Eating with a purpose: how food-sharing labels influence favourable consumer responses to restaurants

Purpose: The study applies Brunswik's lens model and cue utilization theory to explore the impact of food-sharing labels on consumers’ intentions to visit and recommend a restaurant. Design/methodology/approach: The first online experiment (N = 126) examines the effect of a food-sharing label on consumers’ intentions to visit and recommend the restaurant. The second experiment (N = 245) investigates the mediating role of curiosity and the moderating effect of information diagnosticity. Findings: Food-sharing practices positively impact consumers’ intentions, with curiosity explaining these effects. However, this effect is only significant when highly diagnostic information is provided, whereas low-diagnostic information has no effect. Research limitations/implications: This study extends previous research on food sharing, which has focused on individual characteristics, motivations, and attitudes of sharers. It examines away-from-home food waste and provides insights into consumers’ responses to restaurants’ food-sharing initiatives. Practical implications: The findings provide a deeper understanding of mechanisms driving consumers’ responses to food-sharing initiatives. They emphasize the need for high-diagnosticity information, thereby guiding restaurant managers in effectively conveying these practices. Social implications: This study examines how restaurants’ food donations impact consumer responses, encouraging more restaurants to adopt these practices to enhance community welfare and collective climate action. Originality/value: This research addresses the critical and under-researched issue of food waste in restaurants, offering a novel perspective that encourages restaurants to donate leftovers by highlighting the positive impact on sustainability and consumer responses.