Sustainability of Food Heritage in Birthday Rituals

For the last decade, cultural heritage has been recognized as the fourth most important field of sustainability, but insufficient empirical research has focused on social participants’ intent to inherit intangible cultural capital. Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study investigated the influence of cultural significance and successors’ perceptions of traditional foods served during landmark birthday rituals in South Korea. The results show that, while historical stability and instrumental healing are important cultural values for South Koreans, perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, and a perceived female role affect the intention to preserve traditional food heritage for landmark birthdays. In addition, we examined the differences between genders and age groups in terms of the influence of perceived behavioral control and the perception of the female role and found that both impacts increased in the older group. The contributions to the field are discussed in terms of cultural sustainability and TPB, along with the managerial implications for policymakers.