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As of December 2021, WeChat had more than 1.2 billion active users worldwide, making it the most active online social media in mainland China. The term social commerce is used to describe new online sales through a mix of social networks and/or peer-to-peer communication or marketing strategies in terms of allowing consumers to satisfy their shopping behaviour through online social media. Thus, given the numerous active users, the development of online social media and social commerce on WeChat is a critical issue of internet research.

This empirical study takes WeChat as the online social media research object. Questionnaires for WeChat users in China were designed and distributed. All items are designed as nominal and ordinal scales (not Likert scale). The obtained data was put into a relational database (N = 2,342), and different meaningful patterns and rules were examined through data mining analytics, including clustering analysis and association rules, to explore the role of WeChat in the development of online social media and social commerce.

Practical implications are presented according to the research findings of meaningful patterns and rules. In addition, alternatives to WeChat in terms of further development are also proposed according to the investigation findings of WeChat users’ behaviour and preferences in China.

This study concludes that online social media, such as WeChat, will be able to transcend the current development pattern of most online social media and make good use of investigating users’ behaviour and preferences, not only to stimulate the interaction of users in the social network, but also to create social commerce value in social sciences.

Higher education institutions (HEIs) play a pivotal role in fostering economic development by cultivating skilled workforce and generating knowledge and innovation. However, HEIs may pose a potential risk to sustainable economic development due to the generation of food waste inside their campus canteens. Therefore, this study aims to examine the influence of attitude, subjective norm (SN), perceived behavior control (PBC), religiosity and pro-social behavior among State Islamic Religious College (SIRC) students on their intention to avoid food waste behavior. This study also focused on the mediating role of the three original theory of planned behavior (TPB) variables and pro-social behavior in the relationship between religiosity and the intention to reduce food waste.

Questionnaires were used to collect data from 443 students at SIRC. The collected data were processed and analyzed using structural equation modelling to test direct, indirect and mediating effects.

The empirical results indicated that the eagerness of students at SIRC to reduce their behavior of leaving food behind can be driven by their negative attitudes or views toward food waste, the practice of religious teachings in their lives, the belief that they can avoid food waste and their concern for the environment. The empirical results reveal that even though religiosity influences SN, it is unable to strengthen the relationship between religiosity and the desire to be anti-food waste.

In addition to contributing to the food waste literature in the context of eating behavior, the results of this study have theoretical and practical implications.

To assess SIRC students’ behavioral intentions to avoid food waste behavior, this study used a contemporary setting to measure attitude, SN, PBC, religiosity and pro-social behavior, so strengthening the TPB’s empirical underpinning.