Millennials’ willingness to pay for green restaurants

Abstract The hospitality industry is currently witnessing an increase in the number of restaurant companies with sustainable business models. This research explores the determinant factors of millennials’ willingness to pay (WTP) by looking at the qualitative decision of whether to pay more and the quantitative decision of how much extra to pay. While literature has investigated the factors that lead people to choose green restaurants, no analysis that simultaneously considers the qualitative and quantitative decisions has been conducted for the millennial generation. This study fills this gap by estimating the Heckit model, which (1) allows us to simultaneously model both decisions and detect their determinants—“green consumerism,” “health consciousness,” “income,” and two psychographics (“green restaurant preference” and “predisposition to make an effort in terms of time and distance”)—and (2) permits the control of sample selections bias, which turns out to be a critical issue in this research.