28/03/2020

“Sharing Economy Platforms: a study on food waste reduction”


Laís Moltene Maia, Fundação Getulio Vargas, Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo (2020) 138 pp. 


Abstract
This project addresses the issue of reducing food waste through shared economy digital platforms. This issue is relevant because according to FAO reports (2011, 2017b) 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted annually in the world, such amount could feed 2 billion people, decreasing the hunger and promoting improvements in food security. In this way, sharedeconomy digital platforms can be part of the solution to this problem, promoting sharing through the donation and sale of surplus food among institutions (governmental or nongovernmental), commercial establishments and final consumers. The main objective of this project is to understand how happens the acceptance and use of sharing economy platforms for food waste reduction. To achieve this goal, an exploratory qualitative research was conducted through a single case study on Ecofood platform, it was used interviews, secondary data collection and direct observation for data collection. Through data analysis it can be seen that the main determinant is the effort expectancy, which is fundamental for the use behavior. From the data comparison obtained in the two different cities was possible to develop six propositions and find two new factors that influence the intention and use of platforms, in addition to drawing the profile of users of the two groups involved in the platform (suppliers and end consumers).