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Purpose Every year 1.3bn tonnes of food are lost or wasted in production, manufacture, distribution and at household level. Consumers are the biggest contributors to the total volume of food waste generated over the world. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the factors affecting consumer’s food waste behavior at household level, providing more insights to existing literature, basing on a hypothesized model. Design/methodology/approach Data collection was carried from May 2016 to March 2017, by means of a face-to-face structured questionnaire distributed among 580 Italian consumers, with seven constructs. Data analysis included two main steps: exploratory factor analysis and structural equation model (SEM) implemented by means of STATA 14. Findings Results show that price consciousness, environmental concern and time management influence the attitude that in turn affect the behavior toward food waste minimization. These findings provide basic guidelines for developing policies and campaigns aimed to decrease food waste. Research limitations/implications This study point out the importance of the food waste behavioral determinants analysis at household level in Italy. Therefore, the research will include other constructs and further studies can be conducted in European countries to produce spatial SEM. Practical implications Waste prevention approaches should concentrate interests on avoiding losses, and releasing of information, best practices and education of consumers as well as strengthening the donation to social services. Social implications The present findings may be used by decision makers, municipality, stakeholders, involved in food waste reduction policies. Moreover, social marketing campaigns can advantage by these results, in order to avoid food-related habits in consumers’ everyday lives not respecting the issues of the food waste. In addition, this study is addressed to academics and scholars that are already working on the role of consumer’s behavior and its implication on food waste reduction. Originality/value Food waste in Italy has been analyzed by several authors, yet not involving national samples, using different methodologies and aiming at analyze different aspects. The present study aims at analyzing main determinants affecting food waste behavior at household level: providing more insights to existing literature.

Social enterprise is a model of hybrid organization driven by the need to generate positive externalities by reinvesting their surplus for social and environmental objectives. One of the biggest problems arising from joining financial goals with social goals is the presence of increasing tensions between the members and stakeholders involved. Nevertheless, there has not been enough focus on how managers, employees, and stakeholders respond to the tensions caused by contradictions and how they try to reach a balance between financial, environmental, and social goals. Therefore, the present study is aimed at investigating how members of an agricultural cooperative in the Apulia region (Italy) try to join the organizational forms of business and social values, namely, the sustainable practices related to CO2 emission reduction, resource use efficiency, and food waste mitigation. Additionally, the study goes further and explores whether and how these contradictory pressures are solved. Starting from the sensemaking approach, the study carried out an inductive case study through the use of a multiple case study design and in-depth interviews. The findings highlight the following two novel aspects: (1) Managers prefer to adopt a cumulative mitigating hybridization approach and (2) a weak integration can be noticed between social and commercial dimensions, originating from a lack of holistic perspective and poor interorganizational communication.