The Intention of Consumers to Engage in Digital Food Sharing Platforms : An Analysis and Investigation of the Behavioural Intention from a Consumer Perspective by Extending the Theory of Planned Behaviour

Abstract: The sharing economy, which has been receiving significant attention from research due to its unprecedented growth in the recent past, is being seen as a potential driving force to transform and rethink society’s unsustainable approach to consumption. Especially, the concept of food sharing as part of the sharing economy is being considered as essential for a more sustainable world and thus aims at counteracting the unsustainable consumption behaviour of individuals. Even though the importance of food sharing concepts for society is undisputed, academia lags extensive research of this domain from a consumer perspective.  The aim of this study is to investigate the behavioural intention of consumers to engage and use digital, for profit food sharing platforms in a business to consumer setting to obtain an in-depth understanding of the key determinants by extending the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Additionally, a cross-cultural comparison has been undertaken to acknowledge the international importance of this field.  For the purpose of data collection, an online survey has been conducted. This yielded 4353 responses of which 2995 have been taken into account for the data analysis procedures in SPSS and SmartPLS. The software SmartPLS has been utilized to perform a partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) assessing the measurement as well as structural model including the testing of the proposed hypotheses. Additionally, a multigroup analysis has been performed to investigate behavioural differences between cultures.  The empirical findings show that perceived usefulness and attitude are the strongest predictors of the behavioural intention followed by perceived behavioural control, economic benefit as well as subjective norm. Moreover, the attitude of consumers is strongly driven by sustainable considerations and the perceived trust of consumers towards digital food sharing platforms. Lastly, no statistically significant moderating effect could be identified with regards to culture.