TX_1~AT/TX_2~AT International Review of Management and Marketing ISSN: 2146-4405 available at http: www.econjournals.com International Review of Management and Marketing, 2023, 13(1), 11-18. International Review of Management and Marketing | Vol 13 • Issue 1 • 2023 11 Millennial Street Food Consumption: An Integrated Theory of Reasoned Action Approach Rejoice Jealous Tobias-Mamina1, Eugine Tafadzwa Maziriri2* 1Department of Marketing Management, Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa, 2Department of Business Management, College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. *Email: euginem@uj.ac.za Received: 28 July 2022 Accepted: 14 November 2022 DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/irmm.13419 ABSTRACT Street food vending is still prevalent in developing countries despite the enormous stride recorded in the areas of food processing. This study investigates the practicality of the extended theory of reasoned action for street-food patronage decisions. The framework is premised on six critical constructs- attitudes, subjective norm, past behaviour, Food safety concerns, patronage intention and actual patronage. Data were collected from 550 consumers in Gauteng to validate the integrated conceptual framework. Structural equation modelling (SEM) technique is used to analyse data relating to the hypothesised relationships in the model. The results indicated that subjective norms and food safety concerns positively and significantly influence patronage intention. Attitude towards street food and past behaviour negatively and insignificantly influenced patronage intention. Lastly, patronage intention had a positive and a significant influence on actual patronage. Drawing from the study’s findings, managerial implications are discussed, and limitations and future research directions are suggested. By and large, this study immensely contributes new knowledge to the existing body of consumer behaviour literature in Africa - a context that is often most neglected by some researchers in developing countries. Keywords: Attitude Towards Street Food, Subjective Norms, Past Behaviour, Food Safety Concerns, Patronage Intention, Actual Patronage JEL Classifications: M10, M16, M31 1. INTRODUCTION Family structure, changing lifestyles, and limited time to prepare food have significantly changed consumer food choices and consumption. Conversely, consumers’ changing needs and individual preferences in eating-out drive millennial consumers to different food outlets, concomitantly seeking value and convenience. Street food retailing is a common phenomenon of urban life in many countries (Greenspan, 2018). Kebab in Turkey, “quarter” and “tshisanyama” in South Africa, are most much-loved national street foods and found at almost any street corner in those countries. Ethnic entrepreneurs in South African society often shape out an economic niche by means of business enterprises that are open to the public. Typically, the analysis of food consumption has been in the context of family wellbeing, yet street food retail stalls, as an interface between food production and consumption, provide a significant and uncharted organizational arena for showcasing food retail changes with the South African market. Street food vendors and their diverse food are fast becoming social icons. As such, the demand for the food served on the street is growing. Nevertheless, there is a scarcity of research on the antecedences and consequences of street food consumption. Consumption decision involve weighing in the perceived risks and benefits. Street food refers to ready-to-eat foods eaten by mass consumers that are sold in the streets and public places and normally consumed with mild or no further processing. However, street vending is an informal food supply sector characterised by highly unregulated practices. While largely unregulated and seemingly isolated from the major restaurant sector, street food vending is categorized as food and beverages services under This Journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Tobias-Mamina and Maziriri: Millennial Street Food Consumption: An Integrated Theory of Reasoned Action Approach International Review of Management and Marketing | Vol 13 • Issue 1 • 202312 accommodation and food service industrial classification systems (South African classification systems). The theoretical question is: to what degree does the TRA and its conceptual development relate to consumption behaviours in different social milieu? Although the TRA has been applied widely within developed countries and partly within various backdrops, limited studies on differential conditions and generalizability of the TRA in consumption contexts can be availed (Hussain et al., 2016). Studies differ in the methodologies and findings since different products and services are studied at different points in time. Although food vending is prevalent in Africa, little empirical literature has addressed the dimensionality of street food patronage. Furthermore, there is scarcity of research on consumption pattern of millennials vis-a-vis street food consumption. Millennial young adults born between 1981 and 2000 (Strauss and Howe, 2000). Currently, millennials are at different life stages and their lifestyles and values impact what they want or need and are reflected in their consumption of food and beverages (Saulo, 2013). Fundamentally, this paper aims to augment the theory of reasoned action and develop a robust integrative framework on street food patronage in an emerging economy context. Many studies have adopted TRA to explain consumption behaviour from diverse perspectives. Thus, this study also explores concerns of theory generalizability, particularly for consumption behaviours as well as role of subjective norms and food safety concerns on consumption behaviours. Unlike attitudes, which conform to predictions under the TRA, subjective norms have frequently failed to predict intentions in most consumer research (Kim et al., 2003). This study examines how a situational aspect (street food consumption) relate to subjective normative influence. Lastly, this study tested the extended TRA while controlling for past behaviour, considering patronage intention and actual consumption as criteria. This paper reports the findings of an empirical study, which examines the factors influencing consumer’s intention to patronise street food. The rest of the paper is structured as follows. Firstly, we provide a review of previous studies including a description of the research model and the proposed hypotheses. The paper then explains the various methods employed within the study. The subsequent section presents and discusses the research results. The final section reflects the implications of the study with some concluding interpretations. 2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND RESEARCH HYPOTHESES Street food can be defined as ready to eat food (prepared on or off the street including beverages) that vendors and hawkers prepare or sell in public places using pushcarts, baskets or from stalls (FAO, 2005). Using appropriate theoretical framework provides edifice to identifying factors influencing food consumption in diverse settings. Thus, the major concern for the street food retailers will be how potential and current customers perceive this type of retail setting and the behavioural consequences in terms of consumer attitudes and perceptions. In view of this, the Theory of Reasoned Action (Ajzen, 2011) offers a critical theoretical framework when seeking to comprehend the antecedents of street food patronage or consumption. The theory of reasoned action is the preferred theory because it is more parsimonious and is easily adaptable to different consumption contexts (Ajzen and Fishbein, 2004). 2.1. Theory of Reasoned Action Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) is regarded as the most influential and generally applied theory for explaining individual’s probability of performing a specific behaviour. The model has been validated in varied behavioural contexts with which most researchers find it useful for predicting and explaining an individual’s intention to engage in a behaviour at a specific time (Paul et al., 2016). Hence, in this study, TRA is applied to examine millennials’ likelihood to patronise street food. TRA assumes that an individual’s behavioural beliefs determine her/his attitude and behavioural intention towards a particular behaviour. In the context of this study, this means that prospective patrons’ attitudes, subjective norm, past behaviour and food safety concerns influence their decision to patronise street food. Nonetheless, other studies have criticised TRA as an incomplete model and many researchers have attempted to increase the proportion of variance explained with the inclusion of additional variables (Armitage et al., 2002). 2.2. Hypothesis Formulation The development of the hypotheses is discussed in the following sections. 2.3. Attitude and Patronage Intention Attitude toward behaviour refers to the degree to which a behaviour’s performance is positively or negatively valued. Behavioural attitude is determined by the aggregate set of accessible behavioural beliefs associating the behaviour to various consequences and other attitudes. (Ajzen, 2011). Attitude towards a behaviour consists of beliefs and experiences that either reinforce or weaken beliefs. Intention to patronise street food should be a function of individual attitude and does not involve group coordination. Furthermore, the relationship between attitude towards a behaviour and behavioural intention is apparent in consumer behaviour models (Ajzen, 2011) and is well documented in the conventional marketing literature. Thus, a millennial’s decision to patronise street food is influenced his/her attitude towards street food. It is therefore, expected that attitude impact the millennial’s behavioural intentions and actual consumption of street food hence it is hypothesised that: H1: Attitudes towards street food positively influence behavioural intention to patronise street food. 2.4. Subjective Norms and Patronage Intention Subjective norms reflect a person’s belief about whether people to whom one is close or whom one respects think that he or she should perform a particular act (Ajzen and Fishbein, 2000). The influence of subjective norms encapsulates the social pressure a decision maker feels when making purchase decisions. In this study, we hypothesized that subjective normative influence would be a function of the level of peer pressure one experiences. Previous studies also identified a significantly positive relationship between Tobias-Mamina and Maziriri: Millennial Street Food Consumption: An Integrated Theory of Reasoned Action Approach International Review of Management and Marketing | Vol 13 • Issue 1 • 2023 13 consumer subjective norms and organic food purchase intentions (e.g. Chen, 2007; Arvola et al., 2008). However, studies found that if a product is relatively new to the market or the perceived value of the product is not yet strongly shaped, consumers feel little or no pressure to conform with significant others (Roberts and Henderson, 2000). Conversely, consumers confronted with a choice decision of a product whose perceived value accepted are likely base their decision on pressure from others. Since this study is examining the decision-making process at street food consuming, targeting millennial consumers’ behaviour who may feel social pressure from others, the subjective norm is included as a construct in this study. If consumers believe that significant others have positive attitudes and opinions regarding street foods, they are more likely to have positive intentions to consume street foods. As a setting for testing hypotheses, the context of the study is street food patronage. For each of the variables in the TRA, respondents expressed their reactions to street food consumption or patronage. Therefore, it can be posited that: H2: Subjective norms positively influence behavioural intention to patronise street food by young adults in South Africa 2.5. Past Behaviour and Patronage Intention TRA is criticized as an incomplete model and many researchers have endeavoured to increase the proportion of variance explained with the inclusion of additional variables (Armitage et al., 2002). Several studies have investigated the roles of additional variables or moderators of the intention - behaviour link, including past behaviour. Several researches have argued that consideration of consumers’ past behaviours can afford better predictions of behavioural intentions (Patiro and Sihombing, 2014) based on the notion that consumers’ behaviours are a result of learning (Kim and Krishnan, 2015). Past behaviour of street food consumption is likely to be a strong determinant of future behaviour due to the habitual nature of eating. To provide a more rigorous test of the TRA, this study included past behaviour as an antecedent of patronage intention. The inclusion of past behaviour in the prediction equation is methodological: “past behaviour can be used to test the sufficiency of any model” (Ajzen, 1991). Similar to findings indicating that past behaviour diminishes the effects of intentions on behaviour (e.g., Bagozzi, 1981; Rodrigues and Girandola, 2017), it is expecting that the impact of attitudes, subjective norm and food safety concerns on intentions will be reduced after past behaviour is introduced as a predictor. This study predicts that past behaviour would have a significant effect on millennials’ street food patronage intentions. On the contrary, Ajzen (2011) argues for an indirect relationship between past behaviour and actual behaviour, advocating for the mediation of TPB control components. Ajzen (2011) argues that the direct effect of past and actual behaviour can be attributed to common method variance effects. Therefore, is hypothesised that: H4: Past behaviour positively influence behavioural intention to patronise street food. 2.6. Food Safety Concerns and Patronage Intention Street food patronage raises a plethora of concerns about food safety. According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2006), food safety comprises actions aimed at ensuring that food is safe for consumption. Although street vendors similarly conduct business as fast food restaurants, street vendors operate with limited facilities for food storage, preparation and cooking. This often heighten concerns about cleaning and sanitation of food contact surfaces and handling. Based on the Prospect theory (Kahneman and Tversky, 1979), individual tend to value losses and gains differently, thus individuals make decision based on perceived gains rather than perceived losses. This perspective establishes the reference points for millennials’ consumption decision in the street food retailing. The intensity of millennials’ health concern about street food and services would limit their choices to consume. Food safety concerns have been operationalised as the degree of pessimism or optimism on street food safety. In the current study, we hypothesized that the degree of food safety concerns will invariably determine the level of patronage. Previous studies identified a significantly positive relationship between food safety concerns (material and environment) and patronage (Lee et al. (2012). It is clear from research that individual-level psychosocial factors, notably social norms and efficacy beliefs, influence behaviour (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980; Bandura, 1989). Although attitudes play an important role in driving behaviours, the nature of attitudes related to food safety concerns have not been specified. Therefore, consumption decisions that provide varying expectations of safety assume that street food patronage affects consumers’ optimism or pessimism about the safety of street vending sites. Therefore, it is hypothesised that: H5: Food safety concerns positively influence behavioural intention to patronise street food by young adults in South Africa 2.7. Patronage Intention and Actual Patronage A positive correlation between patronage intention and actual behaviour was proposed in Theory of Reasoned Action (Ajzen and Fishbein, 2004) and has been consistently verified in literature (Paul et al., 2016). Several marketing studies repeatedly measured intention based on the assumption that high consumer intention is a precursor to the actual behaviour (e.g. Hassan et al., 2016), hence it is hypothesised that: H6: Patronage intention positively influence actual patronisation of street food by young adults in South Africa 2.8. Hypothesised Model In summary, consumers’ attitudes towards street food consumption, their subject norms, past behaviour, food safety concerns are postulated to affect their behavioural intention to patronise street food which consequently influence their actual patronage (Figure 1). Behavioural intention is assumed to be an individual’s subjective likelihood that he or she will present a specific behaviour (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1980). This construct thus represents the consumer’s subjective probability of patronising street food. Actual consumption behaviour is compared with patronage intention to determine if consumers follow through with their intentions. 3. METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS From a post-positivist perspective, this study adopts a quantitative data collection and analysis approach. This study follows an approach akin Tobias-Mamina and Maziriri: Millennial Street Food Consumption: An Integrated Theory of Reasoned Action Approach International Review of Management and Marketing | Vol 13 • Issue 1 • 202314 to those engaged in other contexts (e.g. Tan and Lau, 2016; Zamasiya et al., 2017) in predicting behavioural intention. In order to collect data and test the hypothesised relationships, a self-administered survey instrument was developed based on existing measures of constructs from marketing literature. The measures were adapted to the research context. The items for the constructs were measured using a five-point Likert scale, with anchors ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7). The population of this study consists of millennial consumer in South Africa. Respondents were selected using convenience sampling method at public places namely University campus and their local malls. Of the 600 questionnaires distributed only 550 were retained for further data analysis. Respondents provided responses to the survey indicating their opinions about street food patronage. However, the “10 times rule” for PLS was used (Hair et al., 2012). This rule of thumb indicates that the sample size should at least equal 10 times the maximum number of structural paths pointing at a latent variable in the PLS model. Therefore, the sample size of 550 valid responses is considered more than adequate for the analysis based on the suggested “ten times rule.” Confidentiality of responses was observed, participants were instructed not provide identifying marks on the questionnaire. 3.1. Questionnaire Design and Measures The questionnaire consists of two major sections. The first section contains scale items (indicators) selected to measure each construct based on existing measures (Table 1). Measurement items were adapted from the Theory of Reasoned Action, food safety concern and patronage intention literature. The items for measuring Attitude (ATSFP) construct were adopted from Fakih et al. (2016). Measures for subjective norm (SN) construct were adapted from Fishbein and Ajzen (1980). The items for measuring food safety concern (FSC) construct were adapted from Roddy et al. (1996) and Past behaviour measure was adapted from Ajzen (2011) The past behaviour measure(PB), a time frame (2 weeks) was given in order ensure that respondents focus on the same period while answering the question. Measures for patronage intention construct (PI) were operationalised from Yu et al. (2018) and finally, measure for actual patronage construct were adapted from Ajzen (2011). The measure for actual patronage was used to reflect voluntary consumption of the service. 3.2. Data Analysis The investigator used the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 25 to evaluate the data pertaining to the geographical profile of the respondents, while, on the contrary, the latest software version of SMART-PLS 3.2.7 was used to analyse the data captured, as PLS-SEM was preferred to covariance-based SEM because of its improved statistical power in parameter estimates and the maximisation of understood variance (Tajvidi et al., 2018); less compatible than competitive relatives are PLS- SEM and CB-SEM (Rigdon et al., 2010; Sarstedt et al., 2014). 4. RESULTS 4.1. Sample Characteristics The respondents reported their demographic details, which include age, gender, year of study and allowance. Of the 550 respondents, Attitude towards street food patronage Subjective norms Past behaviour Food safety concerns Patronage intention Actual patronage H1 H4 H3 H2 H5 Figure 1: Proposed model of consumers’ street food patronage Table 1: Psychometric properties of measurement scales Construct Item Item-total correlation value Α value CR value AVE value Factor loadings Attitude towards street food patronage ATSFP1 0.697 0.790 0.851 0.658 0.757 ATSFP2 0.699 0.773 ATSFP3 0.706 0.895 Subjective norms SN1 0.638 0.724 0.792 0.592 0.792 SN2 0.670 0.603 SN3 0.711 0.778 SN4 0.760 0.805 Past behaviour PB1 0.711 0.869 0.938 0.884 0.942 PB2 0.716 0.939 Food safety concerns FSC1 0.619 0.722 0.815 0.658 0.711 FSC2 0.724 0.741 FSC3 0.745 0.784 FSC4 0.743 0.705 FSC5 0.759 0.764 Patronage intention PI1 0.501 0.713 0.794 0.562 0.737 P12 0.604 0.755 PI3 0.619 0.757 Actual patronage AP1 0.834 0.891 0.948 0.901 0.939 AP4 0.857 0.959 Tobias-Mamina and Maziriri: Millennial Street Food Consumption: An Integrated Theory of Reasoned Action Approach International Review of Management and Marketing | Vol 13 • Issue 1 • 2023 15 48.3% were males, 44.1% were females and only 7.7% preferred not to disclose their gender. Of the respondents, 86.9% were below the age of 33 while 13% were above 35 year but below 40 years of age. The participants were largely undergraduates and about 14% were postgraduate students. Regarding average allowance/income, the group with the most significant number of responses was within the 100-2000 bracket, constituting about 78% of the respondents. Generally, the respondents were quite familiar with street food, with the majority having consumed street food in the past. 4.2. Research Results 4.2.1. Psychometric properties of measurement scales The assessment of the measurement scales’ psychometric properties was performed through a CFA to determine the constructs’ reliability, validity, and model fit. Table 1 presents the outcomes of the CFA assessment. The measurement model for constructs with reflective measure is assessed through assessing individual item reliability. The model’s internal consistency was assessed using the Cronbach’s α index and the composite reliability index. A construct is considered homogenous if the Cronbach’s α coefficient is greater than 0.7 (Hair et al., 2012). However, the Cronbach’s α index tends to underestimate the internal consistency of latent variable (Henseler et al., 2009) hence composite reliability (CR value) is used to confirm composite reliability. The Cronbach’s α value of the research model constructs range from 0.713 to 0.891 whereas the composite reliability vales ranges from 0.794 to 0.948 thus meeting the recommended threshold of 0.7. Therefore, the PLS- SEM model estimation submits that all model constructs show acceptable internal consistency. Construct convergent validity assessment build on the AVE value as an evaluation criterion. In the measurement model, as shown on Table 1, the AVE values range from 0.562 to 0.901 are above the recommended threshold of 0.5 (Hair et al., 2012). This implies that the latent construct explains more than half of its indicators’ variance (Bagozzi and Yi, 1988). Discriminant validity of the six constructs was tested using the Fornell and Lacrker criterion and the cross-loading criterion. According to Fornell and Larcker criterion, the square root of AVE of each construct should be higher than the construct’s highest correlation with any other construct in the model. Table 2 shows the correlation matrix of the constructs with the square root of the reflective constructs’ AVE higher than the correlations of the constructs with other latent variables in the path model. Also, the cross loadings of each indicator’s loadings were found to be greater than all of its cross loadings (Chin, 1998). To further assess the discriminant validity, if a latent construct shares more variance with its own indicators than with the other indicators in the model (Hair et al., 2012), the HTMT ratio is utilised, in which the standard is set at HTMT.85. Based on the Smart PLS output, all variables met the criteria with an HTMT value below 0.85 indicating sufficient discriminant validity. Therefore, the analysis results indicate that the measure of all constructs in the model have high levels of convergent and discriminant validity. The goodness-of-fit was calculated using the equation suggested by Amato et al. (2004). This method considers both the quality of the measurement model and the structural model. This study model has a GOF of 0.67, which exceeds the threshold GOFb > 0.36 suggested by Wetzels et al. (2009). Therefore, this study concludes that the research model provides a largely good fit. The objective of reflective measurement model assessment is to confirm reliability and validity of the measurement model. The analysis results give support for the overall standard of the constructs measures and these results suggest that the data and measurement model are adequate for hypothesis testing. 4.2.2. Structural model and hypothesis testing Subsequent to the validation test, PLS-SEM was used to calculate the explanatory power and predictive relevance of the proposed model, magnitude of the path coefficient and the significance of the hypothesised relationships. The central criterion for evaluation of the structural model in PLS algorithm is the R2 (Variance explained). 4.2.3. Outcome of hypotheses testing In this study, testing of the hypotheses was determined by path coefficient values as well as the t-values for the structural model obtained from the bootstrapping algorithm. According to Beneke and Blampied (2012), t-values indicate whether or not a significant relationship exists between variables within the model and path coefficients demonstrate the strength of the relationships in the model. Two-tailed t-tests were conducted at the 5% significance level. 4.2.4. Outcome of testing hypothesis Figure 2 and Table 3 indicate that H1 is not supported as reflected by the hypothesis findings, (β = −0.273) and is insignificant at t-statistics 1.525. This implies that attitude towards street food patronage is negatively related to patronage intention in an insignificant way. However, this is contrary empirical findings of Alam and Sayuti (2011) who found a positive relationship between attitude and behavioural intention within the food informal sectors. Figure 2 and Table 3 depict that H2 is supported significantly with a t-statistics of 4.220. The strength of the relationship is indicated by the path coefficient of 0.718. This finding suggests that subjective norms has a direct strong positive effect on patronage intention. These findings corroborate with Ramayah et al. (2012) findings suggesting subjective norm as a strong predictor of behavioural intention. However, this finding is contrary to a study by Kumar et al. (2017) which found an insignificant relationship between subjective norm and behavioural intention. Table 2: Correlation between latent constructs matrix and the square root of AVE ATSFP SN PB FSC PI AP ATSFP (0.811) - - - - - SN 0.143 (0.769) - - - - PB 0.398 0.475 (0.940) - - - FSC 0.319 0.576 0.364 (0.926) - - PI 0.483 0.508 0.404 0.554 (0.750) - AP 0.322 0.414 0.473 0.563 0.582 (0.949) NB: No. in parenthesis is √AVE. Tobias-Mamina and Maziriri: Millennial Street Food Consumption: An Integrated Theory of Reasoned Action Approach International Review of Management and Marketing | Vol 13 • Issue 1 • 202316 Figure 2: Final structural model Table 3: Results of structural equation model analyswis Path Hypothesis Path coefficients (β) T-statistics Decision Attitude towards street food patronage → Patronage intention H1(-) −0.273 1.525 Negative and insignificant Subjective norms → Patronage intention H2(+) 0.718 4.220 Positive and significant Past behaviour → Patronage intention H3(+) −0.077 0.946 Negative and insignificant Food safety concerns → Patronage intention H4(+) 0.508 5.799 Positive and significant Patronage intention → Actual patronage H5(+) 0.483 5.960 Positive and significant Interestingly, this research did not find support for past behaviour as a predictor of patronage intention with the street food consumption domain. Past behaviour has a negative and insignificant effect on consumers’ intention to patronise street food markets (β = −0.077; t = 0.946. These findings are however contrary to earlier studies by Ku-Shan and Yi-Man (2011) and Conner and Armitage (1998). Ku-Shan and Yi-Man (2011) found that the frequency of past behaviour influence the subsequent intention to patronise. Conner and Armitage (1998) reported that one’s past behaviour mostly determines behaviours. Thus, the negative association between past behaviour and intention can be due to the fact that, as behavioural frequency increases, individuals are more likely to form habits and the role of intent is reduced. Figure 2 and Table 3 depict that H4 is supported significantly with t-statistics (5.799 and path coefficient of 0.508, indicating the strength of the relationship. The relationship between food safety concerns and patronage intention is robust. These findings corroborate with previous studies (Hansla et al., 2008; Yu et al., 2018). Hansla et al. (2008) found that individuals with a higher level of safety concern are more likely to consider the consequences and this generates the sense of responsibility that ultimately activates their moral values to perform pro-safety behaviour. Figure 2 and Table 3 depict that H5 is supported significantly (t = 5.960) and path coefficient of 0.483. This finding suggests robust relationship between patronage intention and actual patronage. The findings corroborate with Teng (2011) who found a positive relationship between intention to visit and actual visit. 5. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE STUDY This research uncovers theoretical, managerial and policy ramifications that deepen awareness of the business practices within the informal sector. Specifically, it provides insight into the understanding of the informal sector’s food marketing literature. The reasoned action approach seems likely to offer a more detailed perspective on understanding evolving customer behaviour and the informal business segment. This study findings are expected to confirm attitudes as the immediate predictor of behavioural intention thereby closing the attitude-behaviour gap. Existing research has shown that street food attitudes, subjective norms and health safety concerns are important for predicting street food patronage activity. The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of consumer behaviour in the street food market, which has gained little attention form the marketing literature. Specifically, the paper offers insight into the various factors that influence street food patronage. The finding that past behaviour does not determine patronage intention in explaining street food patronage is reflective of two main marketing implications. Firstly, Tobias-Mamina and Maziriri: Millennial Street Food Consumption: An Integrated Theory of Reasoned Action Approach International Review of Management and Marketing | Vol 13 • Issue 1 • 2023 17 this study confirms the existence of a new street food category thus indicating an expansion of the informal street food market. The need for sustainable consumption practices largely drives the growth in the consumer demand for street food. This segment of the economy is expected to continue to grow as awareness of sustainable practices intensifies in most developing economies. Similarly, the informal street food market will continue to expand as evidenced by activities within the small and medium enterprises in the African context. This expansion is expected to gain momentum as the population in the region continues to rise and the rural to urban migration continues unabated. Overall, the current study findings support the proposition that attitudes, subjective norms, food safety concerns and patronage intention should be recognized as significant antecedents for influencing street food consumption decision amongst South African consumers. 5.1. Limitations and Future Research Suggestions Despite this study’s interesting results, its constraints are worthy of notice. First, the findings are not generalizable to non-student samples because students were the sample for gathering data. Future study therefore requires considering non-students in order to generalize the outcomes. In addition, the present research was restricted to the province of Gauteng in South Africa without other provinces being included. This research should be replicated in other South African provinces and other developing countries for comparative outcomes. 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