Promoting Food for the Trash Bin? A Review of the Literature on Retail Price Promotions and Household-Level Food Waste

George Tsalis, Birger Boutrup Jensen, S. Wiley Wakeman and Jessica Aschemann-Witzel
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George Tsalis: MAPP Centre—Research on Value Creation in the Food Sector for Consumers, Industry and Society, Department of Management, Aarhus University, Fuglesangs Allé 4, 8210 Aarhus V, Denmark
Birger Boutrup Jensen: MAPP Centre—Research on Value Creation in the Food Sector for Consumers, Industry and Society, Department of Management, Aarhus University, Fuglesangs Allé 4, 8210 Aarhus V, Denmark
S. Wiley Wakeman: Centre for Retailing, Department of Management and Organization, Stockholm School of Economics, Box 6501, SE-113 83 Stockholm, Sweden
Jessica Aschemann-Witzel: MAPP Centre—Research on Value Creation in the Food Sector for Consumers, Industry and Society, Department of Management, Aarhus University, Fuglesangs Allé 4, 8210 Aarhus V, Denmark

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-21

Abstract: Supermarkets receive criticism for irresponsible marketing practices, such as price promotions, that trigger over-purchasing and seemingly contribute to consumer waste. In the wake of this, retailers have abolished certain price promotions as part of an effort to meet corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals. We aim to investigate whether the underlying assumption that price promotions are positively related to consumer food waste needs to hold true. Through a review of the existing literature, we show that there is no scientific consensus on this assumption. Our findings show that half of the studies conclude that price promotions result in food waste by encouraging over-purchase, while the remaining conclude that consumers buying price-promoted food products show average or even lower levels of household food waste. Unraveling this inconsistency, we contribute by proposing a multi-level model of CSR behavior, where CSR actions at an institutional level (retailer) interact with individual characteristics at a micro (consumer) level leading to demonstrably different outcomes. We argue that the assumption that price promotions necessarily cause food waste has been overly simplistic, as it did not take into account the consumers’ role. We conclude that the relationship between price promotions and consumer food waste is conditional on price consciousness, attitudes, values, household identities, and household roles. Thus, we illustrate that CSR problems are often wicked ones, where first-order solutions often lead to secondary problems that stymie the progress of institutions and policy makers in addressing social needs in business. We derive specific recommendations for retailers seeking to meet CSR goals.

Keywords: food waste; retailing; corporate social responsibility (CSR); consumer social responsibility (CnSR); corporate ethics; consumer behavior; price promotions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:7:p:4018-:d:530086

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