With the increasing awareness of global climate change and natural disasters, environmental protection is an issue of high topicality and relevance. Companies across all sectors try to develop products and practices with minimized environmental effect as part of socially responsible practices, but also in order to establish themselves in a new niche for consumers with environmental concerns.
This is also true for the hospitality and tourism industry where businesses often rely on the integrity of the environment. However, while a number of studies exist for the lodging sector, there has been done almost no research on green practices in the food service industry. Given the large number of restaurants in the U.S. and the consumer’s common habit of frequently eating out, there is a high need for restaurants to engage in green practices. In fact, restaurants who exhibit strong interest in environmental issues and actively participate in eco-friendly practices could distinct themselves from other businesses, hence creating a significant competitive advantage.
Therefore, the purpose of this study is twofold: to explore consumer attitudes towards various areas of green practices in restaurants and consumers’ willingness to pay for green restaurants, and to predict attitudes, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control leading to the likelihood of consumers to actively seek and visit green restaurants.
Ajzen’s (1985) Theory of Planned Behavior was used as a theoretical foundation to examine the influence of consumers’ demographic characteristics on attitudes, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control toward green practices in restaurants as well as the influence of those three constructs on consumers’ intention to dine in such restaurants. Data was collected with the help of a structured survey questionnaire that consumers of casual dining restaurants were asked to fill out while waiting for their food. The study sample was 455. Descriptive statistics were obtained in order to answer the exploratory questions and the hypotheses were tested using multiple linear regressions.
The analyses revealed that a majority of consumers perceived the area of “green action” as very important, and many consumers were willing to pay up to ten percent more for green restaurants. Furthermore, several demographic characteristics were related with the constructs of the Theory of Planned Behavior, and attitudes and subjective norm were good predictors of intention to dine at a green restaurant. A collection of qualitative data gave further inside into consumers’ thoughts and values.