Consumer´s Adoption Of Smart Devices To Prevent Household Food Waste

Abstract

In some cases the consumer buys food, prepares it, consumes it, and unfortunately sometimes ends up wasting it, generating household food waste. This small action, repeated several times and on a global scale, has made food waste a worldwide problem. The fast technological development has opened up opportunities for the emergence of IoT devices, such as smart refrigerators as a promising tool to prevent food waste. This study aimed to investigate the main factors influencing the adoption of smart refrigerators as a technology to prevent household food waste. By applying and adapting the UTAUT2 model with three new constructs, namely privacy concerns, green self-identity, and attitude towards technology. An online survey was applied to 498 individuals residing in the United States of America. A Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) tool was applied to analyze the participants' data. The main influencers of behavioral intention to use smart refrigerator to prevent food waste were identified as social influence, performance expectancy, attitude, habit, and hedonic motivation, in this respective order. Privacy concerns and green self-identity were shown to play a role in shaping consumers' attitudes and their consequent behavioral intention. This research provides significant theoretical and managerial implications for the adoption of IoT technology to prevent food waste by highlighting both consumer drivers and barriers to technology adoption.