Sustainable business-andindustry foodservice: Consumers’ perception and willingness to pay a premium in South Korea

Purpose – This study aimed to investigate consumers’ perception on sustainable businessand- industry (B&I) foodservice and their willingness to pay a premium for it. Design/methodology/approach – An online survey was conducted. Among the 978 respondents, a total of 548 respondents who used B&I foodservice equal to or more than five times a month on an average were included for analyses. Findings – The result revealed that consumers tended to perceive the concept of sustainability as “equivalent to (32 per cent) or beyond (28 per cent) being green or eco-friendly”. Consumers appeared to perceive the need for and the quality of sustainable B&I foodservice highly, but their awareness was comparatively low. Consumers’ awareness was significantly different across all demographic and food-related lifestyle variables. However, significant differences in the need and perceived quality were found only among food-related lifestyle variables. The result also indicated that 66 per cent of consumers were willing to pay a premium average of USD 0.72, 21 per cent of the reference meal price (USD 3.53) proposed in the survey. Consumers’ gender and eco-friendly dietary lifestyles were the significant determinants in predicting consumers’ willingness to pay a premium. Originality/value – With concerns over environmental crisis, sustainable development has been a mainstream agenda across the world. However, the issue of sustainable development appears to be relatively overlooked in the field of foodservice research. This study is meaningful, in that it calls attention to the importance and potential of realizing sustainable foodservice and provides a starting point in relevant researches.