Effectiveness of Tech enabled Business Models: Consumer Perspectives on Waste Segregation Behaviors and Channel Preferences – A Multi-Theory Conceptual Model and Measurement Development

Abstract

India’s municipal solid-waste governance mandates source-segregation, yet household compliance remains low. Tech-enabled waste collection ventures using mobile apps have also struggled to scale. Two things remain   untested: what drives household source-segregation behaviors, and whether households prefer human-mediated over app-only collection. This paper develops a conceptual model to test both. It investigates seven theories: Theory of Planned Behavior, the Norm Activation Model, Value-Belief-Norm theory, Institutional Trust, deterrence theory, the Technology Acceptance model and Service-Dominant Logic. The sample is Mass Affluent/emerging HNI individual residing at urban Indian gated communities. We map seven theory-anchored latent constructs, derive eleven hypotheses. This paper presents a 48-item multi-construct instrument designed for PLS-SEM field testing.  Unlike past India-focused TPB studies, our model treats segregation behavior as a measured outcome, not just a proxy for intention. In addition, past research also treats collection step as incidental. We operationalize channel preference as two independent constructs: app-plus-human and app-only. This lets us test directly whether app-only underperformance reflects a structural preference for human-mediated service. This paper is a conceptual and instrument development contribution ahead of fielding, in the spirit of a design or registered-report submission.