Look how sustainable I am! Effects of communication focus, individuals' differences on intention to use food waste fighting mobile applications

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the role of digital transformation processes for food and beverage companies by investigating how the sustainability-related communication focus (low vs. high) in food waste fighting mobile applications' advertising campaigns influence consumers' intention to use such mobile app, via their environmentalism.Design/methodology/approachAn experimental study has been conducted by using a fictitious mobile app named “Boxy Food!” among a sample of 408 randomly recruited international participants.FindingsFindings reveal that the sustainability-related communication focus in such food waste-fighting mobile apps advertising campaigns (low vs. high) positively affects consumers' intentions to use such mobile apps through the effect of environmentalism. More interestingly, this effect increases in magnitude, becoming higher among those consumers who exhibit a high level of status consumption orientation explaining their behavior as an attempt to “be green, to be recognized from the others.”Practical implicationsThis study suggests marketers and managers operating in the food and beverage sector how to design effective strategies to incentivize sustainable behavior through the use of new technologies, by leveraging consumers' individual differences, and specifically on their desire to be recognized as sustainable consumers.Originality/valueThis is the first study demonstrating how the combined effects of the sustainability-related communication focus (low vs. high) may incentivize the use of mobile applications for food waste fighting, by leveraging on consumers' looking to be recognized as green.