일회용 컵 보증금 제도의 친환경행동

Eco-Friendly Behavior of the Disposable Cup Deposit System: Focusing on Shadow Work, Perceived Efficacy, Environmental Consciousness, and Eco-guilt

Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19, self-service technology is widely used in Korea, and demand for disposable cups is increasing significantly. Waste and recycling of disposable cups have become a social concern for Koreans and Korea implemented the “Disposable Cup Deposit Systems” again in December 2022. Whether the emergence of this system can change the way people behave in environmental protection is a question to be examined in this study. Companies participating in the disposable cup deposit system are hoping that customers will actively recover cups through self-service in the process of collecting disposable cups. The government, along with businesses, transfers recovery work to customers through self-service technologies and schemes. Due to the increase in Shadow Work and the strengthening of consumer environmental protection consciousness, this paper focuses on how unmanned service types such as self-service technology can affect people's environmental protection behavior. An empirical analysis with 477 samples examined how the characteristics of shadow work, perceived efficacy, environmental awareness, and ecological guilt affect user’s environmental protection behavior. Perceived efficacy that acts as a mediator and ecological guilt that plays as a moderator are investigated. Although there have been many studies on the effects of shadow work on customer behavioral intentions before, it has been very rare to study the effects of shadow work perceived by people on environmental behavioral intentions from an environmental protection perspective. This study shows that the higher the perceived efficacy of consumers, the more people prefer self-service technology and the stronger the environmental protection behavior. Also, consumers' ecological guilt significantly moderates the relationship between environmental consciousness and eco-friendly behavior. It is expected that companies and governments will be able to understand the impact of shadow work on consumers' environmental protection behavior and further promote environmental protection by appropriate policies and marketing strategies.