Reusable takeaway packaging

: what stimuli increases the consumer’s willingness to use reusable packages?

Abstract

Purpose – There is a growing need to move towards a circular economy, encouraging less use of single-use packaging, reducing the amount of packaging, waste generated and adopting more environmentally responsible practices. The main objective of this thesis is to understand what incentives/stimuli may or may not influence consumer willingness to use reusable packaging when purchasing meals from takeaway services. Thus, stimuli such as social influence, habit formation, misevaluation guilt, ethical and sustainability guilt, environmental cognition and feelings of fear, guilt, sadness, joy, pride, and hope, identified as ways to encourage this sustainable behaviour and thus analysed. Design/Method/Approach – To analyse these relationships, an online questionnaire was created, and a conceptual model was subsequently tested using data obtained from the 258 participants using IBM SPSS and SmartPLS software. Findings – The main results of this research reveal that of the eleven stimuli tested, only fear is significant when it comes to increasing consumer willingness to use reusable packaging in takeaway services. Additionally, after testing the additional relationship between the guilt of poor evaluation and sadness, it was also found that there is a positive relationship between the two, which leads us to conclude that when consumers feel guilt over a poor purchase decision, they will feel sad. Originality/value - As a major concern today is ensuring consumers opt for more sustainable behaviours, this study contributes to understanding which stimuli can increase those behaviours and which may not be so successful.

Date of Award	6 Jul 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Susana Silva (Supervisor) & Paulo Alexandre de Oliveira Duarte (Co-Supervisor)