Cognitive and affective links of food waste-reducing behaviors in training kitchens: An integrated analysis based on structural equation modeling and fsQCA

This study examines the cognitive and emotional mechanisms influencing the behavioral intentions of gastronomy and culinary arts students to reduce food waste in training kitchens. Grounded in the assumption that behavior cannot be explained solely by technical knowledge, the study adopts the Cognition-Emotion-Behavior (CEB) framework as its theoretical foundation. Within this framework, the study analyzes how cognitive competencies-namely kitchen knowledge, sanitation knowledge, and menu knowledge-are transformed into food waste reduction intentions through awareness of consequences, anticipated guilt, and anticipated pride. Data were collected from gastronomy and culinary arts students using a survey method, and the analyses employed a combination of covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The CB-SEM results indicate that cognitive competencies have a significant and positive effect on awareness of consequences, while behavioral intentions are largely shaped through moral emotions. The fsQCA findings further reveal that similar behavioral outcomes can be achieved through different configurations of cognitive and emotional conditions, demonstrating equifinality. In particular, anticipated pride appears to compensate for limited cognitive competencies in certain configurations. By conceptualizing food waste reduction in culinary education through a process-oriented and causal complexity perspective, this study offers both theoretical and methodological contributions to the literature and provides important implications for sustainable kitchen practices.