The present research attempts to understand the importance of altruistic and egoistic values in determining consumers’ motives and intention to purchase organic foods. Using the face-to-face survey approach, a total of 1,067 responses were collected from consumers in China. Data analysis was performed using a two-step structural equation modeling (SEM) approach, i.e., measurement and structural models. The findings indicated that both values influence the intention to purchase organic foods through the mediation of motives. Specifically, the altruistic value influences the environmental concern (EC), and the egoistic value influences the health concern (HC). Moreover, the perceived uncertainty negatively moderates a relationship between consumer HC and organic purchase intention while positively moderating a relationship between consumer EC and organic purchase intention. Several implications and suggestions are also discussed.

Although the concept of the consumer–brand relationship has undergone rapid change over the past two decades, the issue of brand addiction is still generally neglected in the literature. Based on social identity theory, the research develops a conceptual model of the influence of self-expressive brands (SEBs) and susceptibility to interpersonal influence (SUSCEP) on brand addiction. The results of this research demonstrate both separate and joint effects of SEBs and SUSCEP on brand addiction. In addition, harmonious brand passion and obsessive brand passion positively mediate the relationships among SEB, SUSCEP, and brand addiction. The research explores the formation mechanism of brand addiction from a new perspective and has important practical implications for brand marketers concerned with finding the most effective means to enhance the consumer–brand relationship.

ObjectiveWith consumers’ concerns about food safety and the environment growing, the interest in organic food has increased. However, due to the late start of the organic food market in China, the market size of the Chinese organic food industry is still relatively small. This study aims to examine whether organic food credence attributes have an impact on consumers’ attitudes and willingness to pay a premium (WTPP), in order to provide valuable information to facilitate the development of the organic food market in China.MethodsA questionnaire survey was conducted with 647 respondents in China. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to verify the model and test the relationships among the constructs.ResultsSEM analyses showed that credence attributes stimulate consumers’ attitudes and increase consumers’ WTPP. Utilitarian attitudes and hedonistic attitudes play a partially mediating role in the relationship between credence attributes and WTPP. Uncertainty negatively moderates the role between utilitarian attitudes and WTPP, while it positively moderates the role between hedonistic attitudes and WTPP.DiscussionThe findings reveal the motivations and barriers for Chinese consumers to purchase organic food at a premium, providing a theoretical basis for companies to gain a deeper understanding of consumer groups and develop organic food marketing strategies.

To help retailers gain consumers’ trust, many studies have investigated antecedents of consumer trust. However, distrust, a concept closely related to trust, has attracted only sporadic research attention. As a result, whether factors that increase consumer trust can eliminate consumer distrust is unclear. To deepen understanding of trust and distrust, this study applies the critical incident technique to identify and compare the antecedents of trust and distrust of Chinese consumers. The results show that the antecedents of distrust differ from those of trust, indicating different formulation mechanisms of both. Therefore, on the one hand, retailers should pay attention to increasing consumer trust, and on the other hand, they should develop marketing activities to reduce consumer distrust.

In view of the fact that vigorously promoting recycling has become a viable means to promote sustainable development, it is important to better understand the impact of recycling efforts on subsequent resource saving behavior. This research empirically examines the effects of recycling efforts on subsequent resource saving by analyzing the survey data of 356 college students in China. The recycling efforts, environmental self-identity and feeling of pride were measured using existing scales while saving behaviors and recycling cost were measured by developing new scales. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was performed to test the structural relationships among recycling efforts, environmental self-identity, feeling of pride, and saving behaviors. Further, the moderation role of recycling cost was tested. The results showed that (1) saving behaviors could be classified into two types based on their costliness; (2) recycling efforts have a positive effect on costless saving behaviors, while having a negative effect on costly saving behaviors; (3) both the positive and negative effect of recycling efforts on resource saving is mediated by pride feeling and environmental self-identity; and (4) recycling cost negatively moderates the effects of recycling efforts on pride feeling. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings.