Understanding restaurant customers' environmental behavior in the social media context: An application of theory of planned behavior

Jang, Yoon Jung Article Understanding restaurant customers' environmental behavior in the social media context: An application of theory of planned behavior Global Business & Finance Review (GBFR) Provided in Cooperation with: People & Global Business Association (P&GBA), Seoul Suggested Citation: Jang, Yoon Jung (2022) : Understanding restaurant customers' environmental behavior in the social media context: An application of theory of planned behavior, Global Business & Finance Review (GBFR), ISSN 2384-1648, People & Global Business Association (P&GBA), Seoul, Vol. 27, Iss. 2, pp. 48-60, https://doi.org/10.17549/gbfr.2022.27.2.48 This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/305844 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. 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Introduction As environmental concerns have escalated, customers have increasingly paid attention to the social or environmental responsibilities of companies they patronize or have relationships with (Han, Hsu, & Sheu, 2010; Jang, Zhang, & Bosselman, 2017) by demonstrating a greater intention to pay more for Received: Mar. 21, 2022; Revised: Mar. 28, 2022; Accepted: Apr. 11, 2022 † Yoon Jung Jang E-mail: [email protected] eco-friendly products/services from such companies (Jang, Kim, & Lee, 2010; Laroche, Bergeron, & Barbaro-Forleo, 2001). With an increase in the number of customers pursuing environmental products/services, hospitality companies' environmental initiatives have helped position them as competitively advantageous over other competitors (Jang & Zheng, 2020). Similarly, restaurant customers tend to look for establishments that attempt to reduce environmental harm by considering adoption of environmental actions such as water or energy saving, waste reduction, and recycling, causing restaurant marketers to increasingly consider developing GLOBAL BUSINESS & FINANCE REVIEW, Volume. 27 Issue. 2 (APRIL 2022), 48-60 pISSN 1088-6931 / eISSN 2384-1648∣Https://doi.org/10.17549/gbfr.2022.27.2.48 ⓒ 2022 People and Global Business Association GLOBAL BUSINESS & FINANCE REVIEW www.gbfrjournal.org1) Understanding Restaurant Customers' Environmental Behavior in th e Social Media Context: An Application of Theory of Planned Behavio r Y oon Jung Jang † P rofessor, Department of Food Service and Culinary Arts Management, Woosong University A B S T R A C T Purpose: This study tested the applicability of the TPB model to explaining restaurant customers' attitudes toward pro-environmental behavior supported in the social media community. The specific objectives were to identify the relative influence of each construct on behavioral intention and to investigate the moderating effect of economic/social reward in the relationship between behavioral intention and environmental behavior. Design/methodology/approach: A survey was administered to U.S. restaurant customers, and for the main study, among the 240 surveys returned, 202 usable responses were chosen for final analysis. Multiple regression and hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to test research hypotheses. Findings: The results indicated that attitude, social norm, and perceived behavioral control were significant predictors in understanding customers' behavioral intention toward environmental activities promoted in the social media community. Hierarchical regression analysis demonstrated that economic and social reward moderate the relationship between behavioral intention and environmental behavior. Research limitations/implications: Because of incomplete examination in the social media context, future research should further test measurements of TPB constructs to confirm their validity and reliability. Originality/value: Since the influence of each construct of TPB model differ in different contexts, close examination in the social media context may contribute to further applications and extensions of the TPB model. Keywords: Restaurant, Environmental behavior, Social media ⓒ Copyright: The Author(s). This is an Open Access journal distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution , and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Yoon Jung Jang 49 strategies advertising their pro-environmental actions (National Restaurant Association, 2018). In some restaurant companies, social media has been used to actively advertise and share information about their environmental initiatives (e.g., sourcing organically-grown food, using reusable mugs), thereby encouraging members' involvement in such activities (Sigala, 2014). The use of such channels allows a company to communicate with target customers concerned about environment and to connect members sharing similar values. Members connected to the community will be more likely to engage in behavior aligned with community's environmental values and committed to practical participation in environmental activities supported in restaurants (Hajli, Shanmugam, Papagiannidis, Zahay, & Richard, 2017). Previous studies have examined environmental behavior in the hospitality industry through perspectives of theory of planned behavior (TPB) theory (Han, 2015; Moon 2021; Shin, Im, Jung, & Severt , 2018; Teng, Wu, & Liu, 2015) and identified the relative influences of attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control on behavioral intentions to visit green restaurants or stay at green hotels. Although these studies contribute to the literature, only rarely have studies been performed on customers' participation intention towards environmental activities supported or promoted by a restaurant. In addition, few studies have investigated the impact of participation intention on actual environmental behavior and the moderating roles of publicly-recognized rewards that may reduce gaps between the two constructs. To fill this research gap, this study aims to identity customers' pro-environmental decision-making processes formulated in the social media context by applying TPB with the consideration of two contextual factors, economic and social rewards. While the relative impact of each construct may vary across contexts (Ajzen, 1991; Miao & Wei, 2013), many environmental studies applying the TPB model have indicated differential effects of each construct on behavioral intention; in some studies attitude was the strongest factor, followed by subjective norms and perceived behavioral control, while subjective norms was the most salient factor in other studies, making it critical to investigate individual environmental behavior in different settings (Miao & Wei, 2013). Given this restriction, investigation of underlying factors leading to customers' pro-environmental actions in the social media context while considering contextual components (e.g., rewards) will provide further insight into behavior towards sustainability, a critical element for development of pro-environmental marketing strategies to be delivered via restaurants' social media. This study therefore tested the applicability of the TPB model in explaining restaurant customers' intentions toward pro-environmental activities supported in the social media community. Its specific objectives were: 1) to identify the influence of each TPB construct on behavioral intention; 2) to explore the impact of behavioral intention on offline pro-environmental behavior; and 3) to investigate the moderating effect of economic/social rewards on relationships between behavioral intention and offline environmental behavior. II. Literature Review A. Theory of Planned Behavior The theory of planned behavior (TPB), widely applied to prediction of human behavior, has been supported by many studies (Han, 2021). The model includes three factors that help explain an individual's behavioral intention: attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control (Ajzen, 1991). Attitude is "the degree to which a person has favorable or unfavorable evaluation or appraisal of the behavior in question" (Ajzen, 1991, p188). Subjective norm represents social influence in the theory and is defined as "the perceived social pressure to perform or not to perform the behavior" (Ajzen, 1991, p188). Perceived behavioral control refers to "the perceived ease or difficulty of performing the behavior" (Ajzen, 1991, p188), and reflects an individual's perceptions of barriers to performing specific behaviors. The theory postulates that an individual with a more favorable attitude, greater behavior-related subjective norm, and higher perceived GLOBAL BUSINESS & FINANCE REVIEW, Volume. 27 Issue. 2 (APRIL 2022), 48-60 50 behavioral control is more likely to display stronger intention to perform and eventually engage in a certain behavior (Ajzen, 1991). In hospitality studies, the TPB model has been proven effective in predicting an individual's proenvironmental behavior, such as customer intention to choose eco-friendly menu items (Shin, Im, Jung, & Severt, 2018), customer intention to patronize environmentallyfriendly restaurants (Moon, 2021; Raab, Baloglu, & Chen, 2018), guest intentions to stay at green hotels (Han, 2015; Teng, Wu, & Liu, 2015), and managers' behavioral intentions toward sustainability-oriented innovations (Garay, Font, & Corrons, 2019). Although there have been prior studies of TPB in diverse contexts, the majority of studies have mainly been focused on customers' behavioral intentions as an outcome variable, not considering how such behavioral intentions lead to their actual environmental behavior. There also have been few studies devoted to understand customers' environmental behavior in the social media context, and given existing contextual differences, investigation of environmental behavior in the social media context would be worthwhile. This study therefore explored how TPB constructs influence customers' participation intentions towards environmental activities supported in the restaurant social-media community and how behavioral intentions are transferred into actual environmental behavior. In the study's context, attitude refers to the degree to which a person has favorable or unfavorable feelings about engaging in environmental activities promoted in restaurants' social media. Subjective norm refers to a person's perception of social pressure to engage in environmental activities promoted in restaurants' social media, and perceived behavioral control can be defined as a person's perception regarding his/her capability to engage in environmental activities promoted in restaurants' social media. B. Relationship among TPB Constructs The TPB model has been applied to prediction of customers' intentions to choose organic menu items at restaurants (Shin et al., 2018), to patronize green or environmentally-friendly restaurants (Kim, Njite, & Hancer, 2013; Moon, 2021), or to visit environmentallyfriendly hotels (Han et al., 2010; Teng et al., 2015). Applying the model, Shin et al. (2018) examined consumers' intentions to choose organic menu items at restaurants and to visit restaurants featuring organic menu items. They indicated that attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control are important determinants of intention to choose organic menu items, thereby leading to consumer intentions to visit restaurants featuring organic menu items. Attitude was found to have the strongest influence on choice intention, followed by subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. Attitude was found to be a particularly noteworthy factor in choice intention toward organic menu items, emphasizing the role of marketing managers seeking to create favorable consumer attitudes. Teng et al. (2015), in investigating how individual characteristics of the TPB model influenced guest intention to visit green hotels, showed that all TPB constructs significantly influenced such intentions. Subjective norm was found to be the most influential factor, followed by attitude and perceived behavioral control, suggesting that subjective norm should be regarded as a crucial element of focus in increasing visitors' intention to choose a green hotel. Han et al. (2010) tested the TPB model's effectiveness in explaining hotel customer intentions to visit a green hotel and showed that all three TPB components — attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control — positively affected guest intentions to stay a green hotel, in the following order: attitudes at the highest level, followed by subjective norm and perceived behavioral control. Moon (2021) attempted to identify customer-belief structure related to green restaurant patronage by applying the extended TPB model. She demonstrated the validity of the TPB for predicting green restaurant patronage intention and confirmed that, among the three constructs, perceived behavioral control was the most significant variable for green patronage intention and that the formation of perceived behavioral control was significantly affected by control beliefs. The second most important TPB construct was attitude, found to be significantly Yoon Jung Jang 51 associated with behavioral beliefs. The least important one was subjective norm, related to normative beliefs. Since this discussion suggests that because of the significant contextual influence on behavior, it appears meaningful to investigate individual environmental behavior in different settings (Miao & Wei, 2013), this study attempted to investigate how each construct influences customers' behavioral intentions to engage in environmental activities supported or promoted in the social-media community of restaurants. Hypothesis 1: Attitude has a positive influence on behavioral intention towards environmental activities supported in restaurants' social media. Hypothesis 2: Social norm has a positive influence on behavioral intention towards environmental activities supported in restaurants' social media. Hypothesis 3: Perceived behavioral control has a positive influence on behavioral intention towards environmental activities supported in restaurants' social media. Hypothesis 4: Behavioral intention towards environmental activities supported in restaurants' social media has a positive influence on offline environmental behavior. C. Moderating Effect of Economic/Social Reward According to cognitive evaluation theory (CET), reward type affects customers' behavioral intention at different levels (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Lee, Tsang, & Pan, 2015). CET theory suggests two types of rewards, social/internal and economic/external. Internal rewards imply intrinsic satisfaction of a behavior related to the basic reasons for exhibiting such behavior (Melancon, Noble, & Noble, 2011). Internal rewards, comparable to social rewards in the hospitality context, implies obtaining preferential treatment or personalized attention from service providers. External rewards can be explained in terms of monetary rewards in return for specific behavior, e.g., money is generally regarded as an external reward (Rummel & Feinberg, 1988). Social rewards have been found effective in increasing the sense of belonging and emotional attachment to an organization (Rosenbaum, Ostrom, & Kuntze, 2005) by strengthening the intrinsic reasons for emotional relationships with organizations (Berry, 1995). Customers receiving social rewards such as specialized or customized offers/services may regard themselves as privileged customers, thereby inducing them to maintain long-term relationships with an organization (Muniz & O'Guinn, 2001). Economic rewards such as monetary incentives or special discounts/deals on products/services also tend to enhance trust and commitment (Van Kenhove, Wulf, & Steenhaut, 2003), and may be central to establishing commitment in developing relationships with firms (Peterson, 1995). While some researchers claim that social rewards are more effective than economic rewards in building affective commitment (Deci & Ryan, 1985), others contends that economic rewards are stronger drivers of relational marketing in retaining customer commitment (Noble, Esmark, & Noble, 2014), so it seems worthwhile to examine the extent to which economic and social rewards affect and moderate customers' sustainable behavior in the context of social media. Discrepancies also exist between behavioral intentions and actual environmental behavior, and they might be alleviated through situational factors such as social and economic rewards (Trudel, 2019). In a qualitative study, Mazhenova, Choi, and Chung (2016) found that good feelings resulting from participating in various environmental activities (e.g., recycling, saving water use) was a critical predictor for environmentallyfriendly behavior such as purchasing eco-friendly products. Positive feedback from service providers of green products/services achieved through various methods would tend to induce customers to continue responsible behaviors. Individuals rewarded or recognized for their environmental behavior on social media will be more likely to become committed to such behaviors in the real world than those who are not (Trudel, 2018). Based on this discussion, the following hypotheses were formulated. Hypothesis 5: Economic rewards have a moderating effect on relationships between behavioral intention on social media and offline environmental behavior. Hypothesis 6: Social rewards have a moderating GLOBAL BUSINESS & FINANCE REVIEW, Volume. 27 Issue. 2 (APRIL 2022), 48-60 52 effect on relationships between behavioral intention on social media and offline environmental behavior. Figure 1 shows the proposed research model of customer behavior in the social media context. III. Method A self-administered survey of participants was performed using MTurk, a web-based survey platform. Participants were screened to select those who 1) were living in the U.S. and 2) had patronized any restaurant (including coffee shops) and within three months prior to the survey date had participated in a social-media community supporting environmental initiatives. A pilot test including 50 participants was conducted prior to the main survey. Among the 240 surveys obtained, 202 usable responses remained after deleting responses regarded as insincere. The survey consisted of two sections. The first section included questions related to five constructs of the TPB model, with items of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control adapted from Han, Hsu, & Sheu (2015). Items of behavioral intention and offline environmental behavior from Qu and Lee (2011) were adapted and modified to fit the purpose of the study. The second section contained questions associated with moderating variables, including economic and social rewards, borrowed from Choi and Seo (2017) and Lee et al. (2015). The final section consisted of questions related to demographic information such as gender, age, ethnicity, marital status, etc. All items were measured with a 7-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree ). The questionnaire items are listed in Table 1. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (IBM SPSS 26.0), with multiple regression analyses used to test main effects of TPB constructs on behavioral intention. Hierarchical regression analyses were also conducted to test the moderating effect of customers' economic and social rewards. The moderating effects of economic and social rewards on relationships among behavioral intention and offline environmental behavior were also hypothesized and tested. IV. Results A. Respondent Profile Table 1 presents respondents' demographic information. Approximately 60% were male and 40% were female. The majority of respondents (77.2%) were of ages Figure 1. Research Model Yoon Jung Jang 53 between 25 and 44 years. About 63% were Caucasian American, while the rest were Hispanic (21.3%), African- American (10.4%), and Asian (1.0%). Approximately 96% of respondents were married respondents. Approximately 78% of the respondents held at least a bachelor's degree, and 33.2% had annual household incomes between $50,000 and $74,999; 31.2% had less than $50,000; and 25.7% were in the range $75,000-$99,999. B. Test of Validity and Reliability Results from factor and reliability analysis of study variables are shown in Tables (Tables 2~6). The factor loadings of the constructs ranged from 0.732 to 0.865 at significant levels (Bagozzi & Yi, 1988), and Kaiser- Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measures were above the acceptable value of 0.6. Bartlett's Test of Sphericity was proven Variables Frequency % Gender Male 122 60.4 female 80 39.6 Age 18-24 10 5.0 25-34 59 29.2 35-44 97 48.0 45—54 27 13.4 55—64 8 4.0 65 and above 1 .5 Ethnicity Caucasian, non-Hispanic 127 62.9 Hispanic or Latino 43 21.3 African American 21 10.4 Asian 2 1.0 Other (specify below) 9 4.5 Marital status Married 193 95.5 Never Married 7 3.5 Widowed 2 1.0 Education High school diploma or below Some college 28 6 13.9 3.0 2-year college 8 4.0 4-year college Professional degree 126 16 62.4 7.9 Post graduate 16 7.9 Others (specify) 2 1.0 Occupation Technical/Administrator Sales/Service Professional Managerial Operator/Fabricator/Laborer Homemaker 70 52 49 25 4 2 34.7 25.7 24.3 12.4 2.0 1.0 Annual household income Less than $50,000 63 31.2 $50,000~$74,999 67 33.2 $75,000~$99,999 52 25.7 $100,000~$149,999 20 9.9 Total 202 100 Table 1. Demographic Information of Respondents GLOBAL BUSINESS & FINANCE REVIEW, Volume. 27 Issue. 2 (APRIL 2022), 48-60 54 Construct Items Factor loading Cronbach'a Attitude I think that engaging in environmental activities promoted on SNS community of the restaurant is wise. .808 .794 I think that engaging in environmental activities promoted on SNS community of the restaurant is attractive. .806 I think that engaging in environmental activities promoted on SNS community of the restaurant is pleasant. .799 I think that engaging in environmental activities promoted on SNS community of the restaurant is beneficial. .732 Total variance (%) KMO Bartlett test 62.886 .728 255.166 (sig .000) Table 2. Factor and Reliability Analysis of Attitude Construct Items Factor loading Cronbach'a Subjective norm Most people who are important to me think I should engage in environmental activities promoted on SNS community of the restaurant. .824 .702 Most people who are important to me would want me to engage in environmental activities promoted on SNS community of the restaurant. .751 People whose opinions I value would prefer that I engage in environmental activities promoted on SNS community of the restaurant. .801 Total variance (%) KMO Bartlett test 62.886 .663 109.576 (sig .000) Table 3. Factor and Reliability Analysis of Subjective Norm Construct Items Factor loading Cronbach'a Perceived behavioral control Whether or not I engage in environmental activities promoted on SNS community of the restaurant is completely up to me. .846 .698 I have resources, time, and opportunities to engage in environmental activities promoted on SNS community of the restaurant. .771 I am confident that if I want, I can engage in environmental activities promoted on SNS community of the restaurant. .752 Total variance (%) KMO Bartlett test 62.555 .643 111.300 (sig .000) Table 4. Factor and Reliability Analysis of Perceived Behavioral Control Construct Items Factor loading Cronbach'a Behavioral intention I intend to engage in environmental activities promoted on SNS community of the restaurant. .865 .761 I will make an effort to participate in environmental activities promoted on SNS community of the restaurant. .860 I plan to engage in environmental activities promoted on SNS community of the restaurant. .737 Total variance (%) KMO Bartlett test 67.685 .656 164.629 (sig .000) Table 5. Factor and Reliability Analysis of Behavioral Intention Yoon Jung Jang 55 statistically significant at the p=0.000 level. With respect to internal consistency, Cronbach's alpha was assessed, producing values ranging from 0.698 to 0.794, demonstrating acceptable reliability (Nunnally, 1978). Multicollinearity can be present when variables are highly correlated, and some of the indicators used to examine multicollinearity are tolerance and variance inflation factors (VIF) (Daoud, 2017). Tolerance values less than 0.10 and VIF values greater than 5 indicate presence of multicollinearity, implying that predictors are highly-correlated. In this study, the assessment of tolerance and VIF demonstrated that tolerance values were greater than 0.10 and VIF values were less than 5, confirming no sign of multicollinearity among the predictor variables. C. Analysis of Main Effect Table 7 presents the results of testing hypotheses 1, 2, and 3. Hypothesis 1, the effect of attitude on behavioral intention, was statistically supported (b = .493; t = 6.645; p < .000). Hypothesis 2, the effect of social norm on behavioral intention, was also supported (b = .179; t = 2.817; p < .001). Hypothesis 3, the effect of perceived behavioral control on behavioral intention, was also supported (b = .259; t = 3.400; p < .001). The findings mean that three constructs of TPB model are significant variables in predicting customers' environmental behavior in the social media context. Specifically, attitude was the strongest predictor of customers' behavioral intentions to participate in environmental activities promoted on restaurants' social media. Table 8 shows the results of testing hypothesis 4. Hypothesis 4, the effect of behavioral intention on offline environmental behavior, was statistically supported (b = .791; t = 18.261; p < .000), confirming that behavioral intention was a crucial variable in helping predict offline pro-environmental behavior. Construct Items Factor loading Cronbach'a Offline environmental behavior The SNS community of the restaurant has influenced how I go about purchasing products or services. .795 .775 The SNS community has influenced my behavior in some ways, such as purchasing pro-environmental products/services supported by campaign of the SNS community of the restaurant. .789 Where I purchase products or services has changed as a result of my being in the SNS community of the restaurant. .785 Total variance (%) KMO Bartlett test 62.369 .673 103.083 (sig .000) Table 6. Factor and Reliability Analysis of Offline Environmental Behavior Dependent Variable Independent Variable Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients t-value Sig B Std. Error Beta Behavioral intention Attitude .524 .079 .493 6.645 .000 *** Social norm .188 .067 .179 2.817 .005** Perceived behavioral control .276 .081 .259 3.400 .001** R= .892, R2 = .795, Adjust R2 = .792 F= 256.236 p<.000 * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001 Table 7. Regression Analysis of Hypotheses 1, 2, 3