack awareness and knowledge about food waste and its resulting impacts (Nikolaus, Nickols-Richardson, and Ellison 2018). Consequently, the target respondents for the purpose of this research were Malaysian adults (aged 18 and above) from Selangor, Johor, Perak, WPKL, and Penang. Three hundred and sixty questionnaires were personally distributed at renowned hypermarkets like Tesco, Tesco Extra, and Cold Storage of the selected cities from 13^th to 24^th May 2019. Three hundred and fifty-two usable surveys were successfully obtained while eight sets of questionnaires were discarded due to incomplete responses or the respondents were foreigners.

Data analysis

Partial Least Square of Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) is applied for the purpose of this research. The reflective measurement model was evaluated using outer loading, composite reliability, convergent validity (average variance extracted), and discriminant validity (Fornell–Lacker criterion). Then, the bootstrapping technique is employed to assess the effects of AC and AR on PN; and AT, SN, PBC, and PN on BI. Lastly, we also evaluate whether PN mediates the effects between AC and BI; as well as AR and BI.

Descriptive analysis

Table 2 shows the demographic information of the respondents. There were more female respondents, 205 (58.2%) as compared to male respondents, 147 (41.8%). As for the age of respondents, the category of 18 to 27 years old and 28 to 37 years old contains the highest and equal number of respondents which is 102 respondents (29%) each while the lowest number of respondents belongs to the category of 58 years old and above at 6%. As the education level, most respondents were bachelor degree holders (37.8%), followed by diploma holders (28.1%), completed high school (21.9%), and, finally, master degree holders and above constitutes 10.5%. Most of the respondents have monthly income between RM 2,001 and RM 4,000 (34.7%) while the least have monthly income above RM 6,000 (8.2%).

Table 2. Demographic information

Description	Frequency	Percentage
Gender
Male	147	41.8
Female	205	58.2
Age
18 to 27 years old	102	29.0
28 to 37 years old	102	29.0
38 to 47 years old	71	20.2
48 to 57 years old	56	15.8
58 years old and above	21	6.0
Highest Education
High School	77	21.9
Diploma	99	28.1
Bachelor Degree	133	37.8
Master Degree & above	37	10.5
Others	6	1.7
Monthly Income Level
No Income	45	12.8
RM2,000 and below	96	27.3
RM2,000 – RM4,000	122	34.7
RM4,001 – RM6,000	60	17.0
Above RM6,000	29	8.2
State of Residence
Kuala Lumpur	38	10.8
Selangor	142	40.4
Penang	37	10.5
Perak	55	15.6
Johor	80	22.7
Race
Malay	133	37.8
Chinese	131	37.2
Indian	85	24.1
Others	3	0.9

The samples represent all the three predominant races in Malaysia, namely, Malay, Chinese, and Indians. Majority of the respondents have a good education background and majority of them having a fair monthly income of RM2,000 to RM6,000 as against the mean monthly income of Malaysia of RM3,200 in 2019.

In accordance with the quota sampling technique that has been used, the largest number of respondents are from Selangor (40.3%), followed by Johor (22.7%), Perak (15.6%), Kuala Lumpur (10.8%), and, lastly, Penang with 10.5% of respondents. Most respondents were Malays (37.8%), followed by the Chinese (37.2%), Indian (24.1%) only 3 respondents (0.9%) belonged to other races.

Table 3 shows the mean and standard deviation for all items. It shows that the mean of every items was higher than 3 and mostly between “4” (Agreed) and “5” (Strongly Agree). This indicates that majority of our respondents concurred and acknowledged the questions. SN4 has the lowest mean at 3.1676 while AC1 has the highest mean at 4.5710. The standard deviations of the seven variables range from 0.62137 to 1.30263. SN1 of Subjective Norm illustrates the highest standard deviation (1.30263) whereas the lowest standard deviations fall to AT1 of Attitude (0.62137).

Table 3. Central tendencies measurements of constructs

Variables	Items	Mean	Standard Deviation
Awareness of Consequences (AC)	AC1	4.5710	0.64101
	AC2	4.5057	0.66664
	AC3	4.4858	0.68756
	AC4	4.2813	0.82198
	AC5	4.3494	0.79532
Ascription of Responsibility (AR)	AR1	4.3778	0.69337
	AR2	4.4233	0.65791
	AR3	4.4034	0.64652
	AR4	4.4148	0.64813
Attitude (AT)	AT1	4.5369	0.62137
	AT2	4.3295	0.74683
	AT3	4.3239	0.76064
	AT4	4.4318	0.70481
	AT5	4.2898	0.75569
	AT6	4.3920	0.71192
Subjective Norm (SN)	SN1	3.5341	1.30263
	SN2	3.3494	1.18876
	SN3	3.6278	1.12502
	SN4	3.1676	1.21378
	SN5	3.4688	1.12932
Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC)	PBC1	3.7670	0.98839
	PBC2	4.0028	0.78989
	PBC3	4.0938	0.75089
	PBC4	4.0568	0.77508
	PBC5	3.9716	0.84347
Personal Norms (PN)	PN1	4.4688	0.67443
	PN2	4.4205	0.64444
	PN3	4.3693	0.68768
	PN4	4.2642	0.72093
	PN5	4.2955	0.68203
	PN6	4.3267	0.69886
Behavioral Intention (BI)	BI1	4.3580	0.68956
	BI2	4.2898	0.70900
	BI3	4.3636	0.64374
	BI4	4.2045	0.75348
	BI5	4.3580	0.63358

PLS-SEM measurement model

The PLS-SEM measurement model is given in Figure 4. According to Mondéjar-Jiménez et al. (2016), the items are considered to be reliable if the outer loadings are greater or slightly lower than 0.70. In this case, the outer loadings for all items were found to be above 0.7 except for PBC1 at 0.694, which is very close to 0.7. Thus, reliability of the items is assumed. It is also noticed that the R² for BI is 0.509 while the R² for PN is 0.398. The R² for BI of 0.509 indicates that 50.9% of BI can be explained by its independent variables, AT, SN, PBC, and PN. The remaining 49.1% could be explained by other components and 39.80% of PN can be explained by its independent variables, AR and AC. The remaining 60.20% could be explained by other components.

Figure 4. PLS-SEM measurement model

Reliability and validity

As shown in Table 4, the Cronbach’s Alpha and composite reliability of all variables are above 0.7 indicating that all constructs have high level of internal consistency reliability. Furthermore, the Average Variance Extracted (AVE) for all constructs is above 0.5 signifying high levels of convergent validity (Hair et al. 2010).

Table 4. Construct reliability and validity

	Cronbach’s Alpha	Composite Reliability	Average Variance Extracted (AVE)
Ascription of Responsibility	0.890	0.924	0.752
Attitude	0.902	0.925	0.672
Awareness of Consequences	0.889	0.919	0.694
Behaviourial Intention	0.894	0.922	0.703
Perceived Behavioral Control	0.830	0.880	0.595
Personal Norm	0.893	0.919	0.653
Subjective Norm	0.902	0.926	0.715

Fornell and Larcker criterion is used to assess the discriminant validity. Table 5 shows that the square root of the AVE of each variable is larger than its highest squared correlation with any other variable, indicating that there is discriminate validity between all the variables.

Table 5. Fornell-Larcker criterion

	AR	AT	AC	BI	PBC	PN	SN
Ascription of Responsibility (AR)	0.867
Attitude (AT)	0.490	0.820
Awareness of Consequences (AC)	0.531	0.625	0.833
Behaviourial Intention (BI)	0.460	0.570	0.560	0.838
Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC)	0.244	0.402	0.417	0.513	0.772
Personal Norm (PN)	0.552	0.581	0.552	0.623	0.411	0.808
Subjective Norm (SN)	0.128	0.230	0.060	0.168	0.117	0.092	0.845

Standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) of less than 0.08 is considered a good fit. As shown in Table 6, the SRMR is below 0.08 and thus indicates a good model fit.

Table 6. Model fit

	Saturated Model	Estimated Model
SRMR	0.059	0.071

The bootstrapping technique with 5,000 resamples was applied to study the significance of hypotheses. Structure model results in Table 7 show that the Betas for AC and AR to PN are very similar at 0.361 and 0.360, respectively. As for BI, PN has the highest Beta at 0.374 followed by PBC (0.258), AT (0.238) and the lowest is SN (0.049). AC and AR are found to have significant positive relationship with PN; while AT, PBC and PN are found to have significant positive relationship with BI as their P-values are below 0.05. However, SN’s P-value is 0.148, which is >0.05. Thus, it is not significantly related to BI.

Table 7. Structure model results

Hypothesis	Path	Beta	Standard Deviation	T Statistics	P Values	Results
H1	AC-> PN	0.361	0.048	7.589	.000	Supported
H2	AR-> PN	0.360	0.055	6.580	.000	Supported
H3	AT-> BI	0.238	0.056	4.224	.000	Supported
H4	SN-> BI	0.049	0.034	1.448	.148	Not Supported
H5	PBC-> BI	0.258	0.047	5.437	.000	Supported
H6	PN-> BI	0.374	0.046	8.198	.000	Supported

PLS-SEM structural model

The PLS_SEM structural model with path coefficient and P values is shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5. PLS-SEM structural model

Mediation analysis

We also examined whether PN mediates the relationship between AC and BI; as well as AR and BI. Firstly, we run the test by excluding PN in the model to ensure that the direct effects of AC and AR to BI are significant. As shown in Table 8, after excluding PN, the P values for both AC and AR are <0.05, thus both have significant direct relationship with BI.

Table 8. Structure model results excluding PN

	Beta	P Values
AC -> BI	0.205	.000
AR -> BI	0.165	.001
AT -> BI	0.235	.000
PBC -> BI	0.285	.000
SN -> BI	0.048	.190

Next, we include back PN into the model and examine whether the indirect effects of AC and AR on BI are significant. As shown in Table 9, both AC and AR have significant indirect effects on BI as their P values are <0.05.

Table 9. Specific indirect effects

	Beta	P Values
AC -> PN -> BI	0.110	.000
AR -> PN -> BI	0.111	.000

Lastly, the variances accounted for (VAF) for both AC and AR are calculated to determine the mediation effect. According to Hair et al., the formula for VAF = indirect effect/total effect. If VAF > 80%, there is a full mediation; if 20% ≤ VAF ≤ 80%, there is a partial mediation; and if VAF < 20%, there is no mediation.

Table 10 shows indirect and total effects of AC and AR on BI. The VAF for AC = 0.110/0.270 = 40.74%; while VAF for AR = 0.111/0.181 = 61.33%. Thus, PN partially mediates the relationship between AC and AR with BI.

Table 10. Indirect and total effects of AC and AR

Path	Beta	Standard Deviation (STDEV)	T Statistics (|O/STDEV|)	P Values	Results
AC -> PN -> BI	Indirect effect 0.110	0.023	4.749	.000	Partial Mediation
AC -> BI	Total effect 0.270	0.056	4.816	.000
AR-> PN -> BI	Indirect effect 0.111	0.023	4.781	.000	Partial Mediation
AR -> BI	Total effect 0.181	0.050	3.605	.000

Discussions

Awareness of consequence (AC)

The result reveals that AC has a positive and significant association with PN in reducing food waste. The increase in food waste invariably leads to degradation of environment and shortage of food in other countries such as Africa and India. This finding shows that PN of Malaysians to cut down on food waste is significantly affected by their awareness of its consequences. This finding is supported by the studies of Conrad et al. (2018), Irani et al. (2018), Le Borgne, Sirieix, and Costa (2016) and Park and Ha (2014) in which they have noticed the significance of AC toward PN. Schanes, Dobernig, and Gozet (2018) emphasized that lack of awareness on environmental consequences as well as social consequences of food waste is the main reason food waste still prevails. This might be because they often underestimate how much they are actually throwing away. Therefore, this needs to be tackled to improve awareness among Malaysians of the broader impacts of wasteful behavior.

Ascription of responsibility (AR)

The finding highlights that AR is significantly and positively associated with PN to reduce food waste. This unveils that Malaysians who feel that they are responsible toward environment, social matters, and even curbing food waste do indeed influence their personal norms to do so. This result is therefore in line with the findings of Wang et al. (2018b), Liobikiene and Juknys (2016), William et al. (2017) and Zhang, Liu, and Zhao (2018) where they realized the significance of AR toward PN. Delley and Brunner (2017) expressed that individuals who are eco-responsible exhibit a great deal of responsibility when it comes to reducing food waste. It can be deduced that Malaysians perceive responsibility toward reducing food waste and this directly and positively influences their PN. This could be due to their awareness of the related environmental issues and might be because they are concerned by the environmental dimension of the problem. Having a sense of responsibility directly affects one’s PN toward a notion.

Attitude (AT)

It was confirmed that AT is positively correlated to BI to reduce food waste. The β-value of AT of 0.238 represents the third highest contribution toward BI which reflects that it has the third strongest relationship to the dependent variable (BI). The result was in line with a previous study conducted in China which stated that AT significantly influenced purchasing intention of young consumers on green housing (Lin et al. 2018). They argued that consumers who express positive attitudes will consequently lead to positive intention. Furthermore, according to Liao, Zhao, and Zhang (2018), there is a positive association between AT and the separation intention of take-away waste. The study also upheld that AT has a strong influence toward environmental issues. Besides, it was concluded that AT positively affects and was linked to an individuals’ intention to carry out an action, which indicated that a person who was highly aware of environment consequences will have a positive attitude toward preserving the environment (Rezaei et al. 2019). Taking into account the overall research findings of the study, it can be concluded that AT plays a vital role in preserving environment especially by avoiding food waste. This might be due to the fact that Malaysians have high level of awareness in addressing the problem of food waste.

Subjective norms (SN)

Contrary to other hypotheses, SN does not appear to have significant influence toward intention to reduce food waste as hypothesis H4 was rejected. This conclusion is in line with previous research conducted by Alanazi et al. (2017) which found that SN has no direct effect on BI. The study also indicated that SN was not an essential predictor of the intention. However, it had indirect effect toward BI through AT and PBC. Visschers, Wickli, and Siegrist (2016) argued that SN are not correlated to the intention to avoid food waste. The reason for SN to not be significant is possibly due to some Malaysians failing to encourage and pressure their peers or family members to reduce food waste and they do not give importance to what others think of their behavior, especially in the food waste context.

Perceived behavioral control (PBC)

PBC has a positive and significant relationship toward BI, thus providing support to H5. β-value of PBC at 0.258 compared to other variables has made it the second strongest relationship and contribution toward the variation in BI. This is consistent with some studies which found that PBC has a significant impact on BI, as PBC is a good predictor of one’s intentions (Maichum, Parichatnon, and Peng 2016) and has a direct influence on the intentional behavior of a person (Ayob and Sheau-Ting 2016). The research conducted by Russell et al. (2017) focusing on UK supermarket concluded that PBC and the intention to reduce food waste have a positive relation. Similarly, PBC has significant positive impact on intention for bicycle sharing while commuting (Cai et al. 2018). In this context, PBC has exerted an impact on one’s intention to reduce food waste and greater PBC leads to less food being wasted.

Personal norms (PN)

The results indicate that there is a significant and positive relationship between PN and BI to reduce food waste in Malaysia. Malaysians with more positive PN in reducing food waste demonstrated a greater intention to reduce food waste. Besides, highest β-value of PN at 0.374 as compared to other variables has made it the strongest relationship and contribution toward the variation in BI. The result aligns with the findings of Olsson, Huck, and Friman (2017), Kiatkawsin and Han (2017), Koklic et al. (2019) and Hu et al. (2019) in which they have recognized the significance of PN toward BI. Visschers, Wickli, and Siegrist (2016) emphasized that those who have stricter PN appear to cause less food waste. This is probably because they have the sense of obligation to curb food waste. It appears that Malaysians show positive PN which relates directly to their intention to be conscious about wasting food. Increased awareness and responsibility through education and campaigns could enlighten many to curb wastage.

Mediation between AC and BI as well as AR and BI

Previous studies by Irani et al. (2018), Park and Ha (2014), Wang et al. (2018a) and Liobikiene and Juknys (2016) have considered only the direct effect of Awareness of Consequences and Ascription of Responsibility on Personal Norms. However, this study finding shows that PN partially mediates the relationship between AC and AR with BI.

Implications

Theoretical implications

This paper has studied the behavioral intention of Malaysians toward reducing food waste by adopting the model of TPB supplemented with NAM. The TPB supplemented with NAM is rarely used to study food waste reduction in Malaysia. Similar past studies have explored the influencing factors of participation in source separation of food waste. The study by Azlina et al. (2012) used the TPB with one additional variable (situational factors) to conduct their study. The study added this variable in evaluating the respondent’s view on some situational factors as barriers to carry out food waste separation. This has contributed useful indicators to the waste management authorities and has supplemented key factors which influence the householders’ decision in Malaysia.

Our research used TPB supplemented with NAM where AC, AR, and PN are adopted to understand attitudes and pro-environmental behaviors. Therefore, this research provides insights from a different perspective when compared to other previous studies as it has identified and confirmed the influential factors and contributed the accurate results on how this model is going to affect BI to reduce food waste in Malaysia. The key determinants of BI have been identified in this research. This study also noticed that PN partially mediates the relationship between AC and AR with BI.

Based on the data generated from this research, the R² value of 0.509 shows that BI can be determined by the independent variables PN, SN, PBC, and AT whereas the R² value of 0.398 shows that PN can be explained by the independent variables AC and AR. This shows that the proposed model of this research is applicable and can be referred by future researchers as it provides a more comprehensive and theoretical understanding while studying the behavioral intention of Malaysians toward reducing food waste.

Practical implications

The outcome of this research shows that AT, PBC, and PN are significantly and positively associated with BI. AC and AR are also found to have significant positive relationships with PN. PN is a person’s moral obligation to reduce food waste. Therefore, to improve PN, AC and AR play important role as these two variables lead the PN.

Every Malaysian should have moral obligation and a sense of awareness in order to reduce food waste. Malaysians should possess sentiments of responsibility toward the impact of food waste. They need to consider buying food responsibly instead of buying too much food and wasting it. The responsibility of food consumption plays an important role in directing the behavior of the consumers. To increase the awareness, parents and teachers should instill the importance of the responsibility right from the young age, that is, the level of kindergarten. They also need to provide positive and clear instructions to children as well as be a good role model. It is important for Malaysians to understand the implications of reducing food waste. Persistent food waste is a major contributor to global climate change. Malaysian Government should formulate policies and implement programs focusing on the understanding and importance of reducing food waste.

Attitude toward food waste reduction is another significant factor. The hypermarkets and supermarkets play significant roles in influencing consumers’ attitudes to reduce food waste. Supermarkets should have better control on the food nearing expiry date and could hold promotions to clear these stocks as there are always consumers who are willing to buy discounted products. This can lower the chance of food ending up in the landfill.

PBC plays a significant role in influencing BI to reduce food waste. It depends on Malaysians’ beliefs and capabilities to control food waste. According to Barone, Grappi, and Romani (2019), consumers have goals that can inhibit individuals’ intentions not to waste, such as being a good provider, maintaining healthy diet, concerns over possible health risks, and saving money. Thus, strategies for reducing food waste from the perspective of PBC are enhancing the management of food purchasing, reducing serving, long shelf-life food, and planning, etc. (La Barbera, Riverso, and Verneau 2016). Besides that, Schanes, Dobernig, and Gozet (2018) suggested that responsibility of food waste prevention should not be put solely on individuals but committed policymakers should implement the right combination of policy measures to make food waste prevention the preferred option for households. Thus, the Government should encourage and motivate Malaysians by educating and promoting ways to reduce food waste and to stipulate the advantage of food waste reduction.

The results of this research provide useful information for the economy by enabling better understanding of food waste. The model can be used by the Government and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in recognizing the variables contributing to the intention to reduce food waste. It can also be referred to by future researchers who wish to conduct their research in this area.

Policy implications at the Malaysian Government level

Currently, although there is no specific food waste law being passed in Malaysia although actions are underway. In order to study the good practices and food waste management from the Japanese experiences in terms of the technical and legal perspective, the Ministry of Housing and Local Government of Malaysia and the Ministry of the Environment of Japan entered into a collaboration project to develop a National Strategic Plan for food waste management in Malaysia (Wahidah 2017). Moreover, in the Malaysian Agriculture, Horticulture and Agro-Tourism Exhibition (MAHA) 2018, Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia announced that a law on food waste will be formulated upon completion of a study concerning it. The government is also considering imposing fines on customers at hotels and restaurants who waste food (Bernama 2018).

NGOs in Malaysia are also playing a role to curb food waste. Several NGOs are working together with supermarkets to collect surplus unsold food from hotels, supermarkets, wholesale markets, and food manufacturing factories and channelize it toward needy people such as people residing in flats, welfare homes, and the homeless community. One of the NGOs also proposed to the government to introduce a National Foodbank Month to create more awareness among Malaysians on the ills of food wastage (Bernama 2020). The research model of this study can be used by the Government and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in recognizing the various factors contributing to the intention to reduce food waste.

Limitation of the study

Certain limitations were encountered while undertaking this study. This should be taken into consideration as it can provide further scope to explore in the future. Firstly, this research is based on cross-sectional approach and not longitudinal approach. The data were collected only at a particular point of time. The cause and the effect of food waste reduction was not tested as the longitudinal approach was not adopted. The actual behavior of the respondents was not explored which means there was no before and after data collection. This study only tests the intention of the Malaysians to reduce food waste. The intention and perception of the respondents might change over a period of time.

Next, the survey questionnaires answered by the respondents were closed-ended questions. The questions were based on the 5-point Likert scale, where the respondents had to answer between strongly disagree to strongly agree. There was no feedback section that was provided to the respondents. The closed-ended questions do not allow the respondents to provide their opinions, comments, perspective and, thus, they were unable to express their feelings and thoughts. The closed-ended questionnaire is simple and easy for conducting a survey but the accuracy of the results might have been affected.

Recommendation for future research

A longitudinal study can be encouraged for future study in order to capture the intention and perception of respondents over a longer period of time. This is to compare the pre- and post-data collection process for accurate result because the intentions and perceptions of respondents might change in the long term. Factors and consequences have to be thoroughly examined so that future researchers will be conscious about the changes in intentions of respondents toward food waste reduction.

Open-ended survey questionnaire is also a possibility for future studies. The questions can be phrased using “why”, “how”, or “tell me about …” to obtain opinions and comments from the respondents. This reveals the knowledge or feelings of respondents. Subsequently, this enhances the understanding of future researchers toward the perceptions of their respondents and at the same time improves the quality of data collected.

Besides that, future researchers could consider incorporating other determinants for behavior intention on food waste reduction such as environmental regulation. Wang et al. (2020) extended the TPB model with the variable of environmental regulation and found that it has the highest effect on BI for household waste sorting, followed by PBC and AT. In addition to that, Heidari et al. (2020) found that socio-demographic characteristics such as age, level of education, and income were statistically significant predictors of intention. As respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics are not tested in this research, future studies could explore their impact on intention.

Conclusion

The findings of the present study showed that AT, PBC, AC, AR, and PN had significant positive relationship toward BI except for SN. Therefore, future researchers need to consider whether to take SN into account while analyzing BI to reduce food waste. Besides that, with 50.9% R square, TPB model combined with NAM is found to be an appropriate model to determine the BI of an individual toward food waste among Malaysians. This study provided both theoretical and managerial implications. This study validates the TPB model and Norm Activation Model. Findings from this study have enhanced the understanding of food waste by the Malaysian consumers. Besides that, future researchers could consider including other factors for the behavior intention on food waste reduction such as environmental regulation. The model can be used by the Government and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in recognizing the various factors contributing to the intention to reduce food waste.

Acknowledgment

The authors thank the China Section of the Air & Waste Management Association for the generous scholarship they received to cover the cost of page charges, and make the publication of this paper possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the China Section of the Air & Waste Management Association scholarship.

Notes on contributors

Loh Chun T’ing

Loh Chun T’ing is an Academic in the Department of Accounting of the Faculty of Business and Finance of University Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar Campus in Perak State of Malaysia.

Krishna Moorthy

Krishna Moorthy is an Academic in the Department of Accounting of the School of Economics and Management in Xiamen University Malaysia in Selangor State of Malaysia.

Nirossheni Gunasaygaran

Nirossheni Gunasaygaran is an Accounting Graduate and Research Scholar in the Department of Accounting of the Faculty of Business and Finance of University Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar Campus in Perak State of Malaysia.

Chong Sek Li

Chong Sek Li is an Accounting Graduate and Research Scholar in the Department of Accounting of the Faculty of Business and Finance of University Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar Campus in Perak State of Malaysia.

Darrsini Omapathi

Darrsini Omapathi is an Accounting Graduate and Research Scholar in the Department of Accounting of the Faculty of Business and Finance of University Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar Campus in Perak State of Malaysia.

Ho Jia Yi

Ho Jia Yi is an Accounting Graduate and Research Scholar in the Department of Accounting of the Faculty of Business and Finance of University Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar Campus in Perak State of Malaysia.

Kanageswary Anandan

Kanageswary Anandan is an Accounting Graduate and Research Scholar in the Department of Accounting of the Faculty of Business and Finance of University Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar Campus in Perak State of Malaysia.

Kirutiga Sivakumar

Kirutiga Sivakumar is an Accounting Graduate and Research Scholar in the Department of Accounting of the Faculty of Business and Finance of University Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar Campus in Perak State of Malaysia.

Appendix.

Table of variables and measurements

Table

Variables	Items	Description of items	Sources
Dependent variable: Behavioral Intention	BI1 BI2 BI3 BI4 BI5	I am willing to go out of my way to reduce food wastage. My personal goal is to reduce as much food wastage as possible. I will make every effort to produce only very little food waste. I have seriously thought of using all food leftovers. I have a firm intention to reduce food wastage in the future.	(Jeger, Ham, and Leko 2014)
Independent variable 1/Dependent variable: Personal Norms	PN1 PN2 PN3 PN4 PN5 PN6	I feel guilty/bad when I throw away food because some people don’t have enough to eat. I would be a better person if I do not waste food/zero-waste person. I feel disturbed by the amount of food being wasted since it takes a lot of resources to grow, process, package and transport food. I feel obliged to reduce food wastage into consideration when I make food or grocery choices. If I buy food, I feel morally obliged not to waste it. I feel morally obliged to reduce food wastage regardless of what others thinking.	(De Groot 2008)
Independent variable 2: Attitude	AT1 AT2 AT3 AT4 AT5 AT6	I think to reduce the amount of food wastage is very worthy. I think reducing the amount of food wastage makes me very happy. I think to reduce the amount of food wastage is very sensible. I think to reduce the amount of food wastage is very good. I think to reduce the amount of food wastage is very comfortable. I think to reduce the amount of food wastage is very useful.	(Sigurðardóttir 2017 adopted from Graham-Rowe, Jessop, and Sparks 2015)
Independent variable 3: Subjective Norm	SN1 SN2 SN3 SN4 SN5	Most people who are important to me believe that I should reduce food wastage. People often ask me to reduce food wastage. It is expected of me to reduce food wastage. I feel under social pressure to reduce food wastage. People who are similar to me reduce food wastage.	(Flowers, Freeman, and Gladwell 2017)
Independent variable 4: Perceived Behavioral Control	PBC1 PBC2 PBC3 PBC4 PBC5	I find it easy to prepare new meals from the leftover foods. I find it easy to make sure that only very small amount of food is discarded in my household. I find it easy to plan my food shopping in such a way that all the food I purchase is eaten. I have the feeling that I can do something about the food that I waste. People around me make it possible for me to reduce the amount of food wastage.	(Visschers, Wickli, and Siegrist 2016)
Independent variable 5: Awareness of Consequences	AC1 AC2 AC3 AC4 AC5	Reducing food wastage benefits everyone. Reducing food wastage will help to improve the quality of life for everyone. Reducing food wastage will create a better world for me and my family. Degradation of the environment due to food wastage directly affects my health. (i.e. Greenhouse gas) Food wastage caused in my country will often affect people in other parts of the world. (i.e. It could contribute to serious problems in other countries such as Starvation in Afrika, low food supply in India etc.)	(Bronfman et al. 2015)
Independent variable 6: Ascription of Responsibility	AR1 AR2 AR3 AR4	Every person is responsible to reduce food wastage. All Malaysians are responsible to reduce the amount of food wastage. All households are responsible for reducing food wastage. I am willing to reduce food wastage even though others do not do the same.	(Bronfman et al. 2015).