Fostering ethical consumption in food sector: Insights from the Italian Solidarity Purchasing Groups

Abstract

PurposeThe paper aims at investigating antecedents and predictors of consumers' buying and consumption processes within the Italian Solidarity Purchasing Groups (SPGs) to enrich current debate about drivers and levers on which act for fostering ethical consumption in food sector.Design/methodology/approachBuilding upon the theory of planned behavior (TPB) a theoretical model is proposed for depicting possible antecedents and predictors of consumers' buying and consumption processes in food sector. The validity of the model has been tested via partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) using SmartPLS for analyzing primary data collected through a structured questionnaire from 354 consumers engaged in SPGs.FindingsWithin the domain of food buying and consumptions through SPGS, results show that consumers' behavior intention (BI) is influenced by consumers' attitude (ATT) and perceived behavioral control (PBC). Moreover, the research also demonstrates that consumers' ATT is influenced by consumers' ethical self-identity (ETH), consumers' willingness to support local economy (SLE), and food safety concern (FSC).Originality/valueThe study contributes to the ongoing debate on sustainable consumerism focusing the attention on SPGs as emerging social organizations inspired by ethical food consumption. Both theoretical development and empirical evidences enrich current knowledge about drivers and levers on which act for fostering ethical consumption in food sector.

Antecedents of viewers’ watch behavior toward YouTube videos: evidence from the most populous Muslim-majority country

“…Subjective norm refers to the perceived social pressure or expectation to engage or not engage in a particular behavior (Sciarelli et al, 2021;Shurrab et al, 2019;Obrenovic et al, 2022). It is a crucial component of the TRA, developed by Fishbein and Ajzen (1975).…”

“…For example, in some cultures, it may be considered inappropriate to watch certain types of content, while in others, it may be encouraged. Furthermore, research has shown that subjective norms can also influence people's actual behavior (Aksoy and Abdulfatai, 2019;Wu et al, 2022;Sciarelli et al, 2021). In regard to the context of video published on YouTube, when individuals perceive that their friends, family or social media connections approve of or engage in watching certain videos, their own behavior is likely to be influenced.…”

“…In regard to these three factors, attitude itself could be defined as people's subjective judgement on whether or not all of the information or contents made and posted by certain content creators were deemed valid and could be trusted (Savolainen, 2022;Bhattacherjee, 2022;Kumar et al, 2022), while subjective norm refers to how people around the individuals Viewers' watch behavior toward YouTube influence the individuals' decision to perform certain behavior, which, in this research, refers to the behavior of watching YouTube videos (Sciarelli et al, 2021;Shurrab et al, 2019). In this case, there are so many contents posted on YouTube by various different creators each day, and, in many cases, some of these contents are actually similar to each other.…”

The Role of Consumer-Citizens and Connectedness to Nature in the Sustainable Transition to Agroecological Food Systems: The Mediation of Innovative Business Models and a Multi-Level Perspective

“…In response to the traditional approach of the role of consumers in the agri-food systems, several concepts and initiatives have been developed considering a more active role for both individual and collective consumers/citizens in the agri-food value chain. For instance, sustainable consumption has emerged in marketing scholarship as a pressing matter [67,69], followed by other initiatives, such as ethical consumption [70], responsible consumer behavior [71], reflexive consumption [72], green procurement/consumption [73] and green certification [74]. However, these initiatives have also narrowed the focus only on the consumption part of the agri-food value chain and the proposed solutions have focused on merely consumers rather than a systemic alternative that encompasses a broader context involving other stages of the value or supply chain.…”

“…Self-organized citizen groups (as introduced in Section 3.1) are social innovations that capture self-management and self-mobilization in supplying agri-food products. "Collective food buying groups", such as "solidarity purchasing groups" (SPG), are examples of business models which are formed for the aim of supplying food based on the mutual values and needs of the local collective citizens [70]. Solidarity purchasing groups are defined as groups of households that establish mutual coordination for the purpose of purchasing food directly from sustainable producers, who are selected in accordance with ethical and solidarity principles such as environment and social values [125] (p. 232).…”