The effects of emotional self-regulation, ethical evaluations and judgments on customer food waste reduction behaviors in restaurants

Purpose This study aimed to (1) examine the impact of restaurant customers’ emotional self-regulation on ethical evaluations and judgments on their food waste reduction behaviors and (2) explore the influence of ethical judgments and evaluations on food waste reduction behaviors in restaurants. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through a face-to-face survey at 20 restaurants in three major cities in Vietnam, namely Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City. Responses from 870 restaurant customers were used to analyze the data. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to examine the path effects. Findings Based on the model of Hunt and Vitell (1986), this study incorporates the role assessment of emotional self-regulation, deontological and teleological evaluation into the research model to examine consumers’ ethical judgments and ethical behaviors as food waste reduction behaviors. All hypotheses were accepted with the study’s data. From there, the author makes some implications for state management agencies and businesses in promoting consumers’ food waste reduction behaviors. Practical implications Several recommendations should be made based on the results of the study. First, there is a need for guidelines for people to regulate emotions to match ethical consumption decisions, such as increasing the amount of study time for subjects on ethics and emotion management, teaching and promoting ethical values and standards as well as discussing ethical perspectives on food waste. Second, governments and businesses need to promote communication about the consequences of food waste on television, radio, newspapers and social networks, should have anti-food waste posters and should even popularize charging for cases of ordering or taking food that is beyond personal needs. Originality/value First, this is believed to be the first study to investigate the role of emotions on ethical consumption decisions in general and food waste reduction in particular. Second, this study is one of the few studies that examine the influence of deontological evaluation, teleological evaluation and ethical judgments on food waste reduction behaviors (reduce, reuse and recycle). Finally, this is one of the few studies that comprehensively examines food waste reduction behaviors, including reduce, reuse and recycle.