Food Safety Risk Information-Seeking Intention of WeChat Users in China

Abstract

Consumers’ food safety risk information-seeking behavior plays a vital role in improving their food quality and safety awareness and preventing food safety risks. Based on the Risk Information Seeking and Processing Model (RISP), this paper empirically analyzes the food safety risk information-seeking intention of consumers in WeChat and influencing factors under the impact of food safety incidents. We use data from 774 WeChat users and apply the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach. We also conduct multigroup analysis with demographic characteristics as moderating variables. The results demonstrated that: (1) Risk perception (p ≤ 0.01) has direct significant positive effects on consumers’ intention to seek food safety information. Besides, higher risk perception (p ≤ 0.01) regarding food safety risks will make people feel more anxious and threatened, and then expand the gap between the information they need and the relevant knowledge they actually have (p ≤ 0.1), which will further stimulate them to seek more information (p ≤ 0.05). (2) Informational subjective norms (p ≤ 0.01) can not only directly affect consumers’ information-seeking about food safety, but also indirectly affect consumers’ intention through information insufficiency (p ≤ 0.01). (3) The more consumers trust the relevant channels (p ≤ 0.01), the stronger their intention to search for food safety risk information. Moreover, the multiple-group analysis also shows that the effects of consumers’ gender, age, educational background, and average monthly earnings are different among different groups. Furthermore, implications are put forward for food safety risk communication efforts in China.

Food risk in consumers' eye and their consumption responses: evidence from Hanoi survey

“…ANOVA and post hoc Tukey test confirm that Very-High-Risk Perception group was more likely to seek food safety information from these two sources as compared to the remaining groups. This result is quite similar to Yang et al (2020), who : variables are measured by five-point Likert scale from 1 (rarely) to 5 (usually) Table 8. Correlation matrix of perceivedconsequence items Table 9.…”

“…The percentage of respondents having a university degree was also higher in the High Pessimism and Very-High-Risk Perception groups. Perhaps, people with higher education level are more likely to search for food risk information (Yang et al , 2020) and therefore, might acquire more negative news relating to food safety. This thereby might translate into higher risk perception and food safety anxieties.…”

“…Since most of the consumers are risk-averse, if the risk is perceived to be higher than the acceptable level, consumers will try to reduce the risk (Mitchell, 1999; Yeung and Morris, 2006). Their responses to the perceived risk include seeking food safety information (Yang et al , 2020), buying local, traceable food or growing their own food (Green et al , 2003). Other risk-reducing strategies are purchasing high-quality food, choosing a reputable place to purchase and selecting highly priced products (Yeung and Yee, 2002).…”

Social Media Use Among Young People in China: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Finally, some of the data in the articles reviewed here are quickly becoming out of date. One study mentioned that the number of monthly active WeChat users was 806 million in 2016 (Xu et al, 2016), but as of 2019 the number of global WeChat monthly active users had reached 1.11 billion (Yang et al, 2020). Likewise, findings have been inconsistent, with some studies indicating that female users used WeChat more frequently (Pang, 2016) but others showing that male users were more likely to use it (Pang, 2018d).…”

Is “Wild” a Food Quality Attribute? Heavy Metal Content in Wild and Cultivated Sea Buckthorn and Consumers’ Risk Perception

“…The lack of information on raw materials’ traceability, missing or inadequate labeling can all compromise the food supplements safety. Consumers’ food safety risk information-seeking behavior can significantly contribute to improve safety awareness and prevent food safety risks [ 2 ]. The available evidence shows that at a global level, herbal medicinal products, supplements or nutraceuticals consumption is on an upward trend, with over 80% of people worldwide using them as part of primary healthcare [ 3 ].…”