Consumer buying behaviour and purchase intention of organic food: a conceptual framework

Abstract

PurposeThe paper aims to investigate existing research in factors impacting organic food purchase with special reference to eco-labels and identify the relative influence of various determinants.Design/methodology/approachA conceptual framework is proposed of organic food buying behaviour after analysing a sample of 154,072 consumers reported in 91 research studies from 2001–2020. The factors are categorised into four categories on the basis of relatedness. In addition, the factors were analysed based on time, region and national economic status.FindingsThe impact of consumer psychographics, socio-demographic and product-related factor categories were found to be more pronounced compared to supply-related factor category. The results show that among individual factors like health concern, environment concern, knowledge and awareness, eco-labels and price followed by trust in organic food are the most important factors in organic food purchase. The findings suggest that eco-labels increase trust in organic food by reducing information asymmetry in consumers. However, there were differences in perception and factors importance between high-income economies and emerging economies.Originality/valueThe study is unique, as it analyses secondary research based on criteria of high-income economies and emerging economies. The conceptual framework can also be incorporated further into different cognitive models like the theory of planned behaviour.

How and Why Does the Attitude-Behavior Gap Differ Between Product Categories of Sustainable Food? Analysis of Organic Food Purchases Based on Household Panel Data

“…Confirming the results of previous studies (Dangi et al, 2020 ; Tandon et al, 2020b ), the present study also suggests that organic products are purchased in particular by health-conscious and environmentally conscious consumers. This rather small target group might represent a challenge for making organic food attractive to a broader audience (Van Doorn and Verhoef, 2015 ), specifically because in product categories like frozen food, sweets, and fresh meat, organic food is not widely available in conventional grocery stores (Rana and Paul, 2017 ).…”

“…Numerous studies found a link between positive attitudes and reported purchase behavior (Scalco et al, 2017 ; Tandon et al, 2020a ). Reasons why consumers prefer organic food are its naturalness (Liang and Lim, 2020 ) and positive effects for health and environment (Dangi et al, 2020 ; Tandon et al, 2020b ). However, most of these studies are based on survey data or laboratory experiments on stated behavior or attitudes and do not analyze actual purchase behavior.…”

Influences of background factors on consumers’ purchase intention in China’s organic food market: Assessing moderating role of word-of-mouth (WOM)

“…Yadav and Pathak (2016) added moral attitude as another critical factor by complying with the concept of purchase attitude to deeply study the type of attitude most significantly impacting young consumers' intention of purchasing organic food. Except for discussing the roles of attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control (PBC) in consumers' intention of purchasing organic food, Dangi et al (2020) considered health motives, past purchase behavior, knowledge, affordability, and trust in organic food certificate as main facilitators in organic food purchase. Given this study, environmental concern and health consciousness are considered the most frequently discussed factors of consumers' intention of purchasing organic food, then followed by price, knowledge, labeling, and certificate issue (Asif et al, 2018;Essoussi & Zahaf, 2008;Grimmer et al, 2016).…”

The Connections between Ecological Values and Organic Food: Bibliometric Analysis and Systematic Review at the Start of the 21st Century

“…These articles focus on identifying which explanatory variables are or particular importance among consumers of organic products, proposing that naturalness, sustainability, and buying products cultivated without the use of chemical products are essential in explaining the logic behind such consumption. Third in order of importance is food quality, which is considered in a substantial number of the research works (13). These use empirical elements to demonstrate the benefits shown by organic food production across a wide spectrum.…”

“…It is also important to note that the concept of quality of life is considered to transcend classes and is strongly linked to the field of healthy lifestyles [13]. This is where the associations with healthy food habits can be most clearly seen [14].…”