Urban sustainability transitions in food consumption: Value-driven and risk-based pathways in digital surplus food platform adoption

Urban food waste remains a significant barrier to sustainability efforts, while surplus food from retailers offers key opportunities for circular economy solutions. Digital platforms that facilitate the sale of surplus food offer an innovative socio-technical approach to promoting sustainable food consumption. However, the factors influencing the consumer adoption of these platforms remain underexplored. This study explores how value-driven motivations and risk concerns shape different paths to adopting digital surplus food platforms, helping us understand how technology supports transitions to circular urban food systems. Drawing on a perceived value-risk framework integrated with pro-environmental awareness, we examine how perceived benefits (altruistic values, convenience, and monetary value), perceived risk, and awareness of consequences shape three types of behavioral intentions (purchase intention, app adoption intention, and recommendation intention). Data were collected from 311 potential users of Tasteme through a three-month online survey and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The results provide three key insights: (1) Value-driven factors, including altruism, convenience, and perceived positive consumption outcomes, significantly enhance purchase, app adoption, and recommendation intentions, emphasizing the importance of value-based motivations in sustainable consumption transitions. (2) Perceived monetary benefits influence purchase and recommendation intentions but do not significantly affect app adoption intention, indicating that economic motivations operate differently from value-driven motivations. (3) Perceived risks reduce purchase intention but have little effect on app adoption and recommendation intentions, suggesting that risk perceptions mainly affect transaction-related intentions rather than platform engagement intentions. Overall, the findings reveal distinct consumer decision paths within digital surplus food systems and suggest that values, rather than purely economic factors, drive sustainable urban food consumption.