Organic food consumer intention to purchase an examination of select determinants

Abstract

There are an increasing number of debates on the necessity of environment friendly food consumption, as sustainability problems related to food systems are becoming more severe. Hence, there is a requirement for more research on consumer behaviour related to organic food consumption. The present research work studies the antecedents of intention to purchase organic food, their relationship with consumers values and beliefs, and the moderating role of demographics and involvement. Moral norms are added to the theory of planned behaviour to study the determinants of intention to purchase. The geographical scope of the presence study is limited to Northern India; it includes the northern states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and the union territory of Chandigarh. The current study collects data with the help of a structured questionnaire from 400 respondents. The respondents are approached in the malls selected randomly from the list of malls situated in tier-II cities of each selected State/UT. The results of structural equation modeling showed that attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control significantly impact the intention to purchase, while moral norms fail to impact the intention to purchase. Consumer involvement significantly moderated the relationship between intention to purchase and its antecedents. Among demographics, only age, income and education qualification moderates the relationship between subjective norms and intention to purchase. The study could offer insightful information for marketers, politicians, and future academics. The results of this study will theoretically add to the stream of consumer behaviour and will help producers, marketers, and policymakers to make decisions. newline