Face consciousness and purchase intention of organic food: the moderating effect of purchase situation and advertising appeal

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the effect of face consciousness on purchase intention of organic food, to test whether this relationship would be moderated by purchase situation (group vs individual) and advertising appeal (altruistic vs egoistic), and to explain the mediating role of perceived social value in these moderating effects.Design/methodology/approachFour between-subjects experiments were carried out (N = 123, N = 126, N = 130, N = 123) by using online questionnaires. Measured variables were introduced to assess participants' face consciousness, perceived social value and purchase intention. Two manipulated between-subjects variable were introduced to test how purchase situation (group vs individual) and advertising appeal (altruistic vs egoistic) moderates the relationship between face consciousness and purchase intention of organic food. SPSS Statistics 24 was used for the analysis of all experimental data.FindingsConsumers with high face consciousness were more willing to buy organic food. Compared with the individual situation, face consciousness had a stronger impact on the purchase intention when the individual was in a group situation. Compared with egoistic appeals, face consciousness had a stronger impact on the purchase intention when the advertising appeal was altruistic. Perceived social value partly mediated the moderating effect of purchase situation and advertising appeal.Originality/valueThis study validates previous contributions on the effect of face consciousness on purchase intention of organic food and extends them by introducing two moderating variables. Additionally, it introduces perceived social value as a mediating variable to explain the mechanism of this effect.

How different advertising appeals (green vs. non-green) impact consumers' willingness to pay a premium for green agricultural products

“…To begin with, fewer studies have been done from the standpoint of green perceived value, and more studies have focused on perceived value as a higher-order variable (Xue et al, 2019;Cao et al, 2021). Next, the existing articles that examine the impact of advertising appeals on perceived green value typically draw from appeals to self-interest, altruism, and advertising intrinsic goals vs. extrinsic goals (Li and Cui, 2021;Li and Sun, 2022). The previous research has more frequently examined the impact of perceived value on the willingness to pay for green products and less frequently examined the impact of perceived value on the willingness to pay a premium for produce.…”

Organic food and obesity: factors influencing actual purchase of organic food in COVID-19 pandemic with moderating role of organic food availability

“…COVID-19 fear significantly reduces customers' behavioral intentions, enhancing anxiety among people (Luo and Lam, 2020). Prior researchers paid scant attention to seeing the influence of food neophobia on the intention to purchase organic food (Kabir and Islam, 2021;Li and Cui, 2021). Few researchers see the influence of food neophobia on food festival revisit intention in India (Payini et al, 2019).…”

“…Besides, researchers recommended that organic food availability be used as a moderator between the intention to purchase organic food and the actual purchase of organic food (Mohammed, 2020). Our research integrates customer perceived value, COVID-19 fear, food neophobia, food effort, natural content, intention to purchase organic food, organic food availability and actual purchase of organic food in one framework by using the theory of consumption value that overlooked prior researchers (Li and Cui, 2021; Singh and Verma, 2017).…”

Factors influencing organic food purchase decision: fuzzy DEMATEL approach

“…Hence, the advent of the internet has created a new perception about organic foods as part of healthy living. Organic food is often derived from the organic agricultural production system, which is a catch-all phrase for non-polluting natural food produced and processed in accordance with worldwide organic agricultural production regulations and standards (Li and Cui, 2021). This has directly influenced Malaysian Generation Y consumers to switch from conventional to organic foods.…”